Midweek Atlanta Falcons Musings

Coach's Comments

It's Wednesday and it's time to move on from Sunday's disappointing loss to the New Orleans Saints. 

Tampa Bay is up next and will certainly look to rebound back from their own disappointing divisional loss at the hands of the hands of the Carolina Panthers on Monday night, 38-23.

The Falcons have bounced back well from their losses this season. Heading into Sunday, Atlanta is 4-0 after a loss, winning by an average score of 33-16.

Coach Mike Smith spoke of his team's resilience on Monday. "Anytime that we have not had the outcome that we have liked, we have come back the next week and played well. We should have a lot of desire to come out and play well this week.

This is a big game for us. It is a division game here for us against the team that, depending on what happens tonight, could be leading the division.” 

As we all know, Tampa lost, but it's still an important game since the Falcons' playoff hopes will be on the line with each remaining game on the season.

Smith also touched on his controversial fourth-and-five decision.

"...I have no reservations about it. With three minutes and 15 seconds to go on the fourth and five from the 35 yard-line, I felt like we were going to punt them back. Michael (Koenen) had a great punt. With three minutes and 15 seconds, if we were able to stop them, we were going to be able to get our offense in better field position than taking the gamble on fourth down.

"In hindsight, which hindsight is 20/20, you made the wrong decision. I had all the confidence in the world that we would go out and be able to stop them in a four-minute situation.”

Smith has shown a penchant for taking a gamble this season and in his private room-of-truth, you can't help but wonder if he really thinks he made the right call.

Atlanta columnist admits "I was wrong"

Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Terence Moore came clean today and admitted that he was wrong in his objection to the Falcons' selecting Matt Ryan over defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey in this year's draft.

Moore wrote, "No way did it seem likely that Ryan would do anything more than become your typical rookie at that position and stumble when he wasn’t rumbling or bumbling."

And as would be expected, he reminded his readers that he was not alone, going on to share an interview with Hall-of-Fame quarterback Steve Young in which the ESPN analyst dispensed a glowing review of the rookie quarterback.

I too, was wrong, thinking the Falcons should take the rebuilding slow and build on defense. Dorsey had Warren Sapp-like qualities coming out of college, but the verdict is still out on whether his career will pan out as Sapp's did (insert Dancing with the Stars joke here).

Clearly the Atlanta brass saw the intangibles in Ryan that the rest of the nation has gotten to know over the course of the season. Clearly they made the right decision. Clearly the rest of us are correct in not pursuing careers as scouting and personnel directors.

Falcons moves and news

• Tuesday Atlanta placed safety Antoine Harris on injured reserve with an injured groin. The second-year reserve safety played in 12 games this season, mostly as a special teams member. His season is finished with three tackles. With that move, the Falcons signed corner back Glenn Sharpe from the practice squad to the 53-man active roster. To fill Sharpe's spot on the practice squad, Atlanta signed rookie offensive guard Nate Bennett.
• Atlanta announced Tuesday that it will induct two new members to its Ring of Honor. The Falcons' all-time sack leader Claude Humphrey (94.5) and 17-year Falcons offensive tackle Mike Kenn will be honored at halftime of Sunday's game. They join running back Williams Andrews, quarterback Steve Bartkowski, linebackers Tommy Nobis and Jessie Tuggle, and center Jeff Van Note.
• The Week 16 (Dec. 21) match up with the Minnesota Vikings' game time has changed from 1 PM to 4:15 PM.

This article originally appeared on the Atlanta Falcons Examiner page. To view, go here.