Mike Smith Treats Life Like A Game, Wins

Awesome little bit of research worked up by Jay Adams over at the mothership earlier today, which I had to share with you.

Mike Smith likes to break the season up into four-game stretches. He believes this helps the team focus on an attainable goal—walk out of that "quarter" with a winning record—and keeps the team focused without forcing them to concentrate on just one game. Human beings like to look ahead a smidge, after all.

So how has that worked out for Smith? Incredibly, as Adams notes, the Falcons only have a losing record in one quarter since Smitty took over, and that was back in 2009. He's only once had this football team go worse than 2-2 in a four game stretch under his tutelage, which is a pretty nice trick.

Can you draw a direct correlation between Smitty's coaching and this success? No. You'd be inclined to dismiss this as an entirely arbitrary point, except for the fact that Smith is actually breaking the season into quarters and focusing on success within each one. Given the team's crazy regular season success over the past 4.25 years, there may just be something to this.

Thought it was interesting, at minimum. Weigh in!