The heat under Arthur Smith’s seat was at an all-time high following back-to-back humiliating losses to divisional opponents, including a defeat to the then 1-12 Panthers in which Smith’s offense only mustered seven points.
Smith’s job security was the talk of the town heading into Week 16, which didn’t look like it would be the case when the Falcons were leading the Buccaneers a couple of weeks ago with an opportunity to take a stranglehold on the NFC South. Smith himself answered several questions from the media about his future with the team, and even Arthur Blank made a comment on the situation.
“We’re gonna play these last three games; we play ’em to win ’em. And we’ll let the season play out and go from there. Obviously this has not been the kind of year we expected,” Blank said.
Arthur Smith is undoubtedly coaching for his job over these final few weeks. A playoff berth may not be required, but how his team responds to the adversity of recent weeks will be critical in evaluating whether he’s the right man for the job in 2024.
Temporarily, those concerns have been put to rest following arguably the Falcons best performance against the Colts on Christmas Eve. The entire team played with a different level of intensity for their head coach, led by the defense, which held Indianapolis to just ten points and recorded six sacks.
Offensively, the Falcons also looked miles better with Taylor Heinicke under center. Arthur Smith chose to go back to Heinicke over Desmond Ridder after a porous performance against the Panthers. Some called it desperate, but in reality, it’s overwhelmingly evident Heinicke gives the team the best chance to win.
Heinicke finished with 229 yards passing, throwing for one touchdown and no interceptions. But as often is the case with the Falcons offense, it was their rushing attack that led the way. Atlanta ran the ball 30 times on the afternoon, eclipsing 170 yards on the ground. Bijan Robinson had 72 yards on 12 carries, and Tyler Allgeier added 69 more on just nine carries.
It was a clean performance from start to finish, a clear statement to Arthur Blank that the players still believe in what Arthur Smith is preaching. However, to say Smith is out of the woods just yet would be naive.
The Falcons have had some of these moments throughout the season, only to fall on their face the following week. Sunday was a step in the right direction, but Arthur Blank should be looking for consistency to end the season, something the Falcons have not shown at any point during Arthur Smith’s tenure as head coach. He’ll have one last opportunity to do that over the final two weeks against the Bears and Saints on the road.
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Photographer: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire
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