Rookie Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith has mostly gotten rave reviews from his dealings with the media, but he was visibly frustrated after Atlanta lost 30-17 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday including several missed chances.
Asked if it was deflating to fumble in the third quarter with an opportunity to take the lead, Smith bristled at the question.
"Well, I wouldn't call it deflating," said Smith "Those are mistakes that you don't want to, obviously, make there. But our mindset is, if you're going to say things deflate you or concern you in the middle of the game, it's a battle. We got to be cleaner with the football, there's no doubt about that. That's obvious."
"But deflate? That's not a word we use."
"We're going to keep fighting and swinging."
The follow-up question used the word damaging instead of deflating, but Smith wouldn't bite.
"You can rephrase it however you want," said Smith "I mean, they made a play. We got to continue work on that. We'll be cleaner. So, call it damaging, call it deflating, we don't use those words. We continue to swing and fight. We'll fight to the finish."
Smith was then asked about play-calling in the red zone, and was short in his response. Asked if he considered running the ball, and Smith was quick to correct the reporter.
“We did. We had a fumbled snap," said Smith. "If you want to chime in to our headset, I'll show you the call sheet."
"You have a question here. So the thought process is you're trying to call plays to score touchdowns."
"I mean, that's pretty obvious, Michael (ESPN reporter Michael Rothstein)."
"Again, what are you asking? You're asking the type of plays called? Yeah, I wouldn't have called it if I didn't [thing it would lead to a touchdown]."
"You don't call plays to think, ‘Hey, I hope this works, we don't think it's going to work.’ If you're asking if we had called a run, yes, we did. And then we had a snap issue."
The Falcons dropped to 0-5 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium under Smith and 5-7 overall. Smith has had a good relationship with the media to this point in his brief tenure, but he was clearly frustrated on Sunday.
The Falcons have a chance to get back in the win column on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers are also 5-7, just fired their offensive coordinator Joe Brady, and are coming off a bye week.
The last time the Panthers looked vulnerable, having lost four in a row, they came into Atlanta and bullied the Falcons in a 19-13 win on Halloween.
However, the Falcons are 5-2 away from Mercedes-Benz Stadium this season and could enjoy the short drive up I-85 to Charlotte to take on the struggling Panthers.
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