Despite all that went wrong on Sunday, the Falcons had a chance to pull out a victory in the final 1:20 against Carolina.
Trailing 21-20 with the ball at the Falcons 12-yard line, operating the no-huddle offense with no timeouts, quarterback Matt Ryan completed four straight passes of 8, 6, 8 and 9 yards to advance to Atlanta’s 43.
Then disaster struck.
Center Joe Hawley, thinking he heard the snap cadence, snapped the ball while Ryan was re-directing his protection to pick up a weakside blitz.
The Falcons recovered the ball but lost 16 yards. On the next play, they were called for a false start and by rule, there was a 10-second runoff.
Instead of first-and-10 from the 43 with 31 seconds to play, the Falcons faced second-and-26 from their 27 with nine seconds left. Ryan completed one more pass to Tony Gonzalez for 9 yards before his Hail Mary pass sailed out of bounds at the buzzer.
“We have a rhythm cadence and it was really loud,” Hawley said. “It’s not usually that loud at home when we are on offense. For whatever reason, if it was just that Carolina (fans) just traveled well, it was just loud.
“I had the beginning of the cadence and Matt came up to re-(identify) their (front) because they were bringing pressure off the weak side. I thought the re-(identification) was the call and snapped it.”
Ryan and Falcons coach Mike Smith would not throw Hawley under the bus for the miscue.
“It was just miscommunication,” Ryan said. “You hate for it to happen at that time.”
Smith barely addressed the play.
“I’m not going to comment,” Smith said. “Obviously, it was a miscommunication and we were re-identifying the front and the ball was snapped.”
That capped a bad day all around for the offensive line, which gave up nine sacks and 14 quarterback hits.
“Obviously, it was a tough day,” Hawley said. “We didn’t get the job done up front like we wanted to. They have a great front seven. They are tops in the league in a lot of categories.”
The Falcons had handled San Francisco’s respected defensive front on Monday night, giving up just one sack and five quarterback hits. They gave the tackles some help that game with a number of chip blocks from with backs, tight ends and wide receivers.
But there was no help for the line on Sunday. Defensive ends Greg Hardy (four) and Charles Johnson (two) led the sack parade and free safety Mike Mitchell, backup defensive end Frank Alexander and defensive tackle Star Lotulelei each added one.
“It’s just frustrating when you can’t get the job done and you’re really trying to block you’re butt off for Matt,” Hawley said. “He’s such a great guy and such a tough guy. You don’t like to see him get knocked around like that.”
Despite the pounding, Ryan proclaimed to be in good shape after the game.
Pick-six epidemic: Ryan threw his 17th interception, a career high. It was returned for a touchdown by Carolina cornerback Melvin White after the Falcons had taken an early 10-0 lead.
Ryan has thrown four pick-six interceptions this season.
- Carolina: Cornerback Drayton Florence had a 38-yard interception return for a touchdown on Nov. 3.
- Tampa Bay: Linebacker Mason Foster had a 34-yard interception return for a touchdown on Nov. 17.
- San Francisco: Linebacker NaVorro Bowman had an 89-yard interception return for a touchdown on Dec. 23.
- Carolina: White had an 8-yard interception return for a touchdown in the second quarter on Sunday.
“Our defense did a good job of shutting them down and when you have an interception returned for a touchdown, it’s tough to overcome that,” Ryan said.
Record set: Ryan became the Falcons' all-time leading passer, breaking Steve Bartkowski's record of 23,470 yards. Ryan completed 28 of 40 passes for 280 yards with two touchdowns and a 95.8 passer rating. In six seasons, he has totaled 23,472 career passing yards.
Reynolds inactive: Right guard Garrett Reynolds, who has opened the season as starter for the three consecutive years, spent the regular-season finale on the inactive list.
The other inactives: safety Sean Baker, running back Jacquizz Rodgers, linebacker Sean Weatherspoon, defensive tackle Adam Repologle, tackle Terren Jones and tackle Sean Locklear.
Schedule set: With the completion of the 4-12 season, opponents for the Falcons' 2014 schedule were finalized.
Their home schedule will include Carolina, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Chicago, Detroit (in London), Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Arizona.
On the road, they will face the three NFC South teams, Green Bay, Minnesota, Baltimore, Cincinnati and the New York Giants.
Etc.: Jason Snelling took over for Rodgers as kickoff returner but did not get an opportunity to return one. … Running back Steven Jackson finished the game with 94 total yards, logging 41 yards on 13 carries and adding 53 yards on five receptions. It was his second-highest output of the season. … Wide receiver Harry Douglas had seven catches for 58 yards. He set career highs with a team-leading 85 receptions and 1,067 yards with two touchdowns. … Safety William Moore had his third interception of the season.
