Falcons provide Seahawks some sweet relief

I take almost no pleasure in the Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl LI L, other than the fact that: A) Martellus Bennett has a ring (what a weird thing for us to suddenly care about) and B) History stuff is cool. And with that, the Falcons “history stuff” for their Super Bowl loss completely evaporates the shame of the Seattle Seahawks blowing a 10-point lead to the New England Patriots two years ago.

When the Seahawks flubbed their 24-14 fourth quarter lead to the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, it was dubbed as the biggest Super Bowl collapse of all-time. And that is what it was. It tied for the biggest blown lead by a Super Bowl loser ever, and was the biggest blown fourth quarter lead in SB history. The reasons and excuses for why it happened don’t really matter, Tom Brady was deserving of that win and the extenuating circumstances of injuries to Seattle players were out of his control, plus the Seahawks offense still had their opportunities.

“The Pick” was set to live forever, and surely it won’t be completely forgotten, but if you want to compare a 10-point collapse to a 25-point collapse, catch me outside.

I’ve already written four articles about the game, and I’ve reviewed the sequence of events many times in a short period of time, and this was an impressive amount of choking by Atlanta. (Which, don’t get me wrong, sucks. I am not rubbing it in their faces, just observing the results.) The playcalling on offense and defense in the second half was consistently poor. The execution by the Falcons defensive backs was cringeworthy.

Atlanta had leads of 21-0 and 28-3. They were up by 19 points when they got the ball back at the New England 41 following a failed onside kick attempt and they lost 15 yards on the ensuing drive. They could have had more of an opportunity for a final fourth quarter drive to attempt a field goal if they had a better game plan on special teams. A defense that was near-perfect on the Patriots first five drives, was abysmal on the rest of them, including an easy overtime touchdown to win it.

Overall, I’m sorry the the Falcons lost. Specifically and schadenfreudenly, I guess I’ll take it.