I was exhausted after watching this team in 2014 lose so much passion to play the game. Watching the press just rip this team apart and say how much the Falcons were the laughing stock on the NFL hurt, because I love this team and game so much.
I remember sitting on the edge of my couch telling myself the next coach will have passion and the desire to win to the team I grew up loving.
As I watched Super Bowl 49 as Seattle Seahawks throw and not run the last play allowing the New England Patriots to win another Super Bowl, the TV zoomed in on Seattle Defensive Coordinator Dan Quinn, who was all but confirming him next Falcons Head Coach to replace outgoing Mike Smith. I was elated!!! The man that coached the ‘Legion of Boom’ and just a season ago suffocated QB Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos on way to Seattle’s only Super Bowl in their history, could be coming to my town to coach my team.
Reports out of Falcons camp was that Quinn was vetted and vetted some more, and organization after organization said this man is what the Falcons organization needed. So the next morning the announcement came that Quinn was hired. I waited and watched the news conference (can’t remember why I wasn’t at the office that day). This man was tough, this man was just what the doctor ordered to turn this team around and get to the Super Bowl. And it certainly was.
In just two years after Quinn was hired this team was rolling. The offense was scoring 30-40 points a game and couldn’t be matched by the opponent. The defense was playing just good enough, but it really didn’t matter because the offense could match twofold what the opposing offense was doing.
This coach looked the part and I had complete confidence in him. The Super Bowl versus the Patriots came and went, and a recovery was bound to happen, but I never saw it. Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan, the architect of this dominant offense, jetted to San Francisco as the 49ers new head coach. The Falcons would win three or four games and just as you thought things were turning around, things fell flat and the team would lose four or five games. But I still had faith in this coach because he instilled “The Brotherhood” and I as a fan bought in. It was a great feeling, “The Brotherhood.” The team rallied around that motto and it worked until it didn’t. But I still had faith. But the team began to fall apart. Coordinators left and Quinn took the rails of the defense. It worked up until the Super Bowl.
The last two seasons resulted in both 7-9 seasons, not what was expected of this team by Owner Arthur Blank. Blank hires leaders of men, and sometimes that fizzes out.
Both General Manager Thomas Dimitroff and Quinn knew what they were signing up for this year. It was playoffs or out. And yesterday’s game summed up no playoffs and you are out. In the history of the NFL, no team has ever made the playoffs beginning 0-5. So once the Falcons lost yesterday to the Carolina Panthers 16-23, the writing was on the wall. It was a matter of when not if. Around 10:00 PM last night the news dropped.
I have no doubt that Quinn is a great guy and I was in his corner the entire way. But this is a business and if you are not performing up to the level you are suppose to, then changes have to be made. I also have no doubt that both Quinn and Dimitroff will land on their feet somewhere.
Going forth for the next 11 games, defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, who has head coaching experience with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will become the interim head coach. Other coaching changes that Morris has put in place are as follows; Jeff Ulbrich from Linebackers Coach to Defensive Coordinator, Bernie Parmalee from Assistant Special Teams Coordinator to Special Teams Coordinator, Will Harriger from Game Management Coordinator to Running Backs Coach, Ben Kotwica has been relieved of his duties as the Special Teams Coordinator.
In a zoom video conference with both Blank and President, CEO Rich McKay, Blank was asked where he wants the new direction of the franchise to be? His response simply,
It’s called winning – Arthur Blank
This team has a lot to work on and accomplish over these next 11 games if they want to get anywhere to the point as they were back in 1998 and 2016. But it can be done.
Photo 1 Courtesy of Bleacher Report
Photo 2 Courtesy of CBS46-Atlanta
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