The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Falcons open playoffs tonight at L.A. Rams
Sixth seed’s chance to atone for Super Bowl means completing task only two champs have pulled off.
History suggests coach Dan Quinn’s sixth-seeded Falcons will have a difficult time trying to make up for their Super Bowl LI collapse.
The Falcons’ attempt to atone for the greatest collapse in Super Bowl history starts on the road and because the Falcons are a sixth seed, they will stay on the road as long as they remain in the NFC playoffs.
Just how dangerous are the Falcons, the defending NFC champions, who open the playoffs against the third-seeded Los Angeles Rams tonight at the Coliseum?
“With Ryan, Jones, and an array of other offensive weapons, the Falcons could be one of the most dangerous six seeds the NFL playoffs have ever seen,” Mike Florio of NBC and Pro Football Talk wrote this week.
The Falcons are battle-tested,
but Matt Ryan and Julio Jones have not played nearly as well as last season, when the Falcons stormed to the Super Bowl out of the second-seeded slot before blowing a 28-3 lead and losing to New England 34-28 in overtime. History suggests the Falcons will have a difficult time this season trying to make up for their Super Bowl collapse. Since the wild-card round was added to the NFL playoffs in 1970, 10 wild-
card teams have advanced to the Super Bowl and six have won the Super Bowl, but only two — 2005 Pittsburgh and 2010 Green Bay — were sixth seeds. The Oakland Raiders ( 1980), Denver Broncos (1997), Baltimore Ravens (2000) and NewYork Giants (2007) have won the Super Bowl as wild-card teams, but were either fourth or fifth seeds. Also, the losing Super Bowl team has not made it back to the big game since the Buffalo Bills during the 1993 season finished their run of four straight Super Bowl losses. The Falcons played the 2010 Packers as the No. 1 seed and were upset at the Georgia Dome. It was a close game until Aaron Rodgers started to dissect the secondary and the Packers pulled away to a 48-21 victory. Since the NFL expanded the playoffs to six teams in each conference in 1990, sixth seeds have won 30 of 80 games (37.5 percent). Sixth seeds have wonmultiple games in the same playoffs only four times (2005, ’08, ’10, ’13). Last season, both sixth seeds were pummeled. Third-seeded Seattle beat sixth-seed Detroit 26-6 in the NFC and third-seed Pittsburgh thumped sixth-seed Miami 30-12 in the AFC. After the2015 season, Seattle and Pittsburgh won one game as sixth seeds before losing in the divisional round to Carolina and Denver, respectively. Despite the statistical data, the Falcons remain undeterred. “We know that the easy road is not for us, (it’s) the hard road,” coach Dan Quinn said. Ryan said, “All of the experiences that we have had, we feel good about how that has shaped us into the team that we are right now. We’re confident. We believe in ourselves and believe that we’ll be ready to play.” Of the two No. 6 seeds to win the Super Bowl, the Falcons more closely resemble the 2010 Packers. The Packers had an elite quarterback in Rodgers. He was 10-5 as starter that season. The Packers were 10-6, like the Falcons are this season. Those Packers had six one score losses, including one to the Falcons. The Falcons had five one-score losses and were pounded by only one team, New England, this season. Five of the Falcons’ six losses were to playoff teams. One major difference is Green Bay had six Pro Bowlers and the Falcons have only two: Jones and center Alex Mack. The 2010 Packers had four Pro Bowlers on defense: linebacker Clay Matthews, cornerbacks Charles Woodson and Tramon Williams and free safety Nick Collins. The Packers also had some luck. After they beat the Eagles and Falcons, they played the Bears in the NFC Championship game. Bears quarterback Jay Cutler suffered amystery injury, Todd Collins was horrible in relief and the Bears finished with Caleb Hanie at quarterback. The 2005 Steelers rode the Bus to the Super Bowl, the nickname for running back Jerome Bettis. They had a strong rushing attack and second-year quarterback Ben Roethlisberger at the controls.
The Steelers were 11-5 and heavy underdogs against Cincinnati in the wild-card round. Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer was injured, and the Steelers won. They squeaked by the Colts in the divisional round before routing Denver in the AFC title game.
“It’s tough to compare teams at different times,” Falcons backup quarterback Matt Schaub said.
But Schaub, who has been in the league since the Falcons drafted him in the third round out of Virginia in 2004, sees some similar- ities to the 2010 Packers.
”This year, we were in a lot of close games,” Schaub said. “We played a lot of good football teams, and we were getting everyone’s best shot.”
The Falcons were 5-3 on the road, with losses at New England, Carolina and New Orleans.
“We are battle-tested as a football team both at home and on the road,” Schaub said. “Everywhere, any day of the week, we played in every time zone. Now, let’s go see what we can do.”
R ight tackle Ryan Schraeder is proud of the way the Falcons reached the playoffs and believes the team can make some noise from the sixth seed.
“We didn’t take the easy route,” Schraeder said. “It’s a little different than last year. We had the home field all throughout. We are a different team from last year with the way that we won the tough road games.”