Arthur Smith and the Atlanta Falcons had the division-rival New Orleans Saints where they wanted them in Sunday’s season opener.
Atlanta held a 23-10 lead after the third quarter and was holding Saints quarterback Jameis Winston in check.
That’s when everything went to hell. New Orleans outscored Atlanta by a margin of 17-3 in the fourth quarter, including touchdown drives of 75 and 86 yards. In fact, New Orleans scored the final 17 points after falling down 26-10 early in the fourth to win by the score of 27-26.
When a 63-yard Younghoe Koo field goal attempt was blocked as time expired, Smith and the Falcons saw themselves lose a game they should have won.
A visibly upset Smith spoke with the media shortly after this humiliating home loss. In the process, his frustration was taken out on the media.
“You’ll continue to write our obituary. Who cares? We have 16 games. You buried us in May. Bury us again. We don’t care. We’ll get back to work.”
Arthur Smith after season-opening loss
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Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith needs to look in the mirror
Atlanta posted an ugly 7-10 record in Smith’s first season as its head coach. The Falcons ranked 26th in scoring and yielded the fourth-most points in the NFL.
Expectations from the media were not high heading into the 2022 season in the first place. Atlanta dealt away Matt Ryan. He was replaced by veteran journeyman Marcus Mariota. The team’s defense lacks the necessary talent to compete on a consistent basis.
Despite this, Smith thought it made sense to blast what he believes to be some sort of media-driven narrative.
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The media didn’t yield 17 unanswered points to conclude Sunday’s game. It didn’t let quarterback-turned-tight end Taysom Hill run the ball for 81 yards while enabling Winston to play mistake-free football. It didn’t commit eight penalties and turn the ball over two times.
The Atlanta Falcons are not going to go anywhere if Arthur Smith continues to let the media get to him rather than focus on the task at hand. His post-game press conference on Sunday was simply a bad look. Period!