Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS -2/06- Falcons Blow Historic Lead In Super Bowl 51, Fall To Patriots In OT 34-28

Episode Date: February 6, 2017

If it was an epic comeback by the #Patriots, it was an even more colossally blunderous loss by the #Falcons as they blow a 25 point lead in the fourth quarter to lose 34-28 in OT in #SuperBowl51 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Namely, and it is official. The New England Patriots are the Super Bowl 51 NFL champions in 2017. This is what an amazing, I mean, what kind of a game was that, right? I mean, the Falcons and Patriots kind of have slow starts in the beginning of the game, look like each team's defense is going to be kind of the focal point of each game. Falcons were fast, getting pressure on Brady. Patriots were doing their job holding the Falcons offense to minimal first downs, not really letting them get big long drives and stuff ahead

in the first quarter. And then in the second quarter, the Falcons just go on a tear and basically just drowned the Patriots 21 to three. And that's the way the score stood until halftime. And then, you know, you have basically it's 28 and nine at the end of the third quarter. Doesn't look like a whole lot's changing. And then we get to that fourth quarter and the Falcons completely blow their Superbowl chances. I mean that you want to call it a comeback. You call it whatever you want. That was completely pissing away an opportunity at a Superbowl by the Falcons. They stopped bringing just their front four guys. They started bringing more pressure. They sat back in just very vanilla

zones, stopped mixing up their coverages and stuff, which was working so well for them for the first three quarters. And basically, they just took their chances that Tom Brady, who is undoubtedly, unfortunately, the greatest quarterback in NFL history. They just took their chances that he was going to make a mistake, and he didn't. We've talked about this with the Colts just the same. Anytime you sit back in a vanilla zone or just vanilla defense or a deep four, you're going to get picked apart by a quality NFL quarterback. Even middle of the road quarterbacks are going to pick you apart in that regard.

So we saw exactly what we expected to see, or as far as I'm concerned, what we should have expected to see once you get into that kind of a mode in the fourth quarter. So Patriots end up pulling it out in overtime, 34 to 28. My prediction was 33-27 for Atlanta, but same point differential, but different score and different team won. just because I enjoy watching Atlanta play first and foremost because they have such a dynamic offense. But I enjoyed watching the Patriots get beat up like that so much. And then, like I said, the Falcons completely went away from their game plan. I think as far as you could say that they went away from their game plan on both sides of the ball for that matter. Matt Ryan was awful in the fourth quarter,

couldn't keep anything to string anything together. A couple of throws. I mean, that amazing catch by Julio Jones was absolutely pure luck on the throw by Matt Ryan. I mean, great, great throw, but if that defender, and I think it was Logan Ryan, was a quarter of an inch taller, that ball's tipped out of bounds. I'm not real sure why they went to the style they went to. I'm not sure why they continued to run our elongated routes, trying to get several... They weren't running quick plays when New England started to get pressure on them, and they should have made that adjustment. Kyle Shanahan really kind of dropped the ball as far as I'm concerned in his play calling when you've got a third or a second and mid or like a second and six or a third and four and you're running these long routes and

you're running you know three and four second routes you can't do that. New England had already been getting pressure on Matt Ryan. I mean, it was just ridiculous. I don't understand what the thought process was there. You're totally pissing away your opportunity at getting some first downs and keeping the chains moving. I mean, once Atlanta went up 28 to 3, they no longer had any play, any drives, more than six plays in the entire game. I mean, there was four drives after they went up 25 points and they never put more than six plays together on any of them. Punts and a fumble. Of course, that amazing catch by Edelman doesn't, you know, help anything at all. But they, you know, as far as I'm concerned, Atlanta completely blew that one.

Yeah, you can consider that a comeback, I suppose. But you just don't put that kind of an offensive package on the field for the first three quarters and dominate them. And then completely go away from your game plan on both sides of the ball and expect to win. You're playing against the Patriots first and foremost. Second of all, you're in the Super Bowl. So it doesn't really matter who you're playing. You're playing against somebody who is expected to be a pretty darn good team, right? Um, uh, I just, I feel, I feel for Atlanta fans because we've seen it as Colts fans several times, especially most notably that game against the Texans where the Colts were up, I can't remember how much right now, 14 or 15 or whatever it was with like seven minutes to go. And the Colts completely blew

it and lost in overtime too. And that's almost exactly what happened tonight. You know, they just went away from their game plan on both sides of the ball, tried to play not to lose, and when you do that, you end up losing. So, you know, congratulations to any Patriots fans, I guess, out there. You know, Tom Brady is the real deal. There's no two ways about it. They had to go away from their running game at some point because Atlanta was doing so good. It was really nice to see Dwight Freeney get a sack tonight, former Colt. Nice to see him get constant pressure.

He was playing well. I think, you know, there could be some sort of an argument maybe that the Colts in the end, despite when Dwight Freeney was let go by the Colts, he had, I think he was going to be 20 million against the cap or whatever. But you could make an argument that the Colts would have been better off keeping Freeney than Mathis. You know, that's be interesting. I'd like kind of looked into that aside from Freeney being injured for one or one and a half of those years that he was gone. I'd be curious to see how that kind of would have turned out. But, you know, like I said, I do feel bad for Atlanta Falcons fans. That's something that we as

Colts fans have seen several times. And, you know, that's just unfortunate. But, you know, when you go against New England, you have to be prepared for everything. You have to play every single snap under your game plan or you're going to lose. And especially on defense, they continued to line up. You know, Brady and the Patriots would go to five wide several times. But they were all basically on the line. They had about nine guys along the line of scrimmage Atlanta did. And when you do that, you really eliminate any help over the top. I mean, they had one guy deep, and that was it.

And they weren't, you know, dropping a ton of guys. Like I said, they started rushing five and six guys every so often. And Brady's going to pick you apart that. I mean, you're just done after that. Anytime you've got man-to-man coverage and you've got no help in the middle and no help over the top, you're done. You're absolutely toast. And any quarterback, really, who's worth their contract in the NFL

is going to pick you apart just the same under those same circumstances. And so obviously Tom Brady gets named the MVP of the Super Bowl. He went 43 of 62 for 466 yards, two touchdowns and a pick six, which I thought sealed it, you know, at the time. I mean, you see that happen. It's like, okay, there's not much that is going well for New England now. They miss the extra point on the one touch on their first touchdown of the night. And you just thought, you know, that's crazy. He was sacked five times. Five times.

Five times. Old Booker T reference for those of you that probably still watch WWE. I don't. I haven't for about 15 years. But he got sacked five times anyways. Blount only carried at a 2.8 average on 11 carries for 31 yards. White, who had a fantastic game receiving, only carried the ball six for 29, but he had 14 receptions for 110 and a score.

And White also had two touchdowns on the ground. So as far as I'm concerned, he probably should have been the one to get the MVP of the Super Bowl, but it's hard to argue giving that to Brady as much as he had to put up. I mean, 62 attempts, come on, and being that close, you know, 34 yards away from 500 in the Super Bowl, that's pretty amazing. So Edelman also caught five balls for 87. Amendola eight for 78 with a touchdown as well. So really a pretty big game all in all for the Patriots when it came down to it because they were forced to do as much as they were through the air late in the game. And they certainly, you know, it paid off for them.

Atlanta's defense is partly to blame for that. Matt Ryan went 17 for 23 for 284 yards, two touchdowns, no picks. He was also sacked five times, five times for 44 yards on a loss there. Freeman went 11 for 75 yards. They really went away from their running game as well. I mean, they only carried the ball 18 times. Coleman, who I think went out for the rest of the game at one point without ankle injury, only carried the ball seven times for 29. But when you have a 5.8 rushing average, there's a pretty good chance that you need to keep that up or you need to just work that into your play calling a little bit better. Julio Jones, four catches for 87 yards. Gabriel, three for 76. And also the tight end Hooper, three for 32 in a touchdown. And Tevin

Coleman also caught the touchdown pass for six yards out and ran that in. Nice seeing an IU guy get a score in that. I mean, look, their offense is amazing, and I'm not really sure how they only threw the ball 23 times and only ran the ball 18. I mean, that is such a small amount of plays. I mean, six plays was their total max in their last four possessions.

The rest of them were three and outs, and I think they had one possession with four. That's crazy. I mean, that offense was on fire in the first half and the third quarter for that matter. And they've been on fire all year and just totally went away from what they, uh, should have been doing. They, they couldn't protect there towards the end. Uh, new England was getting a lot of pressure up the middle. They were doing a lot of stunting and stuff like that, but really what it was, was just a flat out beating their man one-on-one as well. I mean, uh, I thought Atlanta's defense was fantastic. Jarrett had five tackles and four QB hits, but also had three sacks. I mean, that dude was just all over the place. Like I said,

Dwight Freeney had a sack. Courtney Upshaw also had a sack for Atlanta. But I mean, that was really a really strong defensive game from Atlanta for three quarters and just completely just dropped the ball in the fourth quarter. So sad for the Atlanta Falcon fans. It was a great Super Bowl, though. It ended up being a good game when a lot of people were calling it a stinker after the third quarter, you know. I watched just about every second of it. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

It was a good Super Bowl. We're about ready. You know, this is kind of the official start now to draft season. I will be down at the Combine at the end of the month, at the beginning of March as well. So I'll be doing as much as I can down there. And then soon after that, we've got the draft at, I believe, in early April. And there's a lot of free agency stuff going to happen between now and then. So look forward to more stuff. We'll get as much as we can on here on Locked On Colts. Thank you guys for joining me. Hope you guys enjoyed the Super Bowl. Hopefully the Colts are in it next year. We'll put all of our chips in the middle of the table for Chris Bauer to pick

up and go get us some free agent guys and have a phenomenal draft. And hopefully we'll be on the winning side of the Super Bowl next year. So thank you guys for joining me. Hope you enjoy it in Super Bowl. Get some sleep. Hope you didn't drink too much and get to work tomorrow. And I'll talk to you tomorrow right here on Locked on Colts. You are Locked on Colts, your daily podcast on the Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team, every day.