Falcons vs. Saints: Mike Smith unhappy with loss, happy with resiliency

The Atlanta Falcons watched their unblemished season disappear on Sunday, when the Falcons lost their first game of the season at the hands of the New Orleans Saints, 31-27.

Though the Falcons are still sitting pretty at 8-1 atop the NFC South, a loss will leave a bad taste in everybody's mouth -- including Falcons head coach, and Coach of the Year candidate, Mike Smith. Smith, though displeased with the loss, was happy with the resiliency that the Falcons showed in Atlanta's Week 10 loss.

There are positives out of every game and there are negatives. We were down by 11 and had the ball down inside our ten yard line, and we took it for a 90 yard plus drive. That says a lot about the resolve of this football team. Again, in the National Football League most games are going to come down to a handful of plays and that indeed was the case yesterday against a really good football team. It was an electric atmosphere. The kind of atmosphere when you're on the road that can cause you problems. We've got to be able to handle those things because we know when we play in our place it's a situation for the opposing team.

Though losing is never good, it is something that teams can sometimes rally around -- and sometimes it can be good for a team to deal with adversity. At the least, the Falcons proved on Sunday that they can fight even when they're still down -- and fight until the end of a game, even in a losing effort.

Atlanta will have a chance to rebound from a loss for the first time this season on Sunday, when the Falcons play host to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 11.