When the Falcons took a 17-0 lead into halftime of Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, fans in both cities thought the exact same thing, "should be an interesting second half."
When most teams in the NFL have a 3-possession lead and a dominant 30 minutes, the game's over. The fans know it's over, and more importantly, the trailing team knows it's over, but with the Falcons you don't see that.
As we all know by now, the Bucs came back to win the game 31-27 as the Falcons once again couldn't hold off Tom Brady down the stretch.
The Falcons have remarkably blown three games in which they've held a 16 point lead or larger and have other 4th quarter blown leads that other teams simply don't give up.
One of the biggest issues is that when the Falcons get off to a fast start and build a big lead, the opposing team doesn't feel out of it. That's a lack of respect for the Falcons ability to adjust at halftime and finish in the 4th quarter.
John and Hugh talk about the lack of respect the Falcons receive and why it's part of the reason they've blown so many leads this season.
“Only way you get respect is if you earn it and you haven’t earned it all year long,” says Hugh Douglas. “The games this year where the falcons have been leading and lost, Bears, Cowboys, all those games, you follow a pattern of not finishing the job when it needs to be finished and that’s the reality of the Falcons season this year.”
“You’re not a finisher, so nobody is going to give that respect you’re trying to get when you’re not finishing games.”
The Falcons have shown a trend for 2nd half letdowns and they aren't going to receive the respect they deserve until they reverse that trend and prove that they can finish games and put teams away.