Falcons’ Arthur Smith: ‘Obviously, frustrated losing like that’

7-9 minutes 12/11/2023
Here’s what Falcons coach Arthur Smith had to say after the 29-25 loss to the Bucs on Sunday:
On the offense being able to move the ball late and what happened on the final defensive possession: “Couple things. You’ve got to give Tampa credit. You know, made some plays. Obviously, hit some plays on the outside or had some out breakers, and, you know, got the big first down. They got the chunk yardage and obviously the one for the go-ahead touchdown with the tight end. So, we had plenty of opportunities really in all three phases. Credit to Tampa. Obviously, frustrated losing like that, but plenty of opportunities. We’ll get back to work.”
On whether the ball was supposed to go to the end zone on the last play of the game: “Well, yes, but it’s also what you’re trying to set up. They sink on it, so similar -- probably didn’t develop the same way, similar to that Iron Bowl play. If anybody saw that. That’s pretty common in a game. You try to have a shot, you know, if you’ve got something underneath, but, yeah. Got to take another look at it, too, but that was what we were trying to do.”
On not being able to get points at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half: “We had opportunities. Yeah, we did. Obviously, I believe we missed two field goals. Had decent field position at times. Had our opportunities. Same way on defense. That’s the NFL. Like I said, we found a way to get back and made some plays late. We were able to go ahead. Unfortunately, they made one more play than we did. Yeah, there was plenty of opportunity.”
On the defense’s ability to take Mike Evans out of the game: “That was the plan, and that’s why you saw some -- probably their run game was working better, and to their credit, they stayed patient with it. They didn’t get greedy. Yeah, Mike is a great player. Held him pretty well for the most part. Obviously, they made one more play than we did late.”
On his message to the team after an up and down, emotional game: “Sure. Yeah, and it was. You know, both teams fighting, you’re dealing with a lot during the game as you’re trying to adjust. Unfortunately, had a run here the last two weeks of some injuries. A lot of different O-line men were playing, some D-linemen were playing, and it’s our job to problem solve and find ways to go win. But when you look at that, we’re all going to be frustrated, but we’ve got to regroup and fix what was at issue today. We’ve got to get back on track, because we still got a lot of opportunity ahead of us.”
On whether Desmond Ridder is progressing fast enough: “That’s a subjective question. I understand the question, Josh. At the end of the game, thought we made some big plays, big throws. Every game you look at there is always things we can all do better. Like always, we got to go back and watch the film.”
On whether Ridder is supposed to get the ball out without hitching on the play that resulted in the safety: “Again, I’ve got to watch the film. You take a risk on every play. We liked the look. Trying to get the ball to Drake. We’ve been pretty conservative back there. Unfortunately, they brought pressure. You know, things happen in a -- you talk about a half second here or there. So I’ve got to really look at it. We’re not in the blame game. You take a risk there and they made a play, and I’ve got to go back and watch the tape.”
On how the offensive line held up: “Yeah, that’s what you’re trying to do, problem solve and the way you adjust the game plan, make sure those guys got into the fold. That’s why we preach a lot about development. That was Tyler Vrabel’s first action. Storm [Norton] played. [Ryan] Neuzil’s first real meaningful action as a starter at center. Chris [Lindstrom] came out for a minute; Kyle Hinton went in there. Unfortunately, [Kentavius] Street game out. Travis Bell, who we got a couple weeks ago was in there grinding it out. That’s what you have to do. That’s the NFL. Unfortunately, Josh, you get in the game like that, and we had our opportunities. Credit to Tampa. We came up short.”
On whether he called a timeout inside two minutes thinking that the officials would review an apparent fumble: “Yeah, I did. That was a judgment call because I thought the ball came out. I thought he had it. You know, they went to hurry up to try to snap it, so I did, I used the one mechanism I had, which was to call a timeout. The ball did come out, but they said there was no clear recovery, so that’s way it went.”
On Jake Matthews injury status: “Again, have to see tomorrow. He was ready to go back in if he had to. Obviously, didn’t feel great; that’s why he didn’t. Hope to get some good news tomorrow with a lot of those guys. We’ll go from there.”
On his approach going forward with the team in regard to the division race: “Yeah, we had our opportunities. Credit to Tampa. We didn’t get it done today, but we’re not -- spirit is not broken. We do have opportunities. It’ll be a wild adventure towards the end of the NFL season. You guys have seen it. It changes so much week to week. We’ve got to get ready to go. Get on the road and go to Charlotte, and we have to win that game. It’s kind of what it is. Down the stretch we have, playoff type game like today and was, and thankfully we got another opportunity next week.”
On how he prevents a loss like this from becoming demoralizing: “Because it won’t. Watch our guys play. I mean, it’s been our spirit. Unfortunately, we’ve lost -- we’ve won some games in the clutch and we’ve lost a couple. But this team never, never has ever had their spirit broken. Certainly, that won’t happen. We know it’s a tough challenge every week. I’m not here predicting anything, but just look at the evidence and watch the results today. It felt -- we had some opportunities we missed. They were bringing a lot of pressure, jumping a lot of things. We tried to back them off. It was a give and take. We made some plays in the fourth quarter and the game could’ve gone any other way. All you need is the evidence, and obviously we need to get on the other side of one column. So that’s not -- not sitting here trying to celebrate losing a closes game. That would be my answer. The evidence of watching us week in and week out.”
On Drake London having a career day and the confidence Desmond Ridder has in him: “Yeah. Absolutely. We have a lot of the confidence in a lot of those guys. He had some opportunities, and kept calling his number. Like I said, I got to look at the one in the end, what you’re trying to set up. Obviously, we know we’ve got to get in the end zone there. But the way they backed off, and, again, I’ve got to watch that, but, so, yeah, he played it well.”
On Carlton Davis’ interception early in the game: “Yeah, it’s a run alert on a bubble. A little tick late, they change the coverage, went to a -- rolled into a two, to a cloud corner, so a lot of things we could -- we could have done better there.”
On whether he is frustrated by the team not capitalizing on opportunities: “You know, we’ve just got to look at it. That’s the NFL. I’m sure they can say they had a couple opportunities they could have done something better. You know, obviously, you’re not happy when you lose a game like that. Like I said, we can be really frustrated, but, again, our job is to go back tomorrow and find a way to get the stuff fixed, get cleaner, and thankfully we have another opportunity. That’s the reality of it. We have another opportunity thankfully in front of us.”