Mike Smith’s late coaching gaffes cost Atlanta Falcons a win in London
Dear British fans: This is not how the final few minutes of a game are supposed to go.
However, these are the Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Lions, so all bets were off on Sunday.
Both coaching staffs made fascinating and curiously awful decisions late in the game. In the end the Falcons’ putrid game management was more gobsmacking than their opponent, and the Lions — down 21-0 at the half — came back for a 22-21 win at Wembley Stadium on a Matt Prater field goal at the buzzer.
It was only the second time in franchise history that the Falcons have blown a 21-point lead, the last coming in 2003. That drops them to 2-6, and it puts head coach Mike Smith squarely on the hot seat.
Smith’s coaching errors, almost too many to count, cost them this game. With the sad NFC South still in doubt, a win would have put them squarely (and inexplicably) in the playoff race. But this loss underscores just how far the Falcons have fallen the past two seasons.
The Lions chipped away at the three-TD lead, possessing the ball almost 19 minutes in the second half, with two Prater field goals and a Golden Tate 59-yard touchdown from Matthew Stafford. At the end of a 13-play, 69-yard drive under the four-minute mark in the fourth quarter, the Lions cut the lead to 21-19 on a Theo Riddick 5-yard catch. The subsequent two-point conversion was no good, but it appeared the officials missed a pass-interference call on which Tate appeared to he held with the ball in the air.
The Falcons got the ball back and, fueled by a great play call against the Lions’ run blitz, took the ball to the Lions’ 40-yard line on a Julio Jones screen play at the two-minute warning. That looked to be the final spike in the Falcons’ sides. But Smith did his best to give the Lions a chance.
After a first-down run, the Falcons ran it again and were flagged for an offensive hold. That (not Smith’s fault) cost the Falcons a chance to run off 40 or so seconds. But third down was the coach’s fault. The Falcons called a pass (!), which of course fell incomplete. In three downs, the Falcons were able to milk a mere 14 seconds, with the Lions calling only one timeout. Amazing execution there.
After the Falcons punted, the Lions started from their own 7 and Stafford hit Tate for 32 yards and Riddick for 20 more — both brilliant catches against the Falcons’ pudding-soft defense. The Lions moved to the Atlanta 31-yard line as time continued to tick, and all indications were that Detroit head coach Jim Caldwell was playing for a 48-yard field goal.
Mind you: Prater had been 2-of-4 on field-goal attempts, the Lions’ kickers colectively this season have been a stunningly bad 9-of-19 on tries this season, and the Wembley pitch field appeared like it had hosted a week’s worth of cow grazing.
Again, Smith felt generous. The timeout-less Lions called for a Joique Bell run, and Smith called timeout. Did he have 10 men on the field? Was there an injured player? We could see no evidence of this? The Lions were playing for a low-percentage kick, and the Falcons felt like helping them out. Inexplicable.
On third down, the Falcons defense sensed a theme and decided to make the try easier. First, of all, running the ball with 24 seconds and no timeouts was risky as heck for Detroit, having to run the kicking team onto the field in 12-14 seconds and get set for a tough kick.
But Falcons defensive tackle Paul Soliai was called for a defensive hold, and it moved the Lions five yards closer and gave them a first down. What’s amazing is that the Lions tried their best to lose the game as well. On third down, Prater lined up a 43-yard try and missed it, but the football gods were not about to let Smith off the hook.
A delay-of-game call superceded Prater’s miss, and his longer attempt — from 48 — was, naturally, good.
Smith, like the Oakland Raiders’ Dennis Allen a month earlier, will have a long flight home. One in which his life, and his Falcons career, could flash before him. We won’t delve into a long discussion about the actual vs. the perceived strength of the Falcons’ roster, which actually doesn’t matter.
Two things do, however: One, owner Arthur Blank clearly believes his Falcons should be more successful than they are a year after Smith barely kept his job, and two, Smith clearly cost his team a win today — on many levels.
Although the Falcons not named Smith did their best to give this game away, with Tate’s long TD coming on a 3rd and 25 and Matt Ryan throwing a terrible second-half interception, the coaching errors at game’s end were just too hard to overlook.
– – – – – – –
Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
