Let’s look on the bright side, shall we? Let’s say the Falcons — still atop the NFC South! — win their division and win their Round 1 playoff game. Know where they might travel for Round 2? Lambeau Field!
For a half Monday night, that wouldn’t have seemed the brightest of sides. After two quarters, you’d have figured the last place in the world the 2014 Falcons want to visit in January 2015 was the almost-frozen tundra on which they were all but routed in prime time. But football games have two halves, and darned if the Falcons didn’t nearly fashion the greatest rally in team history.
Ahead 31-7 and cruising, Green Bay had to hold on to win. A 2-yard touchdown pass to Harry Douglas with 2:11 to play brought the Falcons within 43-37. They hadn’t stopped the Packers much, but in the second half the Packers couldn’t stop the Falcons. Beggaring belief, the visitors were a touchdown and a PAT from victory.
An onside kick at 2:09 was fielded by Green Bay’s Jordy Nelson, but the Falcons — for once — had the clock where they wanted; they also had their full complement of timeouts plus the two-minute warning. A stop would give the ball back to Matt Ryan, who’d picked the Pack to pieces, with ample time to pick some more.
An Aaron Rodgers bootleg netted a first down at 1:51, but the Packers needed one more first-and-10 to win. James Starks nearly got them a touchdown, sweeping left for 41 yards to the Falcons’ 6. A game that didn’t figure to come down to the final two minutes was finally gone.
The first half had been rather different. It produced all manner of lopsided stats, not least the score. Green Bay banked four touchdowns and a field goal on its five possessions and outgained the Falcons 296 yards to 161, holding the ball for 21:16 to the visitors’ 8:54. But here was the truly chilling number:
The Falcons ran 22 first-half plays; the Packers had 22 first-half first downs.
One moment told the bigger tale: The Falcons’ Malliciah Goodman had a chance to sack Rodgers and whiffed; Rodgers then delivered to Eddie Lacy, who made five more Falcons miss en route to a 13-yard reception that should have been a 7-yard loss.
Being outclassed can have an effect an anyone’s pride, and the ruffled Falcons played the second half the way they should have played the first. They were quicker and sharper on offense — notably Julio Jones, who had the greatest night (259 yards on 11 catches) any Falcons receiver has ever had — and slightly less pliant on defense. They cut a 24-point lead to 10 with 12:33 remaining, whereupon Rodgers dodged another rush and found Randall Cobb for a first down. On the next snap, Rodgers faked a handoff and hit Jordy Nelson for the 60-yard touchdown that made it 40-24.
The Falcons drove and scored again, Roddy White catching a 1-yard touchdown pass with 6:20 remaining. A 2-point conversion attempt — the smallish Jacquizz Rodgers up the middle — failed, as did an onside kick. But the defense limited the Packers to a 53-yard field goal, which made it 43-30 with 4:33 left. Still half a chance, and with two minutes left it even seemed a pretty fair chance. And then it didn’t.
So what to make of this one? Did the lopsided first half tell the true story? Was the second-half rally a product of Green Bay largesse or Falcons’ excellence? Are there such things as moral victories in professional sports? (Coaches will always say there aren’t, even as they’re hinting otherwise.)
If nothing else, the second half proved that the Falcons’ offense shouldn’t fear the Packers’ defense if indeed a January playoff date arises. Jones was majestic until hurting his hip in the final quarter. Ryan was close to flawless after a horrid early interception.
Trouble is, the Falcons would have to find a way to halt the Packers’ offense, on which they never got a handhold. (Time and score surely limited Green Bay’s second-half chance-taking.) A 43-37 loss doesn’t look bad after trailing 31-7, but you can’t expect to win when you fall 24 points behind. A slightly better first half could have yielded not a moral victory but a real one.
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