The elderly woman standing in line at the convenience store just north of Atlanta was wearing a red Falcons T-shirt and a smile.
“Payback is (heck), isn’t it?” she said early Sunday evening. “Too bad we couldn’t play like that all season.”
If any two thoughts could perfectly frame the first 15 games of the Atlanta Falcons’ 2015 season, those twin observations might do it.
After losing at Carolina two weeks ago by a humiliating 38-0 score, the Falcons stunned the Panthers inside the Georgia Dome on Sunday by winning 20-13, a victory to ruin Carolina’s perfect season.
Now 14-1 with a home game to go against Tampa Bay, the Panthers and their likely MVP quarterback Cam Newton can still guarantee home-field advantage until the Super Bowl by besting the Buccaneers. And regardless of this loss, Carolina should still be no worse than the second pick to advance to the Super Bowl from the NFC, either just ahead of or just behind Arizona, which crushed Green Bay on Sunday.
But if Atlanta, still a pedestrian 8-7, can do this to the Panthers, how many playoff-bound teams could do the same?
Yet the question that should loom at least as large to any Falcons fan is to ponder where this team – particularly quarterback Matt Ryan – has been for so much of this season under first-year coach Dan Quinn.
Is it due to the reasonable time it should probably take any veteran team to adjust to an entirely new coaching staff and philosophy on both sides of the ball?
Is it because Ryan has been especially uncomfortable with new offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s spread attack, which has encouraged the veteran quarterback to leave the pocket more?
Is it perhaps because Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff has made enough bad personnel decisions over the years to all but guarantee the Falcons simply don’t have the talent to win big at this time, despite that 5-0 start?
(And if that’s true, might it be time to part company with Dimitroff?)
“I’ve learned over the years that you have to play your best in this league every week, and I haven’t always done that,” Ryan said.
But on Sunday, he played perhaps his best game of the season – and tossed the 200th touchdown pass of his career – by going 23-of-30 for 306 yards. He threw one touchdown pass and no interceptions after being picked off 15 times through the first 14 games, the second-highest single-season total of his eight-year NFL career.
Those earlier interceptions helped put the Falcons at the bottom of red-zone production in the NFC this season and also led Ryan to say of Sunday’s win, “Even more so, (this win was big) to show what we’re capable of when we haven’t done that all year.”
And with the New Orleans Saints and their struggling defense arriving next Sunday, the Falcons at least have a better-than-average chance to finish with a winning season, which would have seemed like a huge step forward after two straight losing campaigns – that is, until that 5-0 start.
“A handful of plays have devastated us,” Ryan said. “You just can’t have the turnovers we’ve had.”
But on Sunday, the turnovers – at least of the aerial variety – stayed away. Instead, in a play that Ryan has delivered numerous times to pull out late wins, he connected with Julio Jones on a 70-yard touchdown midway through the second half that was equal parts skill, luck and experience.
Flushed from the pocket on third-and-13, Ryan rolled to his left, letting one fly one foot from the line of scrimmage in the general direction of Jones, who was being covered by a safety and linebacker.
“I don’t know if you can see behind you, but I can see behind you so RUN,” Ryan said later of his pointing at Jones during the play.
Suitably informed, the former Alabama great jumped as if shot from a trampoline to grab the ball, then wheel and race the final 18 yards to the end zone. Suddenly, the Falcons led 14-10. They never trailed again.
Somewhere, the 1972 Miami Dolphins broke out the champagne, knowing they’ll remain the only undefeated Super Bowl champion for at least one more year.
The victory won, the Falcons assured of a non-losing season for the first time in three years, Quinn said of his team’s most impressive win to date: “We looked at this game as a measuring stick for us. I wanted to really see how we would respond after our ballgame up there a couple of weeks ago, and we certainly did.”
Too bad we’ll probably have to wait until next September to see what this means for the Falcons’ future.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.