NickyJ wrote:I agree that Shanahan wasn't the only reason it went badly, but he played a major role, and that role has been the one he's played often in the past. He spent four years with the Redskins, I know it.
Going into the game, everybody knew that the game would come down to how the offense plays. Atlanta's defense has always, ALWAYS been viewed as their weakness, and that the New England ought to be able to walk all over them. It would be up to the offense to keep abreast or ahead of them. How the game planned out was completely the opposite of what anyone predicted. Everything went right for Atlanta, to the tune of 28-3. Where it went wrong is that Shanahan didn't know how to adjust his gameplan for the situation.
Both Kyle and his former assistant and offensive coordinator successor in Washington, Sean McVay, have an obsession with passing. Every situation, it's all set up to pass. When you have a QB that's on fire, it works, but for whatever reason, they refuse to run the ball when it's needed most. Kyle made that mistake for this game. At 28-3, you KNOW the Pats aren't going to lay down and die. In the meantime, the offense Kyle runs gave the Patriots double Atlanta's time of possession. There's no defense in the world that can be expected to lock down the Patriots when they're on the field for two thirds of the game.
Kyle needed to step up, and grind down the clock; for whatever reason, he didn't. Matt Ryan was in his first Super Bowl was bound to get the jitters when the Patriots came roaring back, and instead of alleviating it with the running game, he put more pressure on him. For a lot of that, I wouldn't have complained if it hadn't come down to getting pushed out of field goal range. But that fiasco is the biggest, brightest example of the train wreck Kyle and the rest of the coaching staff turned the 2nd half into.
I expected the Falcons to just run the ball and end the game, but they didn't. They chose to throw for no reason!?!?