Falcon fans are accustomed to this. Giving up seemingly insurmountable leads has become a trademark of Atlanta throughout Matt Ryan's career. Strangely, it never really seems like he's to blame, and yet there he is, a constant through them all.
The most notable, of course, was the cataclysmic 28-3 Super Bowl lead they enjoyed in the third quarter against New England. That took skill to lose that game. However, it wasn't an unusual feat for a club that routinely gives away games year after year after year. They look so good on paper at times, only to squander seasons away to 6-10 almost on a director's queue.
So there we were yesterday, a comedy of embarrassing errors by coaches and players alike, staring 0-3 right in the face, perhaps even 0-4 if the Browns are anything. They looked like junk on a stick. McCarthy said before the game they had a horrible week of practice, and it showed.
McCarthy made more dumb decisions yesterday than a season of Garrett. Zeke and Dak were fumbling balls like drunks taking wee-wees in the alley, then Dalton Schultz joined in on the parody. McCarthy had punters throwing to guys that don't have positions, then one-upped himself by by running up the middle on 4th and seemingly forever. He tripled down by going for two late and ruining the chance for a comeback.
Then Atlanta said, hold my beer.
Even before the twisting onsides debacle, Julio Jones dropped a perfectly thrown ball that would have iced the rout. Just inexplicably dropped it. This long after Dan Quinn had already strangely decided to go for two up 26-7. This game should have been put to bed.
Dallas scored a meaningless touchdown, setting up the impossible. An onside kick with today's rules makes them less than 1% successful.
Unless. The Falcons provided the unless.
What if your return team doesn't know the rules? Today's NFL players are notoriously ignorant when it comes to league history or game rules. (Would somebody please do the math for Pollard on returning kicks out of the end zone.) For some reason, players today don't seem to believe it's in their job description to know the rules of football.
Five Falcons just stood there. The ball wasn't hopping or doing crazy football bounces off its points. It was spinning smoothly with a slight curve toward that magical 10-yard come-and-get-me line for the Cowboys. And they just.....watched. Like it was going to take a hard left out of bounds or something. Like they had to let Dallas touch it first. Like they had money on the Cowboys to win.
They simply didn't know the rules. The most basic onsides rule at that. Then Goodwin, who slipped and dropped a poorly thrown ball earlier to help lose this game, pounced on it with no resistance. The Cowboys had just hit a royal straight on the river.
Ba-da-boom, ba-da-bing, and the always garbage Falcons defense watched Dallas go take a game it had no business even being it by then. Another day in Atlanta football. Falcons fans probably laughed. This was so Falcon.
What's left here in the aftermath is a Cowboys team that looks lost. This is a 6-10 type team that just got gifted a win, and hopefully a dose of reality. They aren't good.
Yes, the tackles will return. Adding Tyron and Collins, and replacing Williams with Leary, would do a lot fo the offense. Granted, but...that defense is a disaster. Pash rush is anemic again, the linebackers not named Joe Thomas are trash, and the secondary is lost in space outside of Diggs.
Yesterday was fun in the end, but when the euphoria wore off, a dark reality remained. Good teams will annihilate the Cowboys. If they don't get serious right now, they're headed for a beat down in Seattle. A number of much better teams await.
This coming Sunday will tell us the truth, whatever that is.
