WhoDat!656

I didn't think Pat Yasinskas wrote articles that are critical of teams not named the New Orleans Saints!!

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The road to the Super Bowl ran through Atlanta this season. Unfortunately, the Falcons won't be driving on to New Orleans.

It would be an understatement to say that I'm disappointed by the outcome of this game. The Falcons rang up 24 first half points and didn't manage to score the rest of the way, while the defense effectively imploded against a tough 49ers team. No one starts faster than these Atlanta Falcons, but it's also safe to argue that no contending team finishes quite as poorly. There's the lingering sense that they should have won that game and gone to the Super Bowl, and I'd be lying if I said that didn't hurt.

It's worth traveling back in time to recall what our expectations were at the beginning of the season. I was viewed in some quarters as too optimistic for predicting the Falcons at 11-5 and a wild card, so it's fair to say this season exceeded many expectations. Particularly given the fact that the Falcons hired two new coordinators, which generally means a less than amazing year. This was, any way you slice it, a great year. It just wasn't a Super Bowl year.

And there are many reasons why. The Falcons just never did a great job of adjusting defensively or offensively after halftime, and it bit them in the rear end more than a few times in 2012. The 49ers game was the one that cost them most, but the lack of execution and the complete collapse after the half will leave a sour taste in our mouth for months to come. If the Falcons do one thing this off-season—and believe me, they will do many—it will be ensuring that they can play four great quarters of football against even the best teams. They have to.

And for all this, keep in mind that one less turnover, a couple of completed passes or a couple more mistakes from the 49ers and the Falcons would have won. That's not to make excuses, but to point out how close this 28-24 game really was.

I remain proud of this Falcons team. I remain convinced that they will not just contend next year, but make another deep run. But none of us can deny that if they don't learn from their mistakes and improve, we're going to be looking at heartbreak again a year from now. None of us want that.

In the end, the same old Falcons - NFC South Blog - ESPN

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."