The Falcons undone by arrogant 4th quarter play-calling

ANALYSIS/OPINION

You want to fine them $1 million? You want to take away their draft picks?

Suspend their future Hall of Fame quarterback for four games?

Go ahead. The New England Patriots laugh at the NFL’s futile attempts to stop them.

Down 28-3 in the third quarter in Super Bowl 51?

That just made the taste of revenge even sweeter for the New England Patriots.

The final chapter of the Deflategate drama played out Sunday in Houston, as the New England Patriots came back against seemingly impossible odds to defeat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 in Super Bowl 51 in the first overtime in the history of the championship game.

The Patriots had been on a mission of vengeance all season, the target of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s alternative facts investigation that charged New England deflated footballs more than two years ago in the AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts.

Despite questionable evidence, the league handed down the massive fine against the Patriots, took away draft picks and suspended Brady, arguably the face of the league and one of the most successful quarterbacks in NFL history, for four games, which benched him at the start of the season.

It was never about deflated footballs for the NFL. It was always about payback against the Patriots and their coach, Bill Belichick, for years of known and unknown deceit in the business of football.

Yet here was New England, back in its seventh Super Bowl with Brady and Belichick. Their dramatic overtime win, when it appeared Atlanta was ready to lay claim to its first Super Bowl title, puts Brady, Belichick and this team at the top of NFL championship history.

Goodell gave a lame, distant handshake to Brady during a commercial break in the post-game celebration, but Fox showed the uncomfortable moment after they came back on air.

You can debate Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers, Bill Walsh and the San Francisco 49ers and, yes, Joe Gibbs and the Washington Redskins all you want. The first face on the Mount Rushmore of NFL coaches is now Bill Belichick. The first face on the Mount Rushmore of NFL quarterbacks is now Tom Brady. And the New England Patriots? How about the greatest franchise in NFL history?

Seven trips to the Super Bowl since 2001, five of those trips resulting in Super Bowl wins. In this era of free agency and layers of playoffs on the road to the championship game, what the Patriots have done is the gold standard of the NFL.

They would not be denied, even when, down 28-3, it seemed the Patriots mission would not be accomplished. The Falcons, though, self destructed, and, guess what? It was Kyle Shanahan, who engineered the Falcons’ high-powered offense this year, who did them in with arrogant, irresponsible play calling when his team had a chance to put the game away with a field goal in the fourth quarter that would have given Atlanta a 31-20 lead — too much for New England to overcome with less than four minutes left.

Instead of being in field goal range, a series of play calls by Shanahan led to sack of quarterback Matt Ryan, a holding penalty and an incomplete pass that put Atlanta out of range — and then out of the game. The Falcons were forced to punt, and Brady marched the Patriots down the field 91 yards for the game-tying touchdown and two point conversion and send the 28-28 game into overtime.

New England got the ball first in overtime and scored the winning touchdown to seal their place in history 34-28.

Shanahan will move on, expected to take the head coaching job in San Francisco. But as much credit as the former Washington Redskins offensive coordinator gets for helping to create this high-powered Atlanta offense, he bares the brunt of the blame for his careless play calling at a time when all his team needed to do was stay in position for a field goal that likely would have ended the Patriots chances of victory.

Thom Loverro hosts his weekly podcast “Cigars & Curveballs” Wednesdays available on iTunes and Google Play.