Who knows where Dan Quinn’s career will go from here. Because he was across the sideline from Bill Belichick in the epic New England 34-28 overtime win in Super Bowl LI, it is tempting to measure the possibilities accordingly. Could Quinn keep a team in contention — and win five Super Bowls — over the next two decades?

Nah, probably not. That’s really, really hard to do. What Belichick has done is truly unprecedented. I’m not sure we’ll ever seen anything like it again.

But for most of one night — lets say 45 minutes of game time — he clearly got the better of the most-accomplished extended dynasty in NFL history.

And then Belichick’s team did what Belichick’s teams do. They adjusted, they executed, they found a way.

But if you only study the first part of the film — you know, before the ship hit the iceberg — it does not appear the Falcons did anything special. They ran their base defense and relied on man-to-man coverage on passing plays — and it worked. As they have done all year, the defensive ends and linebackers stunted and curled their way into the backfield. Quinn found ways to mask their liabilities — mainly that none were great at creating a pass rush on their own — and was rewarded by a breakout game from Grady Jarrett, who brutalized Shaq Mason and anyone else across from him and finished with 3 sacks.

New England couldn’t counter until the end. It tried to open up passing room by sticking with the run, hoping to drag defenders into the box. The Patriots ran four times for just 11 yards during the feeling out process of the first quarter. Then LaGarrette Blount fumbled on the second play of the second quarter.

Many of the Patriots’ issues were self-inflicted early on. Brady missed more throws than usual, and threw his first pick-6 in seven Super Bowl appearances. His receivers dropped too many passes and failed to muscle in for others.

But ultimately the Patriots were overwhelmed by a young, fast defense that has been elite since about the mid-way point of the season.

And it makes sense, when you think about it. A lot of the narrative surrounding this team has focused on Matt Ryan and the offense finally picking up on Kyle Shanahan’s philosophy in his second season (after an initial year in which fans called for his ouster.)

As Steven Ruiz wrote earlier in the week, Quinn set out to replicate to whatever extent he could the Seahawks attacking defense. Doing so with established safeties like Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor sort of seemed silly — until you remembered that those players didn’t become stars until they were freed to run and had adjusted to a scheme that asks then only to make quick reactions and move without much hesitation.

It takes time to implement even simple plans. Especially when there’s so much young talent coming through:

And while I’m at it, the Falcons roster building is below. Last 2 years have been incredible: pic.twitter.com/FT35uMbL4G — Gregg Rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) January 31, 2017

Robert Alford, who returned that Brady interception for a touchdown and recovered Blount’s fumble and made 11 tackles, is in his fourth season and was an established corner.

But Keanu Neal (13 tackles) is a rookie, as is Deion Jones (who forced the fumble and had 9 tackles). Jarrett is in his second season, as is Jalen Collins (11 tackles.)

The Patriots eventually found holes later in the game, largely relying on running back James White to float out from the backfield for catches (he had 14 for 110 yards). Atlanta’s linebackers were exposed, the weakness exposed.

But there’s now reason to believe that Quinn can have the sort of success his mentor, Pete Carroll, has enjoyed. The NFL is constantly evolving, of course, so Quinn will have to adjust. New England’s preference for smaller receivers is in part a response to Seattle’s big, powerful secondary. And officials have begun to watch for tactics that are essential to the Seattle way: mainly lots of contact. The Falcons were called for defensive holding three times on one drive Sunday.

But the principles of Carroll’s scheme come from his time coaching at Arkansas in 1977. Quinn has obviously absorbed them and applied them with alacrity this year.

He’ll need to find a offensive coordinator, since Shanahan appears to be set to become the head coach of the 49ers. That’s a balancing act Belichick has handled remarkably well, sending coordinators onto big jobs while finding ways to replace them with little to no backsliding (in the case of Josh McDaniel, he re-hired an old one). That’s the sign of well-built organization and Quinn only has so much control over that right now.

What we know unequivocally, after the most jarring Super Bowl collapse in history, is that his young, relatively inexperienced defense was almost good enough to stop the Patriots. And that’s enough reason to feel something nobody in Atlanta is ready to feel: hope.