The Atlanta Falcons’ tenure as an NFL franchise to be taken seriously came to a feeble close on Sunday night in New England, under a glaze of fog and a glare far too harsh for them.
In their best chance to prove they had extinguished the demons from last year’s Super Bowl, the Falcons only showed how deep the psychic scars remain. They had been mocked for nine months, the butt of a million terrible 28-3 jokes, and given a meeting with their tormentors, they responded by utterly laying down.
The Falcons now have more commercials filmed devoted to bouncing back from the Super Bowl than points scored against the Patriots this season. The Patriots dismantled the Falcons, 23-7, at Gillette Stadium in a rematch that fell flat thanks to Atlanta’s no-show. The Falcons suffered their third straight loss, and they have not scored in six quarters. Some solace? The Falcons won’t be blowing any Super Bowl leads this season, because their latest defeat makes it impossible to envision the Falcons getting back.
The game mattered more to Atlanta than New England. It would reveal a little about the Patriots and a lot about the Falcons. And what it revealed about the Falcons was this: They’re damaged.
The Falcons insisted all week Sunday night would just be another game. That was, of course, ridiculous. In the aftermath of their Super Bowl collapse, Matt Ryan and Julio Jones filmed commercials revolving around the theme of rebounding from 28-3. Football players train their entire lives to play in the Super Bowl, so one assumes they’d remember suffering the most devastating loss in the history of the sport the next time they faced the opponent who handed it to them.
That the Falcons were treating this game differently showed. They went for it on fourth-and-7 from midfield late in the first quarter in a scoreless game and on fourth-and-6 in nearly the same spot at the end of the half. (Matt Ryan rolled right out of the pocket and scrambled for a first down on the first. On the second, he missed on a corner route to Mohamed Sanu, and the Patriots capitalized with a touchdown just before halftime.)
Atlanta played like a team that knew it was lying to itself. Atlanta’s offense, which vanished as it blew a 17-0 lead at home against the Dolphins last week, had a chance to regroup against the defense giving up more yards than any in the league. The Patriots had allowed at least 300 yards passing to every quarterback they’d faced. The Falcons didn’t score until less than five minutes remained in the fourth quarter, and Matt Ryan passed for 233 yards.
The Patriots’ offense ran the ball down their throats, and Tom Brady converted on third downs whenever he pleased. New England negated Atlanta’s tremendous defensive speed by plowing straight at its undersized front seven. The Patriots played the exact game coach Bill Belichick wanted to play, and the Falcons couldn’t do anything about it.
Atlanta’s impotence and humiliating dearth of confidence surfaced most acutely in the fourth quarter, when the Falcons faced third-and-goal from just inside the Patriots’ 1-yard line, down 20-0. Offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian called a pass play, and Ryan’s attempt to Jones fell incomplete. On fourth down, the Falcons ran a jet sweep to wide receiver Taylor Gabriel that lost yardage. It was bizarre play-calling and feckless execution.
Atlanta returned 10 offensive starters from a team that scored more points than all but seven in NFL history. Suddenly, the Falcons have scored seven points in six quarters. Last year, Ryan went from a pretty good quarterback to the NFL MVP, so he is experiencing expected regression. The Falcons also replaced Kyle Shanahan, now coaching the 49ers, with Sarkisian. On the Sunday Night Football postgame show, Tony Dungy pointed to a lack of imagination and creativity in Atlanta’s offense, and a failure to mix formations and personnel. They miss Shanahan, and Ryan is closer to the quarterback he was his entire career before last season.
While Sunday’s thumping meant more to Atlanta, it also said something about the Patriots. Why do we all waste our time, on a near-annual basis, breaking down the Patriots’ flaws? They are going to figure them out, fix them and become a Super Bowl contender. New England’s defense was awful for the first third of the season. And yet here they are, at 5-2, in position to hold the league’s best record pending the Eagles’s game with Washington on Monday night.
One thing the Patriots have going for them is that competence elsewhere in the NFL is in short supply. The Falcons threatened to become the eighth team Sunday that failed to score an offensive touchdown. They would have joined the Cardinals, Colts, Bears, Panthers, Browns, Titans and Broncos. What’s truly gross is two of those teams won and one ended the day in first place.
The NFL’s mediocrity also allows the Falcons an opportunity to regroup. But after Sunday night, there is no reason to think the Falcons have recovered from last year’s Super Bowl. Their deficiencies could be seen clearly, through even the thickest fog.