FanPost

Mike Smith vs Thomas Dimitroff; A Reaction to Black Monday


This is not so much in defense of Thomas Dimitroff, or a bashing of Mike Smith, more a simple fan trying to make sense of this morning's news. There are numerous reasons we could all be fired up, torqued up, or just plain confused. So, share some of your time and humor me for my first fanpost.

Let us start at the start. Seven years ago most of us were introduce to these two for the first time. We drafted a franchise QB of whom most of us were unsure. The fanbase was still reeling from previous conundrums. And then it happened. Our rookie QB threw his first pass, a touchdown. Balls bounced our way. We became clutch at the end of games. Winning seasons became the norm. Many of us didn't see some small, troubling signs, some of us did.

It was both men's first tenure as GM and HC, respectively. Bad calls were made on fourth downs. Questionable cuts and draft choices were made. Time outs - don't even go there. Free agency acquisitions - wth was going on there? But we were WINNING! These were learning curves. We could live with that, until 2013. Injuries hit hard and footballs started bouncing away from us.

Over the last two seasons we as fans have panicked, raged, cried, thrown things at televisions, swore to leave the state and vowed to never watch football again. Now let's get real and try and make some sense of December 29, 2014.

TD gets blasted for his drafts and his free agency work, but has Mike Smith ever coached up anyone? Players age and they get hurt, neither of which happened much 2008-2012 to us. But when it finally did Smitty never changed. Poor playing veterans weren't benched. Player development was atrocious. Clock management never even got a tick better. We couldn't protect a lead to save our lives. Dimitroff made moves that didn't work, but other than a few obvious bad decisions (coughrayedwardscough) how do we know that Smitty just couldn't make these moves work?

I'll offer some evidence in the form of Mike Tice. He has made the best of what he had after even more injuries. He actually coached his guys up. Let me rephrase: he coached up the guys that the front office gave him. Yeah, the O line laid a big freaking stinky egg yesterday, but yesterday was the exception this year instead of the norm like last year. (Lamar Holmes anyone?) The Falcons went through how many different O line lineups this year?

Something else to keep in mind, we don't know how much influence Mike Smith had over what players were brought in via draft or free agency. Today's move may give us an answer to that.

Smitty is loved by his players, and that speaks volumes, but it's not enough. TD is on the line now. He gets plenty of proverbial rope.

<em>This FanPost was written by one of The Falcoholic's talented readers. It does not necessarily reflect the views of The Falcoholic.</em>