The Atlanta Falcons took a huge lead in the Super Bowl over the New England Patriots but something happened in the second half. New England pulled off the biggest comeback in NFL history over the Falcons and won the game, spoiling Atlanta’s first chance to take home the NFL championship. In a recent interview, quarterback Matt Ryan said that there were problems during the game with offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan getting the plays into the offense quick enough to go over them before breaking the huddle.
When asked about this, Shanahan, who is now the new San Francisco 49ers head coach, said that timing was never an issue and that the Matt Ryan comments were strange to hear.
Shanahan pointed out that the Atlanta Falcons had no delay of game penalties.
Matt Ryan’s comments
Matt Ryan was talking to CBS Sports about the Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl loss last season and called out his former offensive coordinator. Ryan said that Kyle Shanahan was taking a lot of time to get the plays called in. Ryan said that he would look up at the clock and see that the time was ticking down and there would be maybe 16 seconds left on the time clock when the changed play call came in and they would only have seven seconds to hike the ball once lining up.
According to Ryan, it was just the way that Shanahan set up his system and the team would just have to wait for him to get the plays called in before they could shift and motion.
Ryan compared it to the way that previous coordinator Dirk Koetter would call in plays and said that the Falcons could not play aggressive because there was no time after learning what the play was going to be before they had to get to the line.
Kyle Shanahan responds
Kyle Shanahan was asked about the Matt Ryan comments and said that the Atlanta Falcons never had any problem getting the play off in time and the lack of delay of game penalties proves that.
Shanahan also said that he prides himself on how fast he is as a play caller, completely dismissing Ryan’s comments about the slowness of getting calls in. Kyle said that the numbers don’t lie. His offense at Atlanta went two straight seasons without a single delay of game penalty (ESPN stats actually shows there was one).
Matt Ryan talks about Falcons controversy
Despite the fact that it was Matt Ryan calling out Kyle Shanahan publicly that started the Atlanta Falcons controversy, Ryan himself seemed a little taken aback at the comments getting so much publicity. Ryan said that his comments were misleading and it wasn’t a reference to the Super Bowl but it was to how the play calling was the entire season. Ryan said too many people are reading too much into it and the Falcons have moved on.
