Atlanta Falcons coach Arthur Smith angry at New Orleans Saints coach after late TD

To be clear, I'm not justifying the action; I'm saying it's stupid to whine about it as the head coach of the Falcons. Literally, no upside. Where does the "act like you've been there before" crowd stand on whining about meaningless plays in football?

The last thing I want to do is get in the way of a good ol' fashioned Winston bashing.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

Ok, but I still think Atl coach was not only justified but damn near obligated to make as much of a stink about it as possible.

Woulda been easier for him to slink away in dejected defeat.

He did the right thing.

 

I'm fascinated by this view, and I can't help but ask: for what purpose? The Saints coach already knew it was against the unwritten code of ethics. It's not like he told them to do that.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

It's an utterly gutless complaint and he should be embarrassed.

 

Were you surprised that Ray Goff never decked Spurrier back in the day when they routinely cried about that shit? No self-respecting Gator ever goes there. Running up the score is a loser's complaint.

 

The saints were lined up in a formation to take a knee like most teams due to end a game. That means the D basically does nothing. That's the norm which I doubt has ever been broken until yesterday. This protects both teams, imagine the issue if the O was in that formation taking a knee but the D unloaded on the offense.
It was classless and the Saints coach too should be angry for what transpired as in coach we will do what we want.

 

Running up the score as in letting your second team run the offense is far different than being in the "take a knee" position that means we're running out the clock. How many gator fans would be ok if uga was on the 8 yard line and up by 30 points, they get in the "take a knee position" only to drop back and throw a td pass?

 

We ran a trick play to make sure we had the most points ever scored at Sanford Stadium. It's the argument of cowards and losers and one that I, as a Gator, will never make.

However, the take-a-knee bit is a bit much. I didn't realize they did that.

 

Shameis admits he went against what his coach wanted. This guy doesn’t even respect his NFL head coach. That’s pretty bad.

 

As a backup QB no less.

 

Just another chapter in the long history of enmity between these two teams, and in typical fashion for them, 50 cents and the bragging rights are worth a cup of coffee for the Saints after the Packers sneaked in ahead of them.

 

The take-a-knee context is the entire point of the outrage, not the late touchdown. These guys are professionals and that was as unprofessional as it gets - for reasons others have already articulated. I live in ATL and have season tickets to the Falcons (but rarely go to games - give the tickets to clients usually.) I wanted Smith gone last year, but every single coach in the league has an obligation to very publicly stand up for his players in that situation.

 

Fair enough. FWIW, I didn't know about the knee thing.

Still, it's kind of a wuss look. Keep it internal and mark it down for next year.

 

Fair enough. But I've been on the other end of this enough as a UF fan (especially in the 90s), that I just can't go there.

 

The douche bag is the one that chose not to take a knee and surely he's the one to put it up to a vote in the huddle.

As for putting it up to the players to score or not, they will want to score every posession, regardless of the time on the clock.

 

Oh yeah, I moved to Atlanta in 93 and I had to hear the whining about us running up the score for two decades... always thought it was pathetic loser talk. Still do.

 

In their minds (Dooleyism), merely throwing with a lead was "running it up". Ditto for most of the SEC back then. Even our own columnists like Hubert Mizel (St. Pete Times) would buy into the trope and devote whole post-game columns to whining about it. Such an antiquated mentality.