Tom Pelissero

USA TODAY Sports

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. – Put yourself in Kyle Shanahan’s headset.

You’ve spent the past week preparing for this situation, not to mention your entire adult life. You were alone in a room a couple hours ago, studying the defense’s tendencies one last time. You know they’re sending blitzes that aren’t sound against the run. You’ll likely get another on third-and-5.

You’ve also been through a six-game losing streak. You’re with your third team in three years. You’ve been hounded by the media about play-calling. If you run it here and get stopped, you know you’re getting booed out of the stadium. Your players will ask questions, too.

“It’s human nature to go with the easier outcome, for everybody,” Shanahan, the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator, told USA TODAY Sports recently at a tavern near team headquarters. “And if I ever start doing that, that’s when it would be hard for me to respect the process and what I’m doing.

“‘It is the right thing to call it. Call it.’ You have to think that way. There is pressure in this game, and if you get encompassed by the pressure, that’ll affect your outcome.”

You’re confident, because you’re prepared. But you have scars, too. All coordinators do, once they’ve coached enough football. You guessed wrong, or the quarterback made the wrong read, or somebody fell – it might’ve happened a week ago or a decade ago, but you don’t forget it.

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Months later, your team will release a declining 34-year-old receiver named Roddy White, who will say on his way out that you mismanaged things and cost the team games. His agent will say you’re the only reason the franchise cut ties with one of its legends.

This is why you don’t listen to talk radio anymore, the morning after wins or losses. If you need that to make yourself feel good, you’ll feel that much worse when it’s bad. You listen to reggae instead, grab a cup of coffee, put on another tape, start preparing for this moment all over again.

“It’s one of the things I think I crave about football,” Shanahan said. “I am the dad I am, the husband I am, but outside of that, football makes me find out who I am.

“I think I’m extremely battle-tested. I’ve been through a lot of situations. You always wish you didn’t have to go through those, especially when it becomes public and people question your character. That’s hard. You just want to get a microphone and defend yourself, but you can’t. It’s like, ‘Can we have a debate?’ You’ve got to suck it up.”

Your father understands. Mike Shanahan built his career on calling plays, decades before he won a couple Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos. You didn’t realize until you worked together how different you are as football men, but you still talk all the time.

Your last name shouldn’t matter anymore, but you know it does to some people. It helped you get your first NFL job in 2004, doing quality control in Tampa for Jon Gruden, who had you draw every play known to man. That began to shape your views on offense. Perception used to bother you. But if you couldn’t stand on your own, you’re sure the league would’ve spit you out a long time ago.

At age 36, you’ve already been an NFL coordinator for eight seasons and are on your way to a fifth top-10 finish. You’ve had the No. 1-ranked passing and rushing unit. This Falcons offense will lead the league in 10-play drives and time of possession, finish second on third downs – but also have the most red-zone turnovers and be among the lowest-scoring teams outside the red zone. You know that’s not good enough.

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“The No. 1 (misconception) is that he’s stubborn or hardheaded. Because he’s not,” Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said of Shanahan. “You need to know what you’re talking about. He’s open to the best option, but you better have reasons for why you think it’s the best option, there’s no doubt about that.”

You get that from your dad, whom you always intended to coach beside someday, after you’d proven yourself. You left a good thing with the Houston Texans in 2010 to join him in Washington, and you’d never take that back, even though it’s where the criticism began.

There was the benching of Donovan McNabb, who later was traded to Minnesota and lasted six starts there before his career was over. There was injury and ugliness with Robert Griffin III, who thrived in a diverse scheme you tailored to his skill set before deciding he didn’t want to run it anymore. (The next Redskins coach, Jay Gruden, benched RG3 and the Redskins cut him in March.)

There was the reluctance in Cleveland to play Johnny Manziel (out of football) even though the real issue was the front office that drafted him (fired). You resigned after one season and landed with the Falcons, whose fall from 6-1 to 8-8 – still better than the team looked on paper – will be pinned by White and others in part on your system, less reliant on no-huddle than Ryan and company have run in the past.

“When I was younger, you work so hard, you want people to see it and you want to show everyone that you’re good at what you do,” Shanahan said. “One thing you realize over the years is if you think that way, you’ll never be happy. That’s chasing an impossible dream.

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“Yeah, I hope to get along with everybody. I hope to make everybody happy. But my biggest concern is doing the best job I can for the Falcons. I can focus on what’s important pretty well.”

Falcons coach Dan Quinn will say you and him “both have a lot of resiliency” and he never considered letting you go after the season. He hired you for a reason: your offenses are tough to defend, capable of stressing a defense horizontally and vertically. You think two steps ahead, anticipating the defense’s adjustments and how to attack them.

In the offseason, your team will sign center Alex Mack and receiver Mohamed Sanu and draft tight end Austin Hooper. You’ll still have all-pro receiver Julio Jones, whose presence creates opportunities for others. Ryan will have 18 months in your system before training camp begins.

And you’ll have fresh scars, such as the pass on fourth-and-goal inside the 1 at Tennessee. You thought they’d commit all 11 defenders to stop the run again, but they didn’t, and no one was open, and Ryan threw an interception that could’ve cost you the game, and it was your fault, all your fault.

“Those things haunt you,” Shanahan said, “and that’s why the next time I go into a game where I think it’s going to be that situation and I do think that it’s the right thing to throw the ball, I better make sure I have a talk with myself before that game starts. Because if not, my scars will take over.

“I’ve got the awareness to know that none of us are invincible. You’re going to go wherever your conscience takes you, and you’ve got to make sure it doesn’t mess you up.”

For now, it’s third-and-5. The pressure has mounted with the losses. You feel 10 years older than you did two years ago. You know the right call is to run, even if might end up being the wrong call and you’ll have to explain yourself, again.

What do you do?