FALCONS FOCUSED ONLY ON FUTURE
Quinn working to avoid Super Bowl losers’ hangover
Coach Dan Quinn likes to organize and control as much as he can with the Atlanta Falcons, including his catchy slogans, in-practice music selections and the team’s talking points.
With training camp underway, the third-year coach wants to make clear the Falcons’ focus is on 2017. He and his players are finished talking about squandering a 25-point lead in February’s Super Bowl LI loss to the New England Patriots. They spent so much time rehashing their failure last spring that Quinn thinks doing it again will only impede their ability to focus on the future.
“We’ve got such a kick-ass opportunity ahead of us,” Quinn told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday after his team’s first training camp practice. “We didn’t want to lose sight of that by looking back.”
Since the 1993 Buffalo Bills returned to the big stage, no team that lost the Super Bowl has made it back to the title game the following season. Three such teams in the last 10 years, including the 2016 Carolina Panthers, failed to make the playoffs.
Quinn is well aware of that ugly history, which led to his intensive study on how his team can break the trend. He spoke with head coaches in other sports whose teams had endured similar heartbreak, from Steve Kerr (whose Golden State Warriors recently won the NBA title a year after surrendering a 3-1 Finals lead) and Terry Francona (the manager of the 2016 World Series runner-up Cleveland Indians), to North Carolina men’s basketball coach Roy Williams (whose Tar Heels won the NCAA title in April, a year after a buzzer-beater loss to Villanova).
“I wanted to do my own research and make sure that I was going to be responsible in every
way to our team,” Quinn said. “I’m not Steve or Coach Williams or any of those guys. I wanted it to be authentic to me. But I wanted to make sure I uncovered every rock to make sure that mentally we were good to go.”
But the team’s faith isn’t just a matter of psychology.
The Falcons think they can avoid the dreaded Super Bowl hangover because of tangible changes made in the offseason. Marquand Manuel was promoted from secondary coach to defensive coordinator after the team parted ways with Richard Smith following the Super Bowl. The league’s No. 1 scoring offense lost architect Kyle Shanahan, now the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, but Steve Sarkisian takes over after serving as offensive analyst and coordinator at Alabama.
On the personnel side, the defensive line was bolstered by first-round draft pick Takkarist McKinley and free agent tackle Dontari Poe. Top cornerback Desmond Trufant also returns after missing seven regular-season games and the postseason with a torn pectoral muscle.
“We give him a lot of tough assignments, and we don’t just leave him at once place,” Quinn said of Trufant. “Oftentimes we’ll say, ‘OK, you’re going down to dog this guy,’ and he’s like, ‘I got you, Coach, it’s cool.’ ”
Quinn also asked each player to find one thing to focus on as an area of improvement, individually and for the team. Some players picked physical things — McKinley, for example, is working on getting his surgically repaired shoulder fully healthy. Others are finding ways to boost their value on the field — such as the battle between Ben Garland and Wes Schweitzer to win the right guard job.
“Just mastering the playbook,” running back Tevin Coleman said of his chosen area of focus. “Learning more things.”
Quinn also is challenging his best players to be even better. He wants pass rusher Vic Beasley, who led the NFL with 151⁄ 2 sacks, to improve his speed off the ball and increase the number of ways he can affect the quarterback without sacks. He is asking quarterback and reigning NFL MVP Matt Ryan to tighten up his throwing technique and become more vocal in leading the offense.
And that’s Quinn’s mind-set for the rest of the roster as well. Rather than dwell on the collapse — even though it was in the biggest game of the year — Quinn sees possibility in the present.
“We don’t look too far down and say, ‘I can’t wait till that happens,’ and we don’t live too far in the past,” Quinn said. “Each team is new, so why would we miss all these cool connections we have?”