HOUSTON — Before the fourth-quarter miracles kept coming, play after play, before the greatest quarterback in NFL history rebounded from an awful start and rewrote the record books, before the inevitable New England Patriots’ 34-28 victory in overtime was complete in Houston, remember this:
The Atlanta Falcons — and their N.J. guy coach, Dan Quinn — blew it.
They absolutely, utterly, unforgivably blew it.
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They had Super Bowl LI in their grasp, the ball deep in New England territory with the clock on their side late in the fourth quarter. They were an easy field goal away from a two-score lead that almost certainly, even with Tom Brady on the other side of the field, would have been enough to win this game.
Forget the 25-point lead that the Falcons had in the third quarter. You knew that wouldn’t last, not against a quarterback with four championships already on his resume. You knew that Brady and his head coach, Bill Belichick, weren’t going to be embarrassed with a chance to become the only coach and quarterback to win the Lombardi Trophy five times.
That they would rally was inevitable. Still, even when that happened, the Falcons gave away this game in a way that will haunt this franchise and its fans. They had the ball on the New England 22-yard line when receiver Julio Jones made one of the most ridiculous catches in Super Bowl history.
There was 4:47 left on the clock, an eternity in the NFL, but the Falcons had a 28-20 lead. The Patriots were about to start to burning their timeouts with the knowledge that they’d likely need to score twice to have any shot to force overtime.
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“It’s easy to second guess,” Quinn said.
Yes, it is. This was an easy call: Run the ball three times. Burn some more time off the clock, kick the field goal and see if Brady could overcome that 11-point lead.
So what did Quinn and the Falcons do?
The Falcons called for a pass on second down. Quarterback Matt Ryan was buried by defensive lineman Trey Flowers for a 12-yard loss that pushed the Falcons to the brink of field-goal range. Then, a holding penalty pushed them back even further. The Falcons had the game won, and instead, they had to punt the ball back to Brady.
The rest? History.
To think: It looked like Quinn and the Falcons were headed to an easy night in Houston. Robert Alford had given them a three-touchdown lead in the second quarterback when he returned an interception 82 yards for the score, and along the sidelines, Quinn chanted “GO! GO! GO!” as he flapped his arms like the team mascot.
Atlanta had not only won a Super Bowl in a half century in the NFL. The city had enjoyed just one major-sports title, from the Braves in 1995, feeling about as starved for success as any pro sports city in the country. This certainly would be their night, right? And if it was, it would be a second-year head coach from Morristown that would make it happen.
Quinn looked like a genius in the first half. His defense sacked Brady again and again, making the veteran look like a rattled rookie. The 21-3 lead at halftime become 28-3 when the Falcons coolly marched down the field to start the third quarter, and it looked like the only excitement on this night would come from Lady Gaga’s wild halftime show.
But the Falcons didn’t finish the Patriots, did ram the spike through their hearts. Quinn, if anybody, should understand the importance of doing that. He was the defensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks when New England scored 14 fourth-quarter points to steal a victory in Super Bowl IL.
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That game was won on another unthinkable coaching blunder, when the Seahawks threw the ball into the end zone instead of handing the ball to their bruising back Marshawn Lynch. This one?
This one will be remembered for what the Patriots did, and rightfully so. What more can you say about Brady, who added another MVP trophy to his case with a video-game 43-of-62 passing performance with a ridiculous 466 yards? He define perfection in the late stages of this game.
He not only exacted revenge on Roger Goodell for Deflategate, but seemed to one-up karma, too, with his own David Tyree-type catch. That one to Julian Edelman seemed almost as impossible as the football that stuck to the Giants receiver’s helmet years ago, and it was certainly just as important.
The moment the Patriots won the toss for overtime, you knew this one was over. He clinically marched this team down the field against a gassed Atlanta defense, setting off a wild finish from the pro-Patriots crowd. How can one part of the country keep getting so many parades?
Still: It shouldn’t have come to that. This is a game the Atlanta Falcons absolutely, utterly, unforgivably choked away. The victory belongs to Tom Brady and New England again, but hasn’t anyone learned that they don’t need any damn help?
Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find Steve on Facebook.
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