GIANTS, JETS OFFSEASON PRIMERS
OUSTON — The most stark and sobering lesson learned by many Super Bowl losers is this: Regardless of how close you got to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, you’re not guaranteed a place back in the game any time soon. Or possibly any time at all. This is what makes the Falcons’ colossal choke job against the Patriots in Super Bowl LI Sunday night — a devastating 3428 overtime defeat — so egregious.
Sure, the Falcons are young and talented, and their star quarterback, Matt Ryan, is playing the best football of his career. Sure, they’ll be hungry to make it back in a year after having come so close.
But that means nothing the day after the big game, once the opportunity of a lifetime has been squandered like a winning lottery ticket that was inadvertently thrown away.
Ask the Panthers how easy it is to get back to the Super Bowl a year after getting there and falling short to the Broncos. One year, in 2015, they’re led by league MVP quarterback Cam Newton and a ferocious defense. And the next, in 2016, they finish 6-10.
Ask the Chargers, who lost in their only appearance, in 1995, and not only haven’t been back since but don’t even play in San Diego anymore.
Ask the Titans, who lost the big game in 2000 and haven’t had a sniff since.
All around the Falcons locker room in the aftermath of their stunning defeat, you heard the word “finish’’ used by their players as they lamented their failure to finish the job, to bury the vulnerable Patriots when they had the chance.
The Falcons lost a 28-3 lead in the third quarter because, across the board, they lost their composure and slowly and agonizingly melted down in the final 20 minutes. By the time the Patriots were in the throes of their comeback that erased a 25-point second-half deficit with 31 unanswered points, the Falcons were gassed and they were too rattled to recover. “You look back on the opportunity and you wish you would have seized the moment,’’ Falcons running back Devonta Freeman said. “You just wish you would have seized the moment.’’
The most obvious second-guess sin committed by the Falcons during their undoing came in the form of the play-calling by Atlanta offensive coordinator and soon-tobe 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.
The Falcons, leading 28-20, moved the ball to the New England 22-yard line with 4:40 remaining in regulation thanks to an
incredible Matt Ryan pass to Julio Jones, who made an even more incredible catch on the right sideline.
It was the kind of play that had the Falcons gone on to win, would have been this Super Bowl’s signature moment, a replay NFL Network would replay until the end of time.
Instead, the play became a mere footnote to one of the most frenetic finishes in Super Bowl history because, two plays later, with the Falcons in 41-yard field-goal range, Shanahan inexplicably called for a pass and Ryan was sacked for a 12-yard loss.
The next play, a Ryan completion to Mohamad Sanu to the New England 26-yard line, was nullified by a holding penalty by left tackle Jake Matthews. That pushed Atlanta out of possible game-clinching field-goal range and gave Tom Brady the ball with 3:30 remaining in regulation. And you know the rest.
If Shanahan and head coach Dan Quinn simply run the ball into the line a couple times, they keep the field-goal distance manageable and burn time off the clock. A win-win.
Instead, Shanahan and Quinn blew it. They panicked because the Patriots made them panic.
“They were under tremendous pressure,” Patriots tackle Nate Solder said of the Falcons. “We knew we had to put pressure on them. We’d been doing it all year, where we’re [better] conditioned and stronger than the other team in the fourth quarter.”
Quinn told his players in the locker room right after the loss: “Don’t forget what it took to get here. Next year will be the same work.”
“I’m already ready to get back on the field and get back to it,” Falcons receiver Taylor Gabriel said. “We have a special group.”
But will this group be as special next year? Last year, the Panthers thought they had a special group, too, and they slipped into irrelevance on their attempted journey back to the big game.
“I’ll remember this game for the rest of my life,” Freeman said.
For all the wrong reasons.