FOXBOROUGH, Mass. _ At least one thing was settled Sunday night. The Falcons don't have a hangover. Hangovers don't last this long or look this bad, no matter how devastating a loss it was.
Hangovers may cause a team to come out flat for a game or two, but not face-plant for two consecutive home games ... not blow a 17-0 lead to a team led by Jay Cutler ... not look anemic against a team that it dominated for the better part of three quarters in the most important game of all.
The problem isn't that the Falcons can't forget a loss. The problem is they can't remember how to win. The defense has lost its edge. The offense has lost its mind. Or at least its mind went to San Francisco
Super Bowl revenge match? Surrender was more like it.
In a game played mostly in a fog _ both literally and figuratively _ the Falcons were dismembered by the New England Patriots 23-7 Sunday night at Gillette Stadium.
At least there was no drama in this one. The letdown began shortly following, "... and the home of the brave."
This is what happens when a young team has one good season and comes back the next season, playing as if it believes success has been pre-ordained. The roof won't open at Mercedez Benz Stadium. Maybe they should keep the doors closed to.
I know: 3-3. That's hardly a record that screams disaster. But when a team plays this poorly in a game in a moment like this, after losing consecutive home games to Buffalo and Miami, after being fortunate to escape with wins over Chicago and Detroit, after presumably countless warnings internally that it needs to snap out of it, it loses the benefit of the doubt.
When the Falcons scored with 4:09 left in the game _ finally getting points after their fourth red zone possession _ they ended a scoreless streak that dated back to the second quarter of the Miami game. The stretch: 91 minutes, 20 seconds. They've gone from averaging 34 points per games to getting shut out for more than five straight quarters.
It's not all Steve Sarkisian's fault. He is the easy target because he's calling plays and he's new. It goes beyond Sarkisian. The Falcons are getting beat up front, Matt Ryan has not been sharp and he doesn't seem on the same page with his receivers.
But, yes: Sarkisian was handed the key to a Lamborghini and this offense is driving like an exhaust-sputtering Yugo. On consecutive goal-to-go situations from the Patriots' one-yard line, Sarkisian called for a drag route to Julio Jones along the back of the end zone (which fell incomplete), then a jet sweep to Taylor Gabriel (which lost yardage).
It's as if the Falcons are surrendering the idea of beating a defense with straight up football and are convinced they have to go gimmicky. Falcons coach Dan Quinn even went for it on fourth down twice, including once in the first quarter. (Ryan scrambled for nine yards on fourth-and-seven from the Patriots 48. But that possession ended in a blocked field goal attempt.)
Ryan looks frustrated. At one point against New England, he glared in the direction of Mohamed Sanu after an incomplete
Quinn said the other that his players were "a little bit on edge, in a good way," in the days that followed the implode-from-ahead 20-17 loss to Miami.
He thought they would play angry. The thought they would play well. He was wrong. Twice.
This game figured to tell us how tough of a team the Falcons were mentally. Now we know. They're not.
The defense is missing tackles and not playing with the same edge as it did a year ago. The offense is simply unrecognizable.
This game wasn't about trying to bring closure to the Super Bowl because, let's be real, that closet door never will be closed. The Boston Red Sox won three World Series in a 10-year span but people still remember Bill Buckner letting a ground ball go through his legs against the New York Mets in 1986. Dallas Cowboys fans didn't forget Jackie Smith dropping a touchdown pass against Pittsburgh in the 1979 Super Bowl, even though they won three titles in the 1990s.
The Falcons could go on to win a Super Bowl and people will still think, "They should have two." Ask Seattle.
So forget closure. This game was more about the Falcons showing whether their heads will still stuck in time. The collapse that followed 28-3 spawned a cottage industry of memorabilia. There are "28-3" hats, posters. T-shirts. One reads, "Live Every Day Like It's 28-3."
Ryan acknowledged this week of the loss, "It's always going to be a part of your. That's every athlete. There's things through your life that motivates you to be the best you can be and get you out of bed in the morning, But it's about this 2017 team, seeing how good we can be."
We see now. And the answer is not what they expected.
