The Atlanta Falcons have said that they do not want to replay the Super Bowl, but we all can see them replaying it every weekend. I was not exactly sure what was going on, but now that we are facing down their rematch, I can see it. The Falcons are not over their Super Bowl loss even though I wrote a column saying that they had gotten over it. I was wrong, and now we need to discuss how they will get over it.
Get a sports psychologist
They need to hire someone to come and talk to the team and deal with their feelings. They said that they had team meetings about this, but I have just realized that they need something that is more like therapy.
Team meetings can pull the team together for one game, but they cannot fix a team. That means that the Falcons need to take swift action. They have the NFC South in their grasp, and they need to do something before their whole season goes down the drain. Most teams that lose the Super Bowl have a big letdown, but we thought that this team was better than that. Maybe we were wrong.
Stop pretending it does not hurt
One of the issues with football is that teams pretend like losing does not hurt as much as it does. They "get over" things really fast, and they fester all that emotion before the season ends. That is why teams like the Patriots seem to be mentally tough. It is not just that the Patriots were once filming walkthroughs before a Super Bowl.
I think they might honestly deal with emotions better than other teams.
Get back to Julio Jones
The Falcons need to get Julio Jones the ball a lot more than they are now, and they need to do it so often that we almost find it predictable. They have been having major problems with injuries, and they have not been using Jones enough.
It might be that they thought it was too obvious, but if it is already obvious, let the guy make plays. Force Julio Jones to make plays with his hands and legs, and see how far he can take this offense. They also need to make sure that they do everything they can to confuse other defenses when throwing to Jones. I like Steve Sarkisian, but maybe he missed that part.
Run downhill
I think that it would be nice for the Falcons to Run downhill as much as they can with Devonta Freeman. They have been trying to be cute for most of the season, and we all know that cute offenses and defenses never get you anywhere. This team is good enough to run it down the throats of opponents and stop playing timid. Maybe then they can stop replaying the Super Bowl.
