Atlanta is a product of a down year... The better team won.

As much as I hate everything about New England, and the amount of support, love, and admiration, I have for Atlanta and Dan Quinn specifically... It's hard for me to say this, but Atlanta is just not that good and it sucks. Atlanta had no business losing this game, everything went their way early, they had a huge lead in the 4th quarter, and in the final game of their season, they played like they have all regular season.

This is a team that struggled to put away the Saints, Packers, Raiders, Buccaneers, and Chiefs, in games they probably should have won by double digits. It's easy to get caught up in the moment and overreact to the dominance Atlanta displayed against Seattle and Greenbay, but both Seattle and Greenbay limped into those games and ran into a relatively healthy Atlanta team that was fresh and rearing with home field advantage. The mystic of Atlanta wore off in the second half of the Superbowl and as the late Denny Green once said: "They are who we thought they were" and he's right. Atlanta's inconsistent overly agressive playcalling from the regular season showed up and cost them dearly when it matter.

I hate to say it... but this Atlanta team looks more like an aberration than the next young dynasty.

I agree. Falcons were a product of a really down year in the NFL. Pats were the better team.

I disagree. I think Atlanta is the better team but suffered from horrible play calling in the second half tonight.

Would you have posted this without a miracle comeback?

:stirthepot:

HAWKAMANIA":1a28117p said:

I disagree. I think Atlanta is the better team but suffered from horrible play calling in the second half tonight.

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Literally all ATL had to do was 1, not have matt ryan commit a stupid fumble and just run run run...and if its 4th down kick a fg after that INsane julio catch

Isn't it a down year in general? NE waltzed into a 14-2 record, lucked out with Derek Carr going down for the season as they faced the awful Texans and then played a Steelers team that lost Bell early and looked completely outmatched regardless. ATL beat a flawed, injured Seahawks team and a decimated GB team. Doesn't feel much like a few years ago when you had a gnarly SF team competing with the Hawks and some great Panther teams to make the SB. Ravens had more success than most against the Pats, but they've fallen off. Excited to see the Seahawks return to form and win the NFC next year.

In a playoff system the better team always wins.

Did you watch the game?

The coaches gave it away. Up 8 with 4 mins left in FG range they screwed up. All you need is 3 and it is basically game over

mikeak":3nk3pxsj said:

Did you watch the game?

The coaches gave it away. Up 8 with 4 mins left in FG range they screwed up. All you need is 3 and it is basically game over

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I was going to make the argument that this game was on coaching but yeah, coaches are part of the team.

seahawkfreak":39jxoucq said:

mikeak":39jxoucq said:

Did you watch the game?

The coaches gave it away. Up 8 with 4 mins left in FG range they screwed up. All you need is 3 and it is basically game over

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I was going to make the argument that this game was on coaching but yeah, coaches are part of the team.

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Fair point, but I do disagree with the OP when he stated: "Atlanta's inconsistent overly agressive playcalling from the regular season showed up and cost them dearly when it matter.

I hate to say it... but this Atlanta team looks more like an aberration than the next young dynasty."

If anything what cost them was not being smart but even so only one play goes different in the end and they win that game. I saw a great qb, great wide receivers, really good defense on the line and in the backfield.

They win that game 9/10 times so I don't get how it was an aberration when they should have won by more and against more teams......... They can be aggressive because they are really really good offensively

I completely disagree. If anything - the Patriots were the extreme beneficiaries of a down year. The AFC was absolute garbage this year. They probably were a 5 or 6 seed if they played in the NFC.

So ten years from now people are going to look at the records of all the rest of the AFC teams and think the Patriots were gifted their 5th?

I get so tired of seeing coulda,woulda and shoulda.The game is 4 quarters and the final score is the winner..The better team that day wins..I do not care how ugly it is or how it happened.I think both teams were a product of a down year sure but next year it may be us.

Seahawks1983":19h7r236 said:

I completely disagree. If anything - the Patriots were the extreme beneficiaries of a down year. The AFC was absolute garbage this year. They probably were a 5 or 6 seed if they played in the NFC.

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I disagree. I absolutely hate the entire Patriot organization but including the SB, they were 4-1 against the NFC this year. They prove almost every other year they are the best team in football.

I'm sorry, it's all coaching folks. It's all coaching.

No one could stop Atlanta's offense this year, and somehow Patricia and Belichick made the adjustments to get it done.

Pats won because they have a great coaching staff and a great QB, everything else is smoke n mirrors.

CHawkTailGator":13r65tgg said:

I'm sorry, it's all coaching folks. It's all coaching.

No one could stop Atlanta's offense this year, and somehow Patricia and Belichick made the adjustments to get it done.

Pats won because they have a great coaching staff and a great QB, everything else is smoke n mirrors.

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seahawkfreak":13r65tgg said:

mikeak":13r65tgg said:

Did you watch the game?

The coaches gave it away. Up 8 with 4 mins left in FG range they screwed up. All you need is 3 and it is basically game over

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I was going to make the argument that this game was on coaching but yeah, coaches are part of the team.

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I think this Atlanta team is better than last year's Carolina team, and I expect they'll make the playoffs next year. The Falcons had a much tougher schedule (Denver, Oakland, Kansas City, Seattle, Green Bay) than the 2015 Panthers.

FlyingGreg":4no3dll1 said:

Would you have posted this without a miracle comeback?

:stirthepot:

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I actually was writing a big post about Atlanta's win being a product of a down year, but the Pats came back and won, so I scrapped the post.

If this Atlanta team won they'd have been the 4th worst Superbowl winner in the modern era according to most advanced metrics. The only teams worse to win a Superbowl? 2012 Ravens who looked worse on the metrics due to having an injury plagued season, but unsurprisingly ranked #2 when healthy. As well as both of the recent Giants Superbowls which were products of incredibly bad years (for contrast, the 2007 Giants DVOA was 1.8%... the 2013 Seahawks was 40%).

Don't assume I'm picking on Atlanta, New England is also a product of a down year, the only difference, New England grades out as an average to below average Superbowl team (Ironically, they are the only team this year to grade out respectfully). Consider that in 2014, the two best teams met in the Superbowl, Seattle DVOA (32.8 ) vs New England (31.4). This year it was Atlanta (19.8 ) vs New England (34.0). Obviously, that makes New England seem like world beaters but that's mostly a flaw with DVOA as a long-term predictor/comparison tool. If we do a bit of dirty math and look at the last ten years as a whole New England is actually around the 26-28 range, and Atlanta is in the 16-18 range. Going back to 2014, you had 6 teams in the average Superbowl range of 22-40, this year you had 1, New England and I guess Dallas, but Dallas actually grades out worse than Atlanta when cross referencing over the last 10 years, which is either an error on my part or concern long term for Dallas... (The fricken Eagles grade out better than Dallas, Outlier? or the best Superbowl bet of the year?!!?)

Does any of this mean anything? Maybe, I don't know, but for me as math nerd and someone who creates and analyzes models to determine value vs crap, this is incredibly interesting ><

mikeak":364i6z9m said:

Did you watch the game?

The coaches gave it away. Up 8 with 4 mins left in FG range they screwed up. All you need is 3 and it is basically game over

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This is how I will always feel about XLIX. It should never have come down to that one play call.

One play? Coaching? Neither. The Patriots ran 93 plays. No defense can withstand that kind of onslaught.