Inside Arthur Smith's Crucial 4th-and-Inches Call in Falcons' Win vs. Packers
Late in the fourth quarter on Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons were faced with a choice.
The two-minute warning was approaching, and the Falcons were in field goal range for kicker Younghoe Koo, but the team faced a 4th and Inches opportunity with a chance to really ice the game with a conversion.
The only problem: Atlanta trailed 24-22.
Should the Falcons kick for the lead, or should they attempt to get the first down, run some more time off the clock before a score, and force the Green Bay Packers into a difficult situation with a young quarterback in Jordan Love?
Head coach Arthur Smith opted for the latter, and his gamble paid off. Running back Bijan Robinson found enough yardage to keep the drive alive, a possession that eventually ended in a Koo field goal anyway, giving the Falcons the lead that eventually won them the game at 25-24.
So, how did we get here?
"Before the two-minute warning, I felt good about the play, the way they were blocking, and really whether it was going to be Bijan or Tyler in that situation, I had a lot of confidence they were going to get the first," Smith said following the game. "That's a belief, and then just situationally, could have been super conservative and kicked the field goal, but without a timeout, they would have possibly had a two-minute warning, depending on how the kickoff went, and then the timeouts.
"Wanted to be aggressive, and then even late, with a minute being 4th and 1 at that point, I didn't want to get too cute, and I knew our defense, if they had no timeouts, I had a lot of confidence we were going to stop them.”
Robinson was the hero in that situation, and he has quickly burst onto the scene in the league, rushing for over 100 yards on 19 touches on Sunday. But what went through the young back's mind when he knew his number was called on this fourth down try?
“Just get the first down," Robinson said. "Don’t worry about anything else, but just get the first down so we can end the game. At first it was going by fast, so I was like, ‘We got to go, we got to get up there.’ Desmond [Ridder] said, ‘Hike,’ and gave me the ball, and I just let the God-given ability take over from there.
"I think it was a huge momentum change, and it helped us a lot, obviously won the game. You just have to get the first down when you get called like that.”
Through two weeks of the NFL season, the Falcons have picked up two crucial wins in the NFC, first knocking off division-rival Carolina before this latest tilt with the Packers. With a call like this with the game on the line, is Arthur Smith just gutsy, or does he have a lot of trust in his guys?
"Well, every one of those are different," Smith said. "You know what the numbers are, and you're certainly aware, but again, there's a human element to it, and the way that our guys were coming off the ball, again, the call -- they're all an educated guess. They have a chance to change it up, and they did at times.
"That's what the league is. But there was a lot of conviction. Felt great about the call and really about the guys. That was why.”
His players have taken notice of this conviction too, and they are now 2-0 because of it.
“It's obviously trust," quarterback Desmond Ridder said. "Trust and seeing that throughout the week that we've put in the work, that we've executed that play over and over and over again, that we know when we come out here on Sundays that when he calls it, we're going to execute it to its fullest.
"For me, that's just trust and belief in all 11 guys out there on the field that they're going to do their job and their job only.”
