Arthur Smith embarrasses Falcons, himself with postgame outburst over Saints garbage time TD

The Falcons ended the regular season with an embarrassing 48-17 beatdown on the road against their most hated rivals, the New Orleans Saints. And the only thing more humiliating than the loss itself was head coach Arthur Smith’s behavior after it.

The Saints went for, and converted, a touchdown out of the victory formation with a little over a minute left to play.

And Arthur Smith threw a little tantrum about it during what should have been a postgame handshake between the two head coaches.

Allen said after the game that players had asked him if running back Jamaal Williams could get a touchdown. He said no, and players ran the play anyway.

After the game, Smith did acknowledge that the Saints “can do whatever you want” on the football field.

Is going for a touchdown out of the victory formation in that scenario excellent sportsmanship? No, of course not. But I am not going to get mad at Saints players twisting the dagger on a division rival. And I think Arthur Smith should be much more upset about his own performance in this one.

For one thing, the game was well past the point of no return. The outcome was probably sealed with over eight minutes remaining in the game. The Falcons, facing a 17-point deficit, had a third-and-6 on their own 29-yard line. When a team is trailing by three scores against its biggest rival, with the head coach’s job and the last tattered remnants of the team’s postseason hopes on the line, the last things anyone should do in that situation with that much time left to play are a) punt the ball away and b) bench the starter (even though the starter was Desmond Ridder) for third stringer Logan Woodside with plenty of time remaining in the game.

More importantly: It is not the Saints’ job to make Arthur Smith look competent. It is not the Saints’ job to take it easy on the Falcons. If Arthur Smith doesn’t want his team to get scored on by the Saints in garbage time, THEN ARTHUR SMITH NEEDS TO MAKE SURE HIS TEAM DOES NOT LET THAT HAPPEN. THAT IS THE WAY REAL LIFE WORKS.

This is not fourth-grade flag football where we just hope everyone has a good time and everybody gets a trophy and someone’s parent hands out orange slices and juice boxes after the game. This is the National Football League. Teams play to win, and they play to the whistle. If Arthur Smith’s team wasn’t prepared for that, there’s one person to blame, and it’s not Dennis Allen or the Saints.

Arthur Smith of all people should be acutely aware of this, given the frequency with which he trots out the “this isn’t fantasy football” excuse every time anyone pushes him on why he hasn’t done a better job of incorporating Atlanta’s considerable offensive skill position talent — particularly Kyle Pitts and Drake London — into the game plan.

We may have seen the last of Smith on the Falcons’ sideline, and the arrogance he showed in this postgame interaction will be one of the key reasons he was unable to succeed in Atlanta.