Flames Surround Mike Smith’s Chair

The Atlanta Falcons are sitting at 2-6 and appear to be set for another disappointing season. No team in NFL history has ever started with this record and made the playoffs. On the bright side the Birds still have a chance in the most horrible division in football. After blowing a 21 point half time lead last Sunday even the terrible NFC South seems like a huge hurdle.

Now the question is does Mike Smith come back next season? Honestly if it keeps going downhill does he get to finish this one? Whenever a team is losing it seems like the easy answer is to fire the coach. Coach Smith can even make the case that the General Manager left him handicapped with a roster that is no good on the front lines. No matter how much a coach can scheme if the talent can’t perform.

The question becomes do you give a guy who brought in 5 straight winning seasons for a franchise that never had back to back ones or are the last 2 years too much? Is it time for a culture change in Atlanta?

Now while the head coach doesn’t have a lot to do with the roster building they do have control of execution. The Falcons have developed a nasty habit of getting leads and blowing them. This even happen during the magical 13-3 run. It kind of goes unnoticed during the winning but the losses have exposed it as an issue. This is a coach problem. Now failure to keep leads can be attributed to the team not making adjustments after halftime or not being motivated this falls at the feet of the head man. Being 6-18 in the last 24 games is not a good way to stay employed.

Keith B. Holt

Follow on Twitter @Kholtjr