re: Falocons fans: How much time is left for Mike Smith?

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Say what you will but the falcons were 10 yards and a second half meltdown away from going to the superbowl.

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back to back playoff games with 3 touchdown leads blown. A modicum of good clock management the week before from Pete Carroll and they would've lost the same way the week before...btw, how awesome was Russell Wilson in that game? his passing skills and pocket presence were crazy. Mike Smith can't coach this incarnation of the falcons to 3 straight wins against 3 really good teams. That is how I genuinely feel.

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when fully healthy, the falcons are good enough to make the playoffs or come very close just about any year with the core they have

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I don't know if this is true anymore. I'm very curious to see the post tony gonzalez Atlanta falcons. Also, the falcons didn't have crazy injuries, they just finally had the year every other team has every year (how frustrating that was ) Like you pointed out, they have zero depth so losing one of the 3-5 key players sunk them almost immediately...but they weren't doing too hot when Julio was on the field.

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Losing Tony G. will ultimately show me who Matt Ryan is I think. He is either one of the better qbs in the league and will make it work without him or will struggle not having his "crutch" or safety to bail him out.

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yeah, it will be very interesting. Either he'll take a big step forward or a big step back, but he has to move in one direction.