Super Bowl LI is officially set as we found out on Sunday that the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots will be the two teams that square off for football’s ultimate prize.
Both won their respective Conference Championships in convincing fashion. The Falcons won by a margin of 23 and the Patriots put 19 points between them and their opponent. While theoretically the game’s top four teams would be playing this weekend and produce big-time matchups, that hasn’t necessarily been the case this season.
NFL Postseason games so far.
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(Super Bowl 51 ????)— DAN (@danWorthington) January 23, 2017
The NFL has put out a lower-than-usual quality product this season, and that norm was bucked whenever the Dallas Cowboys were playing. Week in and week out America’s Team saved NFL ratings and produced epic finishes… including one last week that left us all devastated.
Yes, the Cowboys lost to the Green Bay Packers and that’s a reality that we’ve all been living with for a week now. If any of those Green Bay faithful want to know how to deal with a loss, they can call us for advice just go ahead and figure it out on their own.
The NFC Championship Game did leave a lot of members of Cowboys Nation thinking, though… would this have been the quality of game had the Cowboys managed to pull off a victory last week? Surely that isn’t the case, right? There’s no way we’d be that bad?
Dallas Would Have At Least Made It A Game
At one point in time, the Packers were trailing 31-0 in the NFC Championship Game. That’s a real sentence. In the game BEFORE THE SUPER BOWL the Packers were getting absolutely obliterated.
While they were at least in the game the Cowboys fell into a similar hole against those very Packers when they trailed 21-3 at one point during the Divisional Round. In an effort unbeknownst to Green Bay, Dallas managed to tie their game not just once, but twice… losing ultimately by a margin of three.
Given that the Packers struggled mightily on the ground against Atlanta and that’s an area of the game where the Cowboys are known to have some success, one could certainly imagine that Dallas would have been far more in this game than the Green Bay Packers.
Would The Cowboys Have Been Able To Beat The Falcons?
Atlanta put up 493 total yards and 44 points in the NFC Championship. Dallas only allowed that much yardage or more just once in 2016, on Thanksgiving against the Redskins when they surrendered 505 total yards. The most points that the Cowboys allowed across the season were the 34 that the Packers scored when they lost.
There was only one other time that the Cowboys allowed at least 30 points, an even 30-point performance when they traveled to Pittsburgh… arguably their greatest game of the season.
When you consider the extreme potency that the Atlanta Falcons Offense carries and look at how when the Cowboys faced a fraction of it, and lost, against the Green Bay Packers… you start to really wonder about things.
While it is certainly fair to assume that Dallas would have shortened the game by running Ezekiel Elliott, this was a strategy that they didn’t even employ effectively against Green Bay. All signs of logic point to the notion that the Atlanta Falcons Offense simply would have been too much for the Cowboys had they indeed met in the NFC Championship.
Enjoy your win this year, Atlanta. Next season we’re coming in far more prepared. Huzzah.
The Cowboys lost the Divisional Game for two reasons. The first one is everyone from the Idiot Owner Jerry Jones all the way down to the Pathetic Sorry Coach Jason Garrett put their faith and hope in a little boy that had no experience for this type of game and played the first three quarters so pathetic that it was so unreal. This should have been Tony Room’s Game. No one will never know what the out come would have been if he had played. New title for Dak Prescott “Choke the Chicken”. Prescott really Choked the Chicken real bad that he left it featherless. Second the Defense and the Offense both played like fools. There no way this Cowboys could have beaten the Atlanta Falcons. We will never know what the Cowboys could have accomplished with Tony Romo. This is what happens when you put a child to play in a very important game and all that child can do is “CHOKE THE CHICKEN”. Prescott is now Worse than Romo.
Your an idiot, look at his stats. The coaching lost this game. If they would have ran the ball more, they would have won. Any fool knows that if they can’t stop the run you stick with it until their spirit is broken. Wake up you hater.
Nah, Oscar is totally right.
And you wake up – it’s “you’re,” not “your.”
No, Oscar is totally wrong. And that makes for 2 idiots in the same thread
Finally, someone else has said it. Tony should of taken over as soon as he was healthy. He was our best chance to win a super bowl. He got the shaft and should of been given a chance. Rookie QBs don’t win super bowls. Worst decision in Cowboy history. With that said, I like Dak, but we were obviously playing for next year and with Dak having a year under his belt, it will only make us better next year. Btw, remember this always, Rookie QBs don’t win super bowls.
Atlanta / Dallas hypothetical:
For Atlanta:
Entire team peaking, defense playing better than it is
Against Atlanta:
Have to face a big, hostile Dallas crowd. Probably can’t stop Dallas much better than Dallas can stop it.
I can see the game going either way. Atlanta earned this NFC crown, no disputing that. It has the look now of “their year”.
I wanted Dak to go 1-0 to start his playoffs, and not down the Romo path. But after a slow start he played great against GB. 103.2 rating in the game, made all the plays he had to to bring his team back in the 4th. Rookie in his first playoff start.
I’m taking that.
Super Bowl 51 Vegas odds as of this AM:
Spread: New England -3
over/under : 59
This one is particularly hard to forecast IMO. There are several possibilities that would be the proverbial game changer.
– New England isn’t good enough on defense to shut down Atlanta. But Belichick is good enough to bottle up J Jones. That’s always what he does. He limits your best option.
So Atlanta has to adjust. First, to not concede that. Move Jones around. Get him the ball no matter if that takes flanker screens, end arounds, quick slants, etc.
But NE will slow Jones down. Atlanta has to also go in with the mindset that it will make NE pay with it’s other weapons. I start that with the running game – try to wear NE down and chew up clock that Brady can’t use against me.
– Atlanta is definitely not good enough on defense to stop NE. Brady made the Steelers look like jackasses, and Gronkowski was out. If ATL sits in soft zones and 4 DL, they will face worse than the Steelers did. Houston played NE more aggressively, more bump coverage.
I’d sell out on that and send the house at Brady, similar to what the Redskins did to Romo in 2014 when he got the back injury.
Yes he’s going to burn it, but you also get hits and sacks on him, probably a fumble or INT(s) out of it. If you do it all day he might crumble or go out hurt, etc.
If I’m Atlanta I go in with the idea that if Brady is unmolested he is probably winning the game. I make sure he gets harassed.
I would not bet a side on this game – too unpredictable. But that over is tempting. Can easily see both teams scoring over 30.
Dak Prescott did everything he could for this team. I can’t believe people really think Romo would have done more. REALLY!!Check the stats Dak did in a playoff game what Romo never did ,300 and 3 td. This same team Romo has been playing for has never had an above average defense We scored 31 and lost at home Atlanta scores like us but at least they play a little defense That’s why their in the Superbowl and not us