For the second time in the last four games, the Falcons lost in the final seconds due to a field goal. The first time was in London and the next time came Sunday inside the Georgia Dome.
These losses are frustrating in every way and have noticeably made the Falcons fan base upset with the current state of the team. The truth of the matter is that this team continues to stay in first place in the NFC South and still has five games left in this season.
True, the schedule seems to be stacked against them down the stretch. However, they still have games left to be played in this season. That is exactly what the team is focused on moving forward to prepare for Sunday in the Dome against the NFC West leading Arizona Cardinals.
In closing the book on the Cleveland Browns loss on Sunday, head coach Mike Smith opened his Monday press conference by talking about his role in the final seconds of the game. He says that he should have done some things differently.
“I didn’t do the things that needed to be done to put our guys in the best position to win the game,” Smith said. “There’s lots of plays in a football game that can affect the outcome, and I didn’t do my best to help us win yesterday.”
The Falcons players definitely appreciate Smith saying those things on Monday and now are trying to move on from that loss. Veteran safety Dwight Lowery says the page was turned, after they watched the film on Monday. He says it’s easy to move on.
“It better be otherwise we’re going to lose again,” Lowery said. “You can’t just sit here and think about one game for two, three, or four days. This other team, Arizona is going to be ready to come in here and beat the crap out of us. We’ve got to be ready for that and we’ve got to have that same mentality to go beat the crap out of them.”
Lowery is familiar with being on teams that have to win tough games down the stretch in order to make the playoffs. He experienced this in 2009 with the New York Jets as a rookie. That season, the Jets entered their final two games at 7-7. They were able to pick up wins against the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals to grab the final wild card spot in the AFC. If you’ll remember the Jets made it all the way to the AFC Championship.
He says that he learned a valuable lesson about trying to make it to the postseason in the NFL from that season.
“It’s not over,” Lowery said. “Nobody knows who’s going to be in the playoffs or in the hunt in week 12 or 13. A lot of crazy scenarios can happen. So you’ve just got to control what you can control and that’s win your next game. That’s what we’re focused on.”
The New Orleans Saints loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night keeps the Falcons in first place at 4-7 on the season. Of course, the Falcons players couldn’t predict the future of what would happen later that night inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. That said, Falcons veteran offensive lineman Justin Blalock doesn’t care what the Saints are up to.
“We don’t want to hobble into things like that (the division title),” Blalock said. “Obviously we’d like to handle what we can and make that stuff irrelevant.”
The Falcons and Saints will play each other December 21, down in New Orleans. Before that game the Falcons play the Cardinals this weekend, Green Bay Packers on the road for Monday Night Football, and then come back home for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The schedule is going to be tough for the Falcons over the final five games of this 2014 regular season. The good news is that only two of those games are on the road. This week is yet another chance for them to try and get their first win over a team that is not in the NFC South.
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