At the beginning of the game I was "woo hoo!".  Off to a great start.

Middle of the game slowed back down to "OK, we can handle this".

4th quarter led to "oh crap, not again!".

But in all that I thought they'd pull it out.  I was sure they had one more last minute drive to march down field and take the lead.  But nope, their luck ran out.  No last minute comeback this time.

After a great season, taking the NFC South in 13 weeks, getting the NFC's #1 seed, winning the Divisional round and hosting the NFC Championship Game, I was sure "this is it! The pieces are finally coming together!".

But no.  I almost think this loss was harder to take than the years they missed the playoffs or lost in the opening round.  To be so close, but fail to reach it has to just suck.

I'm sure they'll be back, but the one I really feel bad for is Tony Gonzalez.  Such a standup guy who's had an incredible Hall of Fame career.  Would have been nice to see him go out with a SB ring on his finger.  The perfect capstone to a perfect career.  But, somethings just aren't meant to be.

       

Nah.  20 years of following competitive sports in Georgia has hardened me.

That's the biggest reason I would've loved to see them at least get there. Tony is such a great guy, and amazing player. One of (if not THE) the best TEs to play the game.

But they let the same things beat them this week as last. Those mid field passes. Seattles TE burned the secondary all too much, and those same holes were open against SF. If you don't learn week to week, you're going down.

Im really not that suprised. Am I dissappointed, YES!!! Seems to me between the Dawgs and the Falcons, that we get so close and Damn if they don't choke or give it away.

Fuck those assholes.  And fuck their new stadium, those SOBs should be sentenced to the current stadium till they AT LEAST get to the Superbowl.

Yeah but not like this guy!

Falcons Fan Going Ham After Losing Game: Pistol-Whips & Destroys Flatscreen TV

Same old falcons. I lol'd.

Priceless, topped only by the comments below it!

This

I was hoping for the best but I expected them to choke.

They did choke, but get better each year.

Not really, you can say they've been on the decline since going to the SB in the late 90's.

But its the Coons, I dont know why anybody expected anything different.

Nope,
I was expecting this unfortunatly .

pretty much

The good thing about the loss is that maybe it will put a damper / halt to the plans to build a newer stadium.

Yea it sucks, but hey look, they've gotten better and better every year under the Ryan, Smith, Dimitryov (?) era. They're on the way up. We'll get there I have no doubt. We're just missing a couple of pieces now and I'm sure the organization will address most if not all of that this off season. Overall I'm satisfied with the season. You just can't barely win every game though. They need to develop the killer attitude and put teams away better.

As far as sunday went, we made more lethal mistakes than they did, just that simple. Two turnovers and we let them stay on the field with two personal fouls on defense. That's like giving them four extra drives. That's why we lost that game.

I think Cubs fans say the same thing/

I realize i'm dating myself but I have followed the Coon's on and off but mostly off  since the Steve Bartkowski days.

Unfortunately, they are losers and that's a state of mind.

The 49's are winners that refuse to give up.

Truth is I'm not a fan of professional sports or teams in general. Most of the players are overpaid crybabies that lost their love for the game many years ago.

If you are a fan of the game support your local high school and go to the games even if you don't have a kid on the team or at the school.

td who goes to almost all of the high school home games.

Nope.

That's not dating yourself as bad as me. I used to go to the games when Bob Lee was quarterback.



 

At least we didn't lose to New Orleans.

Im not to big of a fam of them, but they did have a heal of a season, gotta give em that. I also wanted to see them go up against the ravens again this season.

I am a bit let down.  I am not a huge pro football fan; I think the good stuff is college ball.  But I feel bad from some of my friends who are HUGE Falcons fans.  Plus, it would have been good for the area in these times of low moral.  Oh well.  I'm still going to have a huge bad ass Super Bowl party!

I know the defense has not gotten to a quarterback in 3 years on a consistent basis. They did not touch the quarterback again. You can not go 1/2 a game and not score a single point.

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There were 3 key plays I think that doomed the Falcon's in this game.  The roughing the passer that took away a 4th and 8 and gave a 1st and 10.  they ended up scoring the go-ahead TD instead of punting.  The fumbled snap by Ryan.  This was HUGE.  They were already in field goal range, so even if they don't score a TS they probably get 3.  That turned out to be huge at the end as a FG may have been able to win it.  And lastly and obviously the missed 4th and 4 at the end.  I think this is partly on Ryan being injured.  He thru the 3rd down and 4th down ball badly.  The 3rd down ball he saw the defender come off the edge and in this case almost always pump fakes first to get him to jump.  But he didn't.  I don't think he could with that bad left arm.  And the throw to Roddy on 4th was a bit behind him.  If that ball was in front it's at least a 1st down.

I agree you cannot go 30 minutes without a score in any game, let alone a playoff game, and expect to win.  I do think the 'good' in this game is they played a stellar 1st quarter, a so-so 2nd quarter a bad 3rd quarter and a horribly dismal 4th quarter yet were still in the game and in a position where they could win the entire 60 minutes.  Against the #2 defense in the league, that's saying something.  I do think they are very close to being there.  



ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!!  I'd have rather lost to SF by 40 points than lose by 1 to NO in this game.  No other team in the league stirs up the football hatred in me than New Orleans.





Yup, couldn't be more right.  I read something on AJC yesterday that stuck.  It said 'the Falcon's didn't go 13-3 this year because of their defense, they went 13-3 despite it".  That's really true.  The defense was 24th this year, same as last year under VanGorder (sp?).  They need to get a good cover linebacker who can take away the TE threat and cover the run with Weatherspoon.  The TE has been the death of the Falcon's defense all year.  TE's just have record games against Atlanta.  Add another good cover linebacker in there to support Spoon and I think that'll make huge strides in between the tackles.  They need to replace Robinson.  He never jabs receivers at the line and plays off waiting for the pass. He's a highlight real hitter, not a deflect and deny defender.  Hopefully Grimes can come back healthy and take the corner back.  but either way they need to dump Robinson for another shutdown corner to complement Grimes and Samuel.  And lastly for defense they need a top pass rusher.  I think Abraham will be back, but they need someone to work across him that'll give pressure.  Abraham still has it, but since the Falcon's don't have any other big rush thread opponents can double him all day.  Get another rusher that'll apply pressure and both will have a good year.  For the offense Turner needs to go.  I love the man, but he's not getting it done anymore.  Rogers is a great 2nd back, but we need another big run-in-the-hole back.  And if Gonzalez retires, God help them.  I don't think they'll find a TE to fill that gap, not right away.  Hopefully he'll stick around 1 more year.  I know he said he's probably retiring, but he's healthy and still playing at top levels.  I think it'll boil down to if he thinks they can make it next year.  His biggest fear has to be retiring and then they Falcon's make it.  But if he does retire, the offense won't be anywhere near as potent.

Off season top priorities:
Get a shutdown corner
Get a cover linebacker
Get a big pass-rush DE
Replace Turner
Replace Gonzalez (maybe)

They'll be doing good to get 2 , maybe 3 of those.  IMO, the 2 most critical is the LB and DE.