Lost in the 28-3 comeback was how Kyle Shanahan absolutely pants’d the Patriots from a scheming standpoint. In the second half, after building the lead, the Falcons could not run the ball at all. Big part of it was Alex Mack playing on a broken leg. Matt Ryan took a horrendous sack, too. These weren’t Shanahan’s mistakes, nor did he play too aggressively. I couldn’t believe the media tried to pin the game on the guy that deserved all the credit and not the blame. Dan Quinn, aka the hopping, skipping, clapping cheerleader was super annoying and gloating. I felt like as the head coach, he let the team completely lose control of the tempo and the game. Probably too far to say those actions led to the loss, but I felt like the Patriots might win when I saw his giant sht eating grin at 28-3 and Belichick’s totally unfazed poker face.
That’s also when Arthur Blank did the dance and came down to the sidelines too. You can see Dmitroff sitting next to Blank, when he was dancing, and Dmitroff’s face is like “dude, please just stop,” knowing that the Patriots would make a run.
When I saw the 49ers game live this year vs. Cleveland I was sitting at the 50 yard line in the third deck. I’ve never seen such a coaching mismatch as Shanahan and Kitchens. It was literally like seeing a chess player versus a checkers player.