FAB 3. FALCONS’ IMPLOSION WILL LINGER INTO 2017
I watched the Atlanta Falcons pull off the greatest choke job in Super Bowl history much to my delight on Sunday. I picked New England to win and was rooting for the Patriots because I wanted to see Tom Brady and Bill Belichick go down as legends with five Super Bowl championships, especially in the wake of all of the Deflategate nonsense and the ill-advised four-game suspension of Brady from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, whom I feel overstepped his bounds.

Truth be told, I was more surprised by the Falcons jumping out to a 28-3 lead than I was the Patriots’ comeback. My wife Ashley, who decided she was going to root for the Falcons in this game because she was born in Georgia, was all excited while I remained calm, convinced that the game was not yet over because the Patriots were the Patriots, and well … the Falcons were the Falcons.

In fact, I sent her an e-mail titled “Bill” at halftime that read: “Belichick is the master of the second half comeback.”

True story. I sent it at 8:42 p.m. ET

I wasn’t saying New England was necessarily going to come back and win, but I wanted to let her know exactly whom Atlanta was dealing with and that it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility – even though the greatest Super Bowl deficit a team has overcome was 10 points, not 25 points.

The Falcons’ epic, 34-28 loss in overtime will haunt this franchise for some time, and the defeat will surely linger into the 2017 campaign. History suggests that Atlanta could fall victim to the Super Bowl loser curse that has hit a good many teams since 2000 when the New York Giants didn’t make the playoffs the following year. St. Louis didn’t make the playoffs in 2002 after losing to New England, just like Oakland missed the postseason in 2003 following its loss to Tampa Bay in Super Bowl XXXVII. Carolina and Philadelphia failed to make the playoffs after losing their Super Bowls following the 2003 and 2004 seasons, and Chicago didn’t make the postseason under Lovie Smith following the 2006 Super Bowl.

However, the Patriots, who lost two Super Bowls to the New York Giants in 2007 and 2011, helped usher in a trend where the Super Bowl loser actually did rebound and make it to the postseason the following season. This trend occurred from 2008-15 until last year when Carolina, which lost 24-10 to Denver in Super Bowl 50, finished last in the NFC South with a 6-10 record. I’m thinking the Falcons will follow in the Panthers’ footsteps, and here’s why.

Let’s start with the fact that head coach Dan Quinn oversaw the Falcons’ implosion and there is just something about him that is amiss as a leader. In his first season in Atlanta in 2015, the Falcons started hot with five straight wins and won six out of their first seven games.

Falcons head coach Dan Quinn and former DL coach Bryan Cox – Photo by: Getty Images

Then came an overtime loss at home to Tampa Bay that triggered a six-game losing streak, including a 23-19 defeat at the hands of the Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. Atlanta won its next two games, but lost the 2015 season finale at home against New Orleans, 20-17, to finish 8-8 rather than with a winning record at 9-7.

The Falcons went 11-5 in 2016, but this season included a 33-30 overtime loss at home to San Diego, a 24-15 loss at Philadelphia, and a 29-28 home loss to Kansas City that saw the Chiefs score a touchdown on a fake punt and on an ill-advised two-point conversion pass that was returned for the game-winning two points.

Give Atlanta credit for wins at Oakland and Denver, and you can’t blame them for a two-point loss at Seattle. But the Falcons feasted on lesser teams in the NFC West where they went 3-1 in blowout wins over cupcake teams like Arizona, Los Angeles and San Francisco over the final six weeks of the year when the season was already over for the Cardinals, Rams and 49ers.

The Falcons will play five playoff teams in 2017, including a trip to New England, which could be in Week 1, as the Super Bowl 50 rematch was between Denver and Carolina. The Panthers lost a close game in the 2016 season-opener, 21-20, and that keyed a 1-5 start with the lone victory coming against an awful San Francisco team, 46-27.

Aside from a tougher schedule in 2017 and the psychological damage done from choking in the Super Bowl, the Falcons will have to adjust to several new coaches, including two coordinators. Defensive coordinator Richard Smith and defensive line coach Bryan Cox were fired after the Super Bowl collapse.

Secondary coach Marquand Manuel will take over for Smith, but Quinn will continue calling plays as he took over those duties from Smith midway through the season. That has to be seen as a good thing in Tampa Bay as Quinn was the most responsible for Atlanta’s defense allowing Brady and the Patriots to carve them up for 31 straight points.

On the offensive side of the ball, coordinator Kyle Shanahan left to become the head coach in San Francisco after helping Atlanta lead the league in scoring in 2016. Of course, Falcons fans might welcome that after Shanahan helped squander Atlanta’s lead by only running the ball FIVE times in the final two quarters after the team raced out to a 28-3 lead early in the third quarter. How does that happen when the Falcons’ real enemy in the second half was the clock rather than the Patriots?

Falcons QB Matt Ryan is sacked by Patriots OLB Dont’a Hightower – Photo by: Getty Images

The Falcons had rushed for 86 yards and a touchdown on nine carries in the first half, led by Devonta Freeman’s 71 yards. Freeman was averaging 11.8 yards per carry, yet only received five more carries in the second half. Atlanta only ran the ball nine times total in the second half, and instead of trying to run the ball on third-and-1 at the Atlanta 36 to pick up the first down while leading 28-12, Shanahan called for a pass and put Ryan in the shotgun.

Dont’a Hightower sacked Ryan and forced a fumble, which Patriots defensive tackle Alan Branch recovered at the Atlanta 25. That set up Brady’s touchdown pass to Danny Amendola five plays later as New England cut Atlanta’s lead to 28-20 with 5:56 remaining.

Then after getting the ball down to the New England 22 after a 27-yard pass to Julio Jones, who made an incredible toe-tap catch, Shanahan called for another pass on second-and-11 at the 23-yard line that resulted in Ryan being sacked back at the New England 35. Instead of running the ball and trying to stay within field goal range, Shanahan called for another pass and a holding penalty on Jake Matthews forced a third-and-33 situation and led to an incomplete pass from the Patriots’ 45. As a result, the Falcons had to punt the ball back to Brady and the rest is history.

Shanahan took several Falcons assistants with him to San Francisco, including running backs coach Bobby Turner, quarterbacks coach Matt LaFleur, his brother, Mike LaFleur, who was an offensive quality control coach, and Mike McDaniel, who was an offensive assistant. The Falcons replaced Shanahan with Steve Sarkisian, who helped lose the National Championship Game for Alabama in his only game as the Crimson Tide’s play-caller following Lane Kiffin’s departure.

Patriots QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Getty Images

Sarkisian was about to be fired by Nick Saban over philosophical difference before landing with the Falcons. Sarkisian was 34-29 as head coach of the Washington Huskies from 2009-13, and compiled a 12-6 record at USC before the Trojans fired him for excessive alcohol use on the job midway through the 2015 season.

I don’t think the Falcons are going to fall off a cliff and become a downtrodden franchise as a result of their loss in Super Bowl LI. Atlanta has drafted well and has built a good, young, fast defense to complement Ryan, Jones, Freeman, center Alex Mack and the team’s powerful offense. But I do expect the Falcons to take a tumble this year, as their humiliating defeat will affect their performance in 2017.

That could open the door for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to “rise up” and claim the 2017 NFC South title.