“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
So said Napoleon Bonaparte, the early 19th century French military leader and emperor, whose advice the New England Patriots channeled brilliantly in stunningly defeating the Atlanta Falcons by 34-28 in overtime this past Sunday in Super Bowl LI at NRG Stadium in Houston.
The Falcons, who entered the game as a three-point underdog, improbably held a 25-point lead, separating themselves by 28-3 late in the third quarter before becoming a fascinating case study in failed leadership.
Perplexingly, the Falcons coaching brain trust, led by head coach Dan Quinn and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, incomprehensibly mismanaged time and score, unnecessarily squandered valuable timeouts and seemingly forgot how to carry out elementary mathematical equations in allowing the Patriots to overcome the largest deficit in Super Bowl history and found themselves on the losing end of the most shocking collapse ever for a team in a major championship game.
After landing on the Patriots’ 22-yard line with 4:40 remaining in the fourth quarter, the result of a breathtaking 27-yard catch by wide receiver Julio Jones from a magnificent pass to the right sideline by quarterback Matt Ryan, the Falcons remained in a highly favorable position to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl, after some exceedingly questionable play calling by Shanahan led to a Falcons turnover and 17 consecutive Patriots points to cut their advantage to 28-20.
But instead of keeping the ball on the ground, bleeding the clock and or the Patriots of their timeouts and attempting what for Falcons kicker Matt Bryant would have been a field goal with a more than 80 percent probability of being successful, stretching their lead to 31-20 and with near certainty securing a victory, the Falcons mindlessly dropped back to pass on second and third downs after a first-down run, incurring a sack and a holding call, which pushed them back to the Patriots 45-yard line and out of field goal range.
It was like watching someone who had just learned he had won the Powerball place the multimillion dollar winning ticket on the hood of his car, park the vehicle directly in the path of an oncoming tornado and abandon the car.
The Falcons punted, the Patriots subsequently marched down the field for a touchdown and two-point conversion commanded by their quarterback and the game’s MVP Tom Brady, tying the score at 28-28 before winning the overtime coin flip and scoring a TD on a nine-play, 75-yard drive against an exhausted Falcons defense to culminate the seemingly impossible.
“I think for sure we ran out of gas some,” Quinn said, stating the obvious after the defeat.
“They executed terrifically,” he said of the Patriots. “That was one of the things that we don’t talk about with them a lot, is the way they can execute.”
Patriots head coach Bill Belichik and his charges indeed executed far better than the Falcons over the game’s final 23 minutes. But it wasn’t why Belichik and Brady won their fifth Super Bowl title in seven appearances. Napoleon’s 200-year-old recommendation explains it all.
