It wasn’t, we concede, the first, or even the second, thought that danced across the ol’ brainpan on the star-crossed night of Feb. 5, 2017. The first was, “Holy cow! The Falcons are leading 28-3!” The second, and the one that will linger forever, was, “Holy crud! How’d they blow THAT?”
Lost in the debris of egregious defeat, though, was the notion that a franchise that had spent nearly the entirety of its existence searching for answers had at last struck the proper blend. The coach knew what he wanted, and his players were playing to specifications. They went 11-5 against a wicked schedule.