We once again have two QB’s playing this week even if it was a short amount of time but I will talk about both of them and I will remain as unbiased as possible. The QB’s weren’t asked to do much this week so I’ll talk about the team as a whole at the end.
The good: The play-calling was solid, the biggest point for what feels like the last 6 seasons. The Henicke and Ridder’s best plays both came with their legs. Henicke’s touchdown to Miller was nice because he read through progressions before finding Miller in the end zone. The truth was they weren’t asked to do much so I really don’t have anything that great other than they did not turn the ball over.
The bad: The turf sucked for us yesterday. Yeah Ridder got tripped up on the QB sneak (I had no issue with the play call) but there were times Bijan slipped as well. So I cant get mad at Ridder’s clumsiness even if I wanted to. Henicke and Ridder both had one turnover worthy play each… Henicke more than Ridder. Henicke just wasn’t on the same page as Pitts on the first throw of the game and then Arizona just perfectly played Jefferson in the 4th on Ridder’s deep ball.
Overall thoughts on the team: This team truly is death by a thousand paper cuts. Nothing about yesterdays game was great, and nothing was really that bad either. “Yay we got Bijan involved in the redzone!!!” Ok, we still lost. “We didnt turn the football over!” We still lost. “Our defense doesnt give up 400 yards plus anymore!” Hey guess what! We. Still. Lost. You could tell however that Smith trusts Ridder to throw the ball downfield much more than he does Henicke. I think Ridder will be the QB after the bye, regardless of if Henicke had hurt his hamstring.
Am I a fan of the coaching staff as a whole? Yes. Do I also believe that Smith is coaching for his job? Yes I do. Do I think he should probably be fired if it continues at this pace? Yes to that as well. But here is my only issue with this: play calling can’t be the thing holding our team back if we have changed play callers 3 times since Shanahan left in 2016. If play calling was that easy and fixable then there’s no way that three proven offensive football minds at some point in their career would not flop for Atlanta. Play calling is HARD. Even the greatest offensive mind arguably in the history of pro football in Shanahan has had examples of falling apart. But play calling is also not that different across the league.
If Smith is given another year, I think he needs to hire two guys for offensive coordinator roles similar to what we have on defense. I also think these guys need to be bonafide passing game coordinators. If Smith is fired, I am just not that sure about who would be that big of an improvement over him unless you get Sean McVay. But of course I would love to be wrong if that leads to winning games!
I think Smith is not the “I hate the media” tough guy he pretends to be in press conferences. I think the team likes him as a person and I also think that he has good relationships with the people who asks questions every day. If he wasn’t he wouldn’t give a fake fine to D-Led at the start of the season for being a day late. That being said, this is a results league no matter how bad a hand he was dealt when he first got here.
Bruh two offensive coordinators for a coach that already implemented his scheme and play called? And no the defense does not have this power structure. I mean Jerry Gray has an elevated role on the coaching staff being the only assistant head coach, but he’s not some co defensive coordinator. What you are asking for is just more people that won’t fully agree on where to take the team. I mean look at Charles London. He left the falcons to take the same job in Tennessee. He probably felt like he wasn’t being heard. And it makes sense since Smith decided not to replace him with anyone. If you need to make this many coaching staff changes, then you might as well just fire the head coach and start over from scratch. Nothing tells me that Smith would be open to having coaches come in and take his power away. I mean what is he going to be doing here then? Manage what exactly? Game management? Clock management? Just be done with the guy at that point.