Falcons dispute 'choker' label but late-game fizzles are a concern

It follows that the label of “chokers” looms larger than ever. The Falcons can’t hold leads. They don’t have a killer instinct. And so goes the narrative.

Supporting this is the fact that, even before the Super Bowl, the Falcons blew fourth-quarter leads in three losses during the regular season. But players and coach Dan Quinn don’t agree with the label.

“Hell, yes, there’s anger,” safety Ricardo Allen said. “There’s always anger. I hate losing. I’m a sore loser. It’s a terrible feeling to keep losing leads.”

But, “We’ve beaten teams at the end of the game already this year. We won one on the five-yard line, we won one on the one-yard line. That’s a killer instinct right there. Almost (losing) doesn’t count. We lost this game but we won the other ones.”

Allen attributed the fizzles to isolated plays or penalties, but not attitude. He said the Falcons went through similar struggles last season, “But we fought our way out of it. Everybody expects us to be perfect. We’re not perfect. We’re gonna mess up. This is the NFL, man.

"People, they don't know. Everybody was counting us out last year too, and at this same time. Nobody was talking about us at this time last year. We’re going to keep grinding. We know we haven’t played our best. We have to be realistic with ourselves, and we know we have to keep going."

Quinn's biggest disappointment in the 3-2 start is with the run defense. The Falcons had hoped that would improve this season after the free-agent signings of defensive linemen Dontari Poe and Jack Crawford and the drafting of linebacker Duke Riley. But Poe has under-performed, Crawford suffered a season-ending injury (torn bicep) and Riley is a rookie.

Opponents’ extended drives has limited the team’s offensive snaps (which doesn’t excuse the early season hiccups on offense).

As for the Falcons' reputation of lacking killer instinct, Quinn said: “I recognize the story. I don’t think it’s justified. We’re going to be in a lot of close ones. So let’s get real comfortable. We’ve been in our share and won, and there’s others that we didn’t. The scars are definitely deeper when you have (the lead) and let it up than when it’s back and forth. Those are the ones that piss you off more and leave a deeper mark.”

Quinn’s team lost three games in the 2016 regular season that they led in the fourth quarter. Cover your eyes:

• Oct. 16, at Seattle: Led 24-17 with less than five minutes remaining but the Seahawks scored the final nine points (touchdown, field goal) and won 26-24.

• Oct. 23, San Diego: Led 30-20 with under six minutes to go, but an interception opened the door to a 13-point comeback and the Chargers won in overtime 33-30.

• Nov 13, at Philadelphia: The Falcons led 15-13 but allowed a touchdown and a field goal in the final 6:49.

Then there was the Super Bowl. The Falcons led 28-3 in the third quarter and 28-9 with less than 10 minutes left. And then: boom.

The irony of a lost lead coming the week before the New England game and people questioning the Falcons’ mental toughness isn’t lost on Quinn.

“Not facing any demons here,” he said. “It’s the 2017 version of us. We don’t get to replay that one. How it ended was a bummer. We’ve talked about it maybe once or twice. But what I can say is when you get back into the regular season, you just get right back into it.”

Quinn reiterated comments he has made in the month following the Super Bowl about whether the team uses that as motivation, and he'll likely need to say it a a few more times a few times this week.

"It’s not anything you need to use for motivation," he said. "You’re gonna be pissed off about it. But what we can do is, we think we can get a lot better in 2017 from 2016. We couldn’t keep looking back in the rear view mirror.  We can’t keep replaying a game that we can’t change."

But changing late-game slides is in their control, and that's the only way the Falcons are going to change the narrative.

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