Falcons lost to both Super Bowl teams this season

This season, the Falcons faced both of the teams that are headed to Super Bowl next month.

The Falcons played a respectable game on the road at New England in November, but were blown out at home by Seattle in December.

On Nov. 2, the Falcons fell behind 21-7 against the Patriots, but James Pearce Jr. and Jalon Walker combined on a strip sack and fumble recovery to set up a scoring opportunity right before the half. Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. tossed a 2-yard touchdown pass to Drake London make the score 21-14 at halftime.

London put on a show, catching nine passes for 118 yards and three touchdowns, including the TD to make it 24-23 with 4:40 to play. Kicker Parker Romo missed the point-after attempt wide right.

The defense got the offense the ball back, but Penix couldn’t dive them into position for a field goal.

The Falcons drove to New England’s 48-yard line, but on second down, Penix was called for intentional grounding. Center Ryan Neuzil snapped the ball early, and there were allegations of the Patriots simulating the clapping sound, which was the Falcons’ signal to snap the ball.

If called a penalty, the Patriots would have been penalized 15 yards and the Falcons would have been in field-goal range. Falcons coach Raheem Morris would back down from the allegations the next day.

On third-and-20, Penix tossed an incomplete pass to David Sills V.

“You look at the Patriots game, we missed the extra point and still got the ball back,” Falcons linebacker Kaden Elliss said of New England’s 24-23 win. “The offense just couldn’t go down (and score). The defense had a third down, and we still got the offense the ball back with another minute. Just weren’t able to get it, but it was close.”

The Falcons were 4-8 and trying to claw back into the NFC South race when they hosted Seattle at home Dec. 7. The Bucs and Panthers were 7-6, and the Falcons needed a win to stay in the race.

The Falcon played Seattle tough in the first half and had a chance to build a lead.

With the scored tied 3-3, cornerback Mike Hughes came up with an interception at Seattle’s 36 and returned it to the 30.

A holding call on wide receiver Deven Thompkins at the 27-yard line set the Falcons back, and they couldn’t overcome first-and-17 from the 37. They reached the 32 and tried a 50-yard field-goal attempt that was blocked by Seattle’s Nick Emmanwori. Atlanta’s Jack Nelson recovered, but the scoring opportunity was wasted.

The Falcons took a 6-3 lead but allowed Seattle to drive from their 25 to the Falcons 30 in 53 seconds. The Seahawks made a 48-yard field to make the score 6-6 at the halftime buzzer.

Seattle’s Rashid Shaheed then took the second-half kickoff back 100 yards for a touchdown and the rout was on.

Bijan Robinson fumbled on the next possession, and Seattle scored a touchdown to build a 20-6 lead. Then Kirk Cousins was intercepted by Emmanwori, and Seattle added a field goal to make the score 23-6.

After the kickoff return, Seattle scored on their next four positions. With the 37-9 loss dropping them to 4-9, the Falcons were eliminated from the playoffs and left to play for pride the rest of the season.

Both Super Bowl teams have several connections to the Falcons and to the state.

For New England, linebacker Christian Elliss is the brother of Kaden, and left guard Jared Wilson played at Georgia.

Former Falcons tight end Austin Hooper and safety Jaylinn Hawkins, a starter, now are Patriots.

Joshua Dobbs, from Alpharetta, is New England’s backup quarterback and Thomas Brown from Tucker and UGA is the Patriots’ running backs coach. He was chosen in the sixth round of the 2008 draft by the Falcons.

Seattle is led by coach Mike Macdonald, who is from Roswell and played at Centennial High. He graduated from UGA, where he was a graduate assistant coach, and was an assistant coach at Cedar Shoals High School in Athens. The Falcons interviewed Macdonald when they were looking for a successor to Arthur Smith as head coach before they hired Morris.