Drake London stood inside the visitor's locker room Sunday afternoon in Arizona, the frustration seeping from every word he uttered.
The second-year Atlanta Falcons wide receiver is part of a 4-6 team which has lost three straight games and six of eight dating back to mid-September.
"I don't like losing," London said. "I don't want this to become a habit of ours. And we just need to, need to switch some things up.
"That's it."
Wholesale changes are tough to do in-season and as bad as this current skid looks, there have been glimpses of potential. The defense started off strong before losing Grady Jarrett for the season last month. The offense, for a stretch, was putting up over 350 yards per game.
Even in losses, there was progress.
But the Falcons are at a turning point. Can coach Arthur Smith and his team make enough alterations to stymie the regression of Atlanta's season?
It is critical for the season and, perhaps, for Smith's tenure as a head coach. The next seven games will tell a lot.
On Sunday, Smith said they'll take a look at everything they're doing. On Monday, he reiterated it.
"You can take a step back and say all right, there are other things you can do logistically to help, you know, manage it," Smith said. "And ultimately I need to be a better head coach, too, right? So it all goes into it. That'll be a good time to look at everything and things that we switch year-to-year, things that we've done before that may help us.
"So we'll look at it all."
It starts with a quarterback decision: Smith is deciding between sticking with Taylor Heinicke or returning to his original starter this season, Desmond Ridder. He'll also have to figure out how to stop what's been happening the past three games defensively, where Atlanta has allowed 84 points -- only the New York Giants have allowed more -- and 28 points a game, where just the Giants and Los Angeles Rams have averaged more points allowed.
Some of it has to do with short fields -- there have been a couple of special teams miscues -- and some of it has to do with a defense no longer playing with Jarrett, who is out for the season.
It continues with an offense that while statistically average the last three weeks -- 24.67 points scored is No. 14 in the league, 322 yards per game averaged is No. 17 -- still feels like it's figuring itself out. Red zone issues were a problem against the Minnesota Vikings. Yet over the past three weeks, the Falcons have scored touchdowns on 66.7% of their red zone trips.
"There's natural evolutions and a lot of it is just getting over this hump," Smith said Monday. "It's an enormous game coming in."
The next two weeks could dictate the present and future for the Falcons. In the present, it keeps Atlanta firmly in the NFC South race -- there's a scenario in which Atlanta could be leading the division by the end of next week. How Falcons coaches handle the bye week and come out against the New Orleans Saints could speak more to the long-term plan.
This was a season where the direction was supposed to be clearer. Before the season, Falcons owner Arthur Blank said when Smith and general manager Terry Fontenot were hired, they laid out a three-year plan to get out of salary cap issues.
The first two years, despite 7-10 records where Smith got the most out of his cap-strapped teams, Blank saw where Smith and Fontenot were headed. The third year was where it was expected to coalesce after being able to spend in free agency and have more of the players Smith and Fontenot personally picked on the roster.
"Our team is going to be even more competitive than it's been in the last couple years," Blank said in August. "I think they'd be disappointed if that was not the case. I would be disappointed, and our fans would be disappointed."
There's still time with seven games to go, but it isn't at that point. Yet. Atlanta has been competitive in every game but two -- against the Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars -- and is fortunate to be in a division where no teams have been dominant.
At the beginning of the season, it looked like it might be different. Atlanta won its first two games. Then it started to falter, an offense finding its way while the defense held games together. Then the last three weeks, the defense and special teams joined the offense in critical errors at critical times while the offense produced average NFL numbers.
Three losses in a row and the Falcons are here.
"For some reason, we just haven't taken advantage. We haven't made that play, hasn't been in our favor the last three weeks when it's time to make that play," cornerback Jeff Okudah said. "And we gotta take this bye and really reflect on what's going on.
"And just get back to our identity for this second half of the season."