Mike Smith’s seat heating up after timeout debacle

Trailing 23-21 late in the fourth quarter, the Falcons had just gained 7 yards on second down and faced a third-and-2 from the Browns 35-yard line. Instead of milking the clock, Smith elected to call a timeout with 55 seconds remaining. He would later argue this was done to find “the best play for us.”

On third down, Atlanta threw an incomplete pass on a deep route, then made a 53-yard field goal to take a 24-23 lead. But the Falcons left 44 seconds on the clock, enough time for the Browns (who had all three timeouts) to drive down and win the game on a field goal of their own, dropping Atlanta to 4-7.

Smith’s decision to take the timeout has come under intense fire, and his explanation of the choice hasn’t helped soothe things over.

“Again, you can definitely ask that question,” he said, per the team’s official website. “The 53-yarder was definitely outside the range we set prior to the game. We wanted to get a first down, and we felt like we had a play, that’s why we called the timeout. We came over and used it. They would’ve used the timeout probably if we hadn’t.”

The last sentence is the most concerning. Why not let the Browns burn one of their three remaining timeouts?

Smith provided little additional explanation during his Monday press conference, saying such decisions are “made on the fly.” However, he did acknowledge that the timeout “didn’t put [the team] in position to win.”

On hand for that explanation was owner Arthur Blank, who made the rare move to sit in on his coach’s postgame press conference -- from the first row no less. That may be a sign that the owner is growing tired of Smith’s performance.

And how about this scenario: what if Smith ends up making the playoffs and still gets fired? The NFC South is so bad that the winner will likely be well below .500, meaning Smith could limp to a division title and still have a record worthy of his firing.