Atlanta Falcons: Matt Ryan puts blame for Super Bowl loss where it belongs

Although we all know where the blame belonged, it was refreshing to hear Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan give an honest assessment of their Super Bowl loss

It was a disheartening blow to Atlanta Falcons fans everywhere, but that’s nothing compared to how the players involved felt. The Falcons were up 28-3 heading into the fourth quarter, and all they had to do was kill the clock to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. We all know what happened though, as the team was guilty of the biggest collapse in Super Bowl history.

There were two pivotal moments in the game that turned the tide for Atlanta, and 2016 NFL MVP quarterback Matt Ryan recently opened up about those plays — and more — via Pete Prisco of CBS Sports.

The Plays that cost them

The first big play was the strip-sack from New England Patriots middle linebacker Dont’a Hightower. It was a third-and-short with just over eight minutes to go and Atlanta still up by 16-points. Rather than give the ball to their highly effective running back Devonta Freeman, they dropped back to pass.

Freeman missed his block and the play was a disaster even though wide receiver Aldrick Robinson was deep for what would have been a touchdown, and receiver Julio Jones was open for a first down according to Ryan. Instead, Hightower caused a huge turnover, which ended up cutting the lead to eight.

Not all was lost as Ryan then made what he called “the play to win the Super Bowl.” With less than five minutes, Ryan hit Jones at the New England 22. Jones made an unbelievable catch despite being covered, and they were close enough to seal the win with a field goal from the incredibly dependable Matt Bryant.

All they had to do was waste some clock, and make it a two-score game. Instead the Falcons went back to pass some more, and got pushed backwards thanks to a 12-yard sack, followed by a holding call. They had to punt, and in the end the momentum for New England was too much to stop.

Who was at fault?

After the game, everyone pointed fingers, but it was no secret who was to blame. Former offensive coordinator, Kyle Shanahan — now head coach of the San Francisco 49ers — is the man responsible. He tried to get too cute with his calls on both those critical plays. However, if anyone still doubted his culpability, Ryan ended that in his talks with Prisco as well. After talking about the big pass to Jones, he then said not only should they have run, but Shanahan had a lot to do with why there wasn’t time to even audible out of the pass.

"“As I was getting it, you’re looking at the clock and you’re talking 16 seconds before it cuts out. You don’t have a lot of time to say, ‘There’s 16 seconds, no, no, no, we’re not going to do that. Hey, guys, we’re going to line up and run this.’ You’re talking about breaking the huddle at seven seconds if you do something along the lines.” Ryan said via Prisco.“With the way Kyle’s system was set up, he took more time to call plays and we shift and motion a lot more than we did with (former coordinator) Dirk (Koetter). You couldn’t get out of stuff like that. We talk about being the most aggressive team in football. And I’m all for it. But there’s also winning time. You’re not being aggressive not running it there.”"

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Ryan said they still could have been aggressive with the run and that’s a sentiment shared by anyone who watched that game. Kyle Shanahan was great in 2016 for the team and took the offense to new heights. In the end though, he cost them a Super Bowl by over-thinking things and Matt Ryan isn’t scared to put the blame where it goes.