Loss leaves Falcons with Blank looks

Published 5:00 am Wednesday, February 8, 2017

On second thought, and after much thoughtful pondering, maybe the Super Bowl result wasn’t so bad after all.

True, I for one had urged all Saints fans to put away their not-so-petty differences with Atlanta for a day, just this once, just for the nation’s common good, in rooting for the Falcons but mostly against the Patriots.

Oh, well. It wasn’t to be.

Life can be like that. Not always fair or just or even humane.

But it wasn’t so much that the Patriots won.

Never mind that Tom Brady got another Super Bowl MVP trophy, a mere trinket for a player who already has everything.

Or that, for once in our lifetime, in the game’s afterglow we almost — almost — saw a warm and fuzzy side of head coach Bill Belichick, with the faintest hint of an actual smile amidst all the confetti.

He’ll no doubt regret that little indiscretion after carefully watching the film.

For that matter, Falcons’ quarterback Matt Ryan provided Cam Newton with a primer on how to handle a big loss with class.

I do disagree that it was a great game — a good game, sure, and it was tough to top the finish for pure drama (even if it seemed like a foregone conclusion once New England won the overtime coin flip).

But a great game keeps you on edge of the couch for the entirety, not some tale of two dominant halves — or 21⁄2 to 11⁄2.

Most of us were reduced to trying to figure out a way, with the Patriots in hopeless comeback mode, that our impossible numbers on the squares could somehow come up on the end-of-quarter board with just a safety and maybe a couple of 2-point conversions.

I personally was mind-playing with a scenario in which the Falcons would take an intentional safety, which might have helped but, alas, my streak of never winning a dime off one of those things remains regrettably intact.

However, it wasn’t until the Patriots comeback pulled within eight points that, suddenly, let me double-check, yeah, is … this really a game again?

Almost caught me napping, although I did snap to attention at the realization.

But we stray off track.

Bottom line: if you’re a card-carrying Saints fan, if your heart never really was into the Dirty Birds’ cause anyway, and if the Falcons were going to lose all along, well, that was the perfect way to do it.

Even our polite society these days tends to turn the Super Bowl runners-up into punch lines — never mind the 30 other teams who’d have loved to have had a shot at it.

Imagine the grief the Falcons will have to live through now after blowing a 25-point second-half lead, what with accusations of the biggest “choke” in LI years of Super Bowling being run up the flag pole.

Better to get routed than to lose like that. Oh, the scorn of it all.

You were going to have to turn your back and avert eyes on the Falcons’ victory parade anyway.

And maybe you really wanted to Falcons to win, just this once. But it’s never a bad thing when your hated rival suffers an epic loss that will be giggled at for the ages.

This embarrassment — even if terming it a meltdown is letting the facts get in the way of a good story — is enough to make a Saints fan laugh until the belly hurts.

It also leaves the Saints 1-0 in Super Bowls with the Falcons 0-2.

Never mind that Falcons owner Arthur “Home Depot” Blank seems to be one of the class acts among NFL owners. He owns the Falcons and he tempted fate and invited karma when he left the fancy suite late in third quarter to join the (premature) celebration on the sideline.

Only Jerry Jones could get away with that, and he usually does it once a loss is imminent.

So, all in all, it wasn’t so bad.

Except for one thing.

This game — whether you term it a great comeback or a meltdown of religious proportions — was a blow to the casual fan, particularly the knee-jerk variety.

The Falcons did exactly what most fans complain that their team never does in that situation.

Fat lot of good it did them.

Were fans who complain that — oh, pick a name, maybe Les Miles — was forever trying to sit on a lead in the second half paying attention to this carnage.

The Falcons stayed aggressive, kept playing their game, kept throwing, kept trying to score touchdowns and refused to settle for field goals.

They sure didn’t seem interested in running any clock.

And how’d that turn out?

It played right into the Patriots’ desperate hands with a needless turnover that got them back in it and a sack out of field goal range that kept the Falcons from putting the blasted thing away.

Nor did it appear there was ever a “prevent defense” to blame.

But there’s been a whole laundry list of finger-wagging at head coach Dan Quinn, who also seems like a good enough dude.

Try not to giggle too hard.

l

Scooter Hobbs covers LSU

athletics. Email him at

shobbs@americanpress.com