If not for Dan Quinn and the Falcons, the storylines around the Panthers this week would have been quite different.
Or perhaps, if the Falcons hadn’t beaten the Panthers for the only blemish on their season in Week 16, the pressure of being undefeated might have derailed them at some other point.
Either way, the only guy who knows what it’s like to out-coach Ron Rivera this year, if only for a day, is Quinn. Of course, he’s also the only one who knows what it’s like to take a 38-0 loss to them two weeks prior, but let’s not get lost in the details.
“Our scheme didn’t change,” Quinn said, via Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We might’ve actually played less. Sometimes you can get wrapped up in all of the quarterback-designed runs [by Cam Newton] and there ended up being not as many as you think, maybe five to seven. . . .
“It’s a topic because they only had one loss. If they went 14-2, nobody would care. The one leaves a permanent scar. . . . There wasn’t a wholesale change on our part.”
The Falcons looked like a different team, and may have taken personally Newton and the Panthers shooting team photos on the sideline while the game was still going. But they also forced turnovers, and played defense like they hadn’t, and took advantage of a great team during its one moment of vulnerability.
