Falcons Coach Arthur Smith on Cowboys Blowout: 'Pretty Bad Day at the Office'

Arthur Smith explains his thought process on botched fourth-down call, blowout loss to Cowboys.

The Atlanta Falcons were blown out 43-3 by the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. Build in to the result: The Cowboys were embarrassed at home last week by the Denver Broncos, and a response was expected.

However, no one expected the comprehensive domination that saw Dallas build a 36-3 lead at halftime.

Falcons coach Arthur Smith passed on a chance to kick a field goal that would have cut the Dallas lead to 7-6 with four minutes left in the first quarter. The Falcons failed to convert on fourth down, and the Cowboys went on to score 29 straight points in the second quarter.

"I've got to do a better job of getting us prepared," said Smith. "Clearly we weren't prepared coming in here, and we got avalanched in that second quarter and never recovered."

The Falcons were beaten on offense, defense, and special teams. The Cowboys outgained Atlanta 431 to 214, had three interceptions, and for good measure, added a blocked punt for a touchdown.

"We're lucky it only counts as one [loss]," said Smith. "We gotta turn around, and we gotta play a really good New England team that's on a roll in our home stadium on Thursday."

"When you score three points, give up 43, it's a pretty bad day at the office. You've got to credit the Cowboys. We were outcoached and outplayed."

In hindsight, it's hard to picture Smith's risky decision to go for it on fourth down making a difference in the game, but at the time, it felt like a turning point.

"We wanted to be impressive coming in here," said Smith. "Where we were, it was going to be a long kick. I know it was fourth and seven. Looking at it, at that point of the game, we know what kind of offense we were playing on the other side."

"Made a decision to be aggressive. Obviously hindsight is 20/20. We didn't convert. We didn't get anything on third down or fourth down."

"That's kind of where momentum swung the other way."

If there is ever a good time to have a short week, it might be now for the Falcons. As bad as the game was against the Cowboys, Atlanta can quickly shift its focus to the Thursday night home game against the Patriots.

The bad news is the Patriots have won four in a row after a 1-3 start including a 45-7 dismantling of the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.

Atlanta will have to turn things around quickly if the club wants to avoid another embarrassing loss and have any chance of salvaging their season after falling to 4-5.