HOUSTON — The greatest comeback in Super Bowl history had a father: one of the dumbest displays of offense in the 51 years of the NFL’s championship game.
Nothing will dim the efforts of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots to pull out their 34-28 victory against Atlanta after trailing by 25 points with little more than 17 minutes left in the game.
But the Falcons, known affectionately as the “Dirty Birds” during their only other Super Bowl run 18 years earlier, turned into the “Dumb Birds” Sunday night.
Falcons coach Dan Quinn had a front-row seat to it again. To be fair, Quinn was the defensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks when coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell decided to throw the ball at the 1-yard line rather than run it two years ago in Super Bowl XLIX. That decision turned into another improbable Patriots victory when cornerback Malcolm Butler intercepted it.
This time, Quinn watched as offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan made two boneheaded decisions in the fourth quarter that cost the Falcons a victory and again paved the way for Brady and the Patriots to taste NFL glory.
Atlanta will reside among the many sorry footnotes to NFL history. Blowing a 25-point lead that late in the game ranks worse than the Houston Oilers’ great collapse in Buffalo in a playoff game in the 1992 season. Houston led 35-3 in the third quarter and lost 41-38 in overtime.
That was a mere playoff game; this would have been Atlanta’s first Super Bowl victory.
The worst call came with the Falcons clinging to a 28-20 lead after the Patriots had scored 17 consecutive points. Julio Jones had just made a phenomenal catch along the sideline for a 27-yard gain to New England’s 22. From there, it would have been a 40-yard field goal attempt. After a run lost a yard, there was 3:56 left and Atlanta was still in 41-yard field goal range to go up by 11. On second down, though, Matt Ryan dropped back into the pocket to pass and Trey Flowers sacked him for a 12-yard loss. A holding penalty on the next play canceled any chance of a field goal try. Why had they not run it three times and kick the field goal to go up by two scores with a little over three minutes left?
Perhaps that catch by Jones made the Falcons a tad overconfident.
“It was a fantastic catch, and so my initial thought, we’re getting closer here,” Quinn said. “But having a chance to go score [a touchdown], we knew how good the other side was too, so we wanted to go attack at every opportunity. So, when it didn’t work out, it’s easy to second guess on that.”
There were plenty of first-guessers wondering why they didn’t run the ball and take the three points as Ryan dropped back. It was as dumb as Seattle’s play-call two years ago.
“He obviously made a great catch on the sideline, and it felt like we put ourselves in a good position to come away with points on that drive,” Ryan said.
Three points might have clinched it.
“It didn’t end up working out,” Ryan said, “which was very disappointing.”
Disappointing? Falcons fans probably could use stronger language to describe that decision. But it was not the first.
Earlier, with a 28-12 lead and 8:31 left, Ryan dropped back again to pass, this time on third-and-1, from his 36. Was Bevell now whispering into Quinn’s ear? This time it was Dont’a Hightower who sacked him, and this time it was worse.
Ryan fumbled, the Patriots recovered at the 25 and five plays later Brady threw a touchdown pass and a two-point conversion to make it a ballgame at 28-20 with 5:56 to go.
What was Atlanta thinking on that third-and-1 straight drop-back pass to throw deep? The play had everything but Sammie Coates running down the sideline.
“Well,” Quinn tried to explain, “we thought we’d have a good look based on the personnel that was in the game for them. We trust our guys, so we thought that was the opportunity to let it rip. When it doesn’t go that way, then it’s easy to question it.
“I don’t second-guess our play calling or wanting to throw it.”
Instead, he will be second-guessed forever.
Those two situations on consecutive fourth-quarter series allowed the New England Patriots to stage the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history and Bill Belichick and Tom Brady to become the first coach and quarterback to win five Super Bowls.
They really should have lost their past two.
First Published: February 6, 2017, 3:24 p.m.