As the 15-year National Football League veteran Dwight Freeney was wrapping up his remarks following Atlanta's 44-15 rout of Green Bay in Sunday's NFC title game, he said of his new team's vast scoring ability, "It will be hard for any defense to stop our offense."
And it surely will. Even for the ethically blind yet extraordinary mind of New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
To borrow a quote from Belichick's own quarterback, Tom Brady - who seems intent on inflating rather than deflating Atlanta QB Matt Ryan's confidence this week - as he discussed the Falcons' performance against the Packers on sports radio WEEI on Monday: "Their offense, what they did in the first quarter that I was paying attention, it looked like they were on fire."
Of course, Belichick's devious and diabolical defenses have drowned out a lot of fires in winning four Super Bowls with more than a little help from Shady Brady.
The players may come and go, the individual strengths may change, but as the Pats head to their seventh Super Bowl looking for their fifth world championship under their brazen B's, New England's average number of points allowed in those games is only 21.5.
So the idea that Matty Ice and the Falcons are going to match the 40 points per game they've averaged thus far this postseason is probably going to grow as cold as a Boston winter.
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, right, passes the AFC Championship trophy to quarterback Tom Brady after winning the AFC championship NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017, in Foxborough, Mass. At left is team owner Robert Kraft. The Patriots defeated the the Steelers 36-17 to advance to the Super Bowl. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Though perhaps not so cold as gifted Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy believes Patriots Nation is feeling for this matchup.
In a column posted Monday on the Globe's website, Shaughnessy wrote: "When it comes to Atlanta and its sports fans, we feel nothing. Maybe a little pity. The Patriots are going to the Super Bowl in Houston Feb. 5, and they are going to play the Atlanta Falcons, and that takes a little fun out of the experience."
He also surmised: "But Atlanta? Seriously? This will be like the Larry Bird Celtics winning two of their championships by beating the Houston Rockets instead of the Lakers. The Atlanta Falcons? Meh."
Sad but probably true, he added: "The only two spectator sports that matter in Atlanta are college football and spring college football."
Of course, when Atlanta's professional sports teams have combined to - as Shaughnessy was only too happy to point out - "win ONE championship in 168 seasons of competition," why wouldn't that city's citizens gravitate to a more successful option?
Especially since, as the writer rightly noted, "Here in Boston, we've had an embarrassment of riches, witnessing nine championships since the turn of the century. Between February of 2005 (Patriots in Jacksonville vs. Eagles) and June of 2011 (Bruins in Vancouver), we watched a local team from each of the four major sports win a championship. That's a span of just six years and four months. No city will ever do that again. Certainly not poor Atlanta."
In fact, Shaughnessy views the entirety of the Boston-Atlanta sports rivalry so dismissively, if possibly correctly, that he observed: "By my math, the most memorable Boston-Atlanta sports moment came when Hawks center Tree Rollins bit Danny Ainge's finger while the two were rolling around the old Garden's parquet floor in the 1983 NBA playoffs. That's it. Tree Bites Man."
Nor does history hold much hope that the Falcons can take a bite - or should that be a peck? - out of the Patriots 12 days from today. Belichick and Brady are 4-0 against Atlanta. Furthermore, not one of the 10 NFL teams to average 30-plus points during the regular season over the past five years has gone on to win the Super Bowl, and the Falcons averaged a league-high 33.8.
Beyond that, in Atlanta coach Dan Quinn's single Super Bowl matchup against New England as Seattle's defensive coordinator at the close of the 2014 season, the Seahawks defense surrendered 28 points to a Pats offense that averaged 29.2 during that regular season. Thanks to Seattle coach Pete Carroll forgetting he had Marshawn Lynch in his backfield, New England prevailed 28-24.
So for all those Falconatics looking for positive omens, they may be as hard to find as a Bostonian with a soft spot in his heart for Bill Buckner.
But there is this: While New England went from an 11-point win (27-16) over Pittsburgh during the regular season to a 36-17 AFC title victory, Atlanta went from a one-point victory over the Packers in the regular season to a 29-point triumph against the Pack on Sunday.
And because of that - as well as Quinn's defense having surrendered 20 points or less in five of its last six outings - we'll go with poor Atlanta to shock the embarrassingly rich Patriots 31-27. If nothing else, that would certainly take a little fun out of their Super Bowl experience.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.