Will The Super Bowl Collapse HELP The Falcons in 2017 And Beyond?
We've heard it for 5 months now. While the rest of the nation keeps making memes and comments about not the Patriots winning a 5th Super Bowl, but more of Atlanta blowing the biggest lead in Super Bowl history, Atlanta fans just wish the whole thing would die.
Admittedly, I am a Falcons fan and live in the area. I remembered the days after, especially the first day after. Listening to the sports radio, it was like a funeral procession the whole day. Fans were comparing the loss to the first time they were dumped by their significant other.
For me? I threw up. Well, I wasn't that sickened by the game as it was more I received the stomach bug from my entire family. Good times! Truth be told, I likened the Falcons loss as a bee sting. It stings and hurts, but after a day or two, you move on. And I have my reasons why I have that feeling of it isn't as bad as what the rest of the national media has made it out to be.
Why am I not as bothered by it? Simple: the Falcons in 2016 were not supposed to be a playoff team, let alone the NFC Champions. They weren't supposed to be a competitive bunch. They had too young of a defense with a draft pick bust in Vic Beasley. They had nobody opposite of Julio Jones as the offense would be centered around him. Matt Ryan was Tony Romo 2.0 of a guy not getting the job done and just a QB with numbers to make him look good. Well, that's what most, if not all these national "experts" claimed.
I thought Atlanta would vie for a playoff spot with a good offense and an improved defense, but didn't think it would be enough to jump over the likes of the Packers, Panthers, and Seahawks in the NFC. Obviously, I was pleasantly wrong.
What we saw out of Atlanta's season in 2016 was a team that had a super young defense that got better weekly and really got it going after the bye when Dan Quinn really took over the defensive side of things. Vic Beasley came to his own as a stud pass-rusher and led the league in sacks. We saw rookies and 2nd year players like Deion Jones, Grady Jarrett, Keanu Neal, and De'Vondre Campbell, all key contributors to the team in 2016 and got better. Jones became a Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate with his play (and probably should have won in my eyes, but I am admittedly biased), Jarrett had a huge Super Bowl game, and Neal has become a brute force after one year in the NFL.
And then you have the offense. With a quality center like Alex Mack running things on the line, Ryan was the NFL MVP. He had time to throw thanks to the upgrades on the offensive line. Then the Falcons added two quality receivers opposite Julio (who was still a major beast) in Mohamed Sanu and Taylor Gabriel. And then you had an explosive backfield of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman who both compliment each other perfectly.
And what you got was an 11-5 record, with really 3 of the 5 losses could have been W's (San Diego, Kansas City, and Seattle), a first round bye, and then two beatdown playoff victories against the traditional powers of the last 6 years in Seattle & Green Bay. And the games weren't even close.
Of course then there was the Super Bowl. I'm going to pull the local radio station in Atlanta and say "I don't want to talk about it, but I am!"
TOO SUCCESSFUL TOO FAST?
I have an interesting take to the Super Bowl. We can make an argument had the Falcons won that game against the Patriots, fans in Atlanta may have been clamoring for the next NFL dynasty with such a young defense and an explosive offense filled with quality veterans in their prime. But we can also take it as if the Falcons won decisively agianst New England with such a very young defense present, perhaps the success would have arrived TOO fast for the Falcons defense and quite possibly lose that edge the next season. I am definitely not saying Atlanta losing was good for the team, because the city really needed that win. But we've seen over time in most pro sports a team with plenty of youngsters who get successful very fast and without those years of near-misses don't maintain that edge. And it took a couple of years for even dynasties in other sports to take shape. The Patriots obviously didn't have that problem but that was a group of veterans when they started their dynasty. So really, with what they had to endure, the young guys on the defense especially now know what to go through in order for them to get to that pinnacle.
Back when the playoffs started I posted a ranking of each playoff team and why they would or wouldn't win. I placed the Patriots #1 and the Falcons #2, over the likes of the Cowboys and Packers. In it I said for Atlanta's defense was very young and had difficulty holding on to leads in the 4th quarter. So as painful as it was to watch that 4th quarter of the Super Bowl, I wasn't overly surprised it happened. And the thing is, the Falcons are just a young bunch on the defensive side. BUT......they're going to get much better. And how they played down the stretch last year gives hope for any Falcon fan. And they added two key pieces on the defensive line that played big in January, adding more depth in Dontari Poe go go along with Beasley, Jarrett, Hageman, and others and drafting fiery defensive end Takk McKinley from UCLA (and possibly a return of Dwight Freeney). It is hard to imagine them getting better, but they did. Add the fact they will get a healthy Desmond Trufant (with a new extension for him), and Atlanta did upgrades.
The strange thing is about this whole thing is the national media believes what happened to Atlanta in the Super Bowl will be a major hangover and something the Falcons can not recover from, thus sending them back to the midst of the NFC while the likes of the Seahawks and Packers, the two teams Atlanta drubbed, and did not make major improvements in the off-season (and in Seattle's case, having locker room issues), are considered THE favorites in the NFC, I am assuming because of their wealth of experience.
THE BROTHERHOOD
Which brings me to this. Granted, the Falcons players have said everything right in the off-season, from Matt Ryan to Freeman to whoever has had a mic thrown at them. They aren't dwelling on the Super Bowl loss, or if they are, they are using that experience to go after the Super Bowl again. Players are going after it in work outs, Ryan is getting pretty much the entire offense working together outside of Atlanta (as more are going to work with him). And remember, Atlanta was probably an executed play or two from being called the Super Bowl Champions. That's how close they were and they know it. And I think it has driven them to finish what was started. And I think everybody on the Falcons, including the likes of the new guys such as Poe and McKinley are all in on the goal of the Super Bowl. We hear it a lot but it seems like everybody is backing each other up in Atlanta. There isn't fingers being pointed at by anybody. It is a team effort, which bodes well for them in 2017.
MORE FUEL
As I mentioned, the national media (and Las Vegas) really believe either the Falcons were a fluke of 2016 or a team that will be eaten alive by their Super Bowl collapse. And Atlanta fans historically feel dogged by that. I believe the national media is very wrong to sit on that take. I am not sure if they believe the Packers and Seahawks have weaker competition in their division as opposed to Atlanta who will face a surging Tampa Bay group twice and we aren't sure what Cam & the Panthers will do, but somehow Green Bay (who is still thin on the offensive line, did not make upgrades on the defense and still a sketchy running game) and Seattle (another year older on defense, bickering teammates, and a streaky offense) are slated as a favorite to win the NFC. Whether or not the Falcons players use it as fuel is another story, but given how the defense plays with a chip on their shoulder as is, it may actually boost the Falcons to play much better in 2017.
Obviously, whether you believe the Falcons will have a hangover from the Super Bowl or they will use it for motivation in 2017 will remain to be seen once September 10th rolls around. But given how they have handled everything this off-season make me believe that this won't be like the Houston Oilers blowing a 35-3 lead in Buffalo or Green Bay in 2014 losing in Seattle after a big lead and then having the players play the blame game on each other. This has the feeling of "it's done and over with. Time to move on."
In a hypothetically speaking situation, IF the Falcons return to the Super Bowl in the 2017 season and play the Patriots again, I think the outcome would be VERY different, large in part is because they learned from their mistakes the year before. And honestly it would carry for 2018 and beyond.
Sometimes you have to take a painful step backwards to take a giant step forwards. Would it have happened if the Falcons won? We'll never know.
-Fan in the Obstructed Seat
