First, there was the confused game plan. Remember Julio Jones, the guy that made one of the all-time great playoff catches? Atlanta targeted him just four times all game, fewest of any game the entire season. Remember Atlanta’s speedy running backs and how devastating they were catching passes out of the backfield all season, and remember how Freeman had that 39-yarder that was almost a touchdown and how Coleman scored on his lone catch? Atlanta only threw the ball one other time to either player all game.

Atlanta had one of the best offenses in league history by putting their athletes into space and exploiting mismatches. How did Jones, Freeman, and Coleman get a combined seven targets in the biggest game of the year? How did Atlanta average over 7.5 yards a play and lose a game??

The script got worse as the game grew on. With eight minutes left, Atlanta had a 3rd and 1 on its own 36-yard line. At this point they were averaging 5.8 yards per carry. A run gives Atlanta a great chance at a first down. Even if the run was stuffed, Atlanta punts the ball away with a 16 point lead and under eight minutes left, giving New England the ball deep in their own territory, still a near-100% chance of victory. Instead the Falcons dialed up a deep drop for Matt Ryan, Freeman missed his block, and Ryan was strip-sacked. New England recovered the ball and scored a touchdown five plays later, and suddenly it was an 8-point game.

From there Atlanta got the ball back and, just a few plays later, completed the insane catch to Julio Jones, giving them 1st and 10 on the New England 22 with 4:40 remaining. The Julio catch should’ve been the play that stopped the bleeding and won the game for the Falcons. At this point, just running the ball three times was the optimal strategy. Even if Atlanta doesn’t get the first down — and remember they are averaging 5.7 yards per carry — they can run the clock below three minutes and give Matt Bryant a 40-yard kick for an 11 point lead.

They did run once but then took a 12-yard sack, a holding penalty on another pass, and an incomplete pass, saving New England over a minute of time and putting themselves out of field goal range. Here and elsewhere the Falcons also stumbled by repeatedly snapping the ball with plenty of time on the play clock when all they had to do was run the clock out and celebrate their win. Somehow Atlanta went from 1st down on the 22 to punting the ball while using just one minute of clock. Disaster.

Another huge mistake came a few plays later on the wild Edelman catch. Atlanta threw the challenge flag two seconds before the 2-minute warning with New England unready to snap the ball. The Falcons could’ve let the clock hit the 2-minute mark and then had the full TV timeout to look at every angle of the Edelman play — they could’ve seen like the rest of us that it was in fact a catch and saved a timeout they sorely needed. Instead they burned the timeout and they did so before the 2-minute warning, giving the Patriots a free extra play and timeout. The only goal is to run the clock out!

A few plays later New England has tied the game at 28 with 57 seconds left as FOX reminds us that no Super Bowl has ever gone into overtime. On cue, Atlanta seemed to hunker down and prepare itself for overtime. Have they not watched New England play in a Super Bowl before?

Flash back to New England’s first Super Bowl victory in 2002. The Patriots had held a 17–3 lead with ten minutes left before the Rams came all the way back to tie the game with 1:21 left. The game appeared to be headed to overtime and the Rams had all the momentum, but the Patriots aggressively moved the ball down the field in their no-huddle offense, setting up Adam Vinatieri for the game winner. Two years later, New England faced the same situation. Having blown a lead three times to Carolina, the Patriots got the ball back with 1:13 left in a tie game. Again they were aggressive and moved the ball down the field, and again Vinatieri won the game.

You might not realize that Atlanta had the NFL’s leading scorer this season in Matt Bryant — you might not realize it because Atlanta failed to utilize Bryant all game outside of four measly extra points. Bryant is one of the NFL’s most accurate long kickers of all time. In Atlanta Bryant converted 24 of 32 field goals from 50+ yards, including 6 of 8 this year alone! That 75% conversion rate is second all time behind only Matt Prater, far better than the NFL average of just 44% conversion.

All the Falcons had to do was get the ball to at least the New England 40 and Matt Bryant would’ve had a good shot of getting them the win. They would have only 57 seconds without any timeouts but would likely need only around 35 yards with the NFL’s newly crowned MVP under center and an offense that was averaging almost eight yards a play.

Instead, Atlanta seemed unprepared to take advantage of the opportunity. Eric Weems made an ill-advised decision to return the kickoff from a yard deep in the endzone, costing his team 14 yards and five seconds. From there, Atlanta picked up a first down but stayed in-bounds, then threw a 4-yard pass to Hooper in-bounds that forced them to spike the ball and suddenly the opportunity was gone. There was no attempt to get the ball to Jones or one of the star running backs, no throws near the sidelines, and no throw down the field until a desperation heave on third down.

You might argue that Atlanta simply wanted to get to overtime at this point and not risk giving the ball back to New England with a chance to score, and that’s fair. But this is the Super Bowl and you have the MVP under center, the scoring leader at kicker, and one of the greatest offenses in NFL history.

Now — now??! — you get conservative??

Atlanta had a few other chances to stop the bleeding. They could’ve tried a surprise onside kick to start the overtime. That would’ve been a risky move, but the defense wasn’t prepared to stop Brady anyway and a recovery would’ve put Atlanta within a first down and a field goal of victory. Atlanta also went home with two timeouts in their pocket. The defense was gassed, and the Patriots were moving the ball at will. There’s no need to save timeouts for a clock situation in overtime. What are you saving them for, Atlanta? Why not let the defenders catch their breath, or what about calling a timeout with the season on the line before a goal line stand that never happened?

Atlanta made one mistake after another, and the mistakes compounded into a disaster they won’t soon forget. New England made plenty of mistakes of their own before Atlanta fell apart. Both teams deserved to lose for half of the game, and both deserved to win for the other half.

As fate would have it, Atlanta deserved to lose just a little bit more, when even any one of 20 or 30 things could’ve gone the other direction and saved an otherwise victorious Super Bowl evening.

But unlike Alexander Hamilton, Atlanta threw away their shot.