Instead of closing the gap to 10-6, the Falcons trailed 17-3. The 10-point swing was that quick. And it was that painful.
This was the situation: Atlanta trailed 10-3 and faced a fourth-and-3 with about five minutes remaining in the first
half. Falcons coach Dan Reeves, who had earlier overlooked Andersen in a similar situation, called on his trustworthy kicker -- who was responsible for getting the Falcons to Pro Player Stadium with a game-winning field goal in overtime of the NFC Championship Game two weeks ago against the Minnesota Vikings.
Andersen missed a chip shot from 26 yards out, sending it wide right.
"I knew I hooked it right away," Andersen said. "My balance was back, and my hips were wide open. I didn't get it done."
On the very next play, Elway found a streaking Smith sprinting down the middle of the field for an 80-yard
touchdown, burning beleaguered safety Eugene Robinson. Atlanta cut the lead to 17-6 later in the quarter, but got no closer as Denver pulled away for a 34-19 victory.
"That play wasn't in the game plan," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. "We call it "Fake 19 Handoff QB Keep Pass Right," and it is something that we worked on in training camp, but we haven't used it in a game for six or seven weeks."
On Sunday, they called it twice.
Shanahan said he and offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak saw the Falcons safeties keying on the run and decided to bring the play out of mothballs.
| |
 |
| |
Sunday, Jan. 31
I was talking to Vikings special teams coach Gary Zauner about this and he told me
the following:
This is the only game that they don't get to use the rubbed down balls. They use
brand new balls right out of the box that are hard as a rock. The guys were
over-kicking them. He also said that they normally have 24 balls per game, but that
they had 100 for this game. That makes a difference because the balls don't get
broken in.
|
"After we took a look at the Polaroid, we saw the safety jump at our running game," Shanahan said. "So we came back with the post route. We got lucky."
After Andersen's miss, Denver grabbed its opportunity. Smith lined up wide right and shed a cornerback immediately. He headed to the open field behind Robinson, who was caught alone upfield, no match for the faster receiver. Elway, who finished 18-for-26 for 336 yards and was named the game's MVP, rolled right and delivered the ball perfectly over Smith's shoulder, hitting him in stride.
"Kubiak came up and told me that I was running Keep X Post (Smith's assignment in Fake 19 Handoff QB Keep Pass Right), Smith said. "I said to myself, 'I've got a chance to be the guy, and jump-start this team.' "
On the offensive series before Andersen's miss, Reeves chose to leave his kicker on the sideline and go for a first down on fourth-and-1 from the Broncos' 26. Jamal Anderson took a pitch right from Chris Chandler and ran into a Broncos' traffic jam led by linebacker Keith Traylor. The result was a two-yard loss and a turnover on downs for the Falcons.
"I wasn't surprised when (Reeves) went for it,'' Andersen said of the botched fourth-down play. "He has a reason for the plays he calls, and he is a good coach. I need to be ready when he calls on me, I need to do the job."
But when Andersen got his chance on the next possession, he didn't do the job. It wasn't the magnitude of Scott Norwood's last-second miss for the Buffalo Bills in their 20-19 loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXV, but it was the turning point of this game.
Robinson, who played in the two previous Super Bowls with the Green Bay Packers, played the unfortunate victim. Making matters worse, he was picked up by Miami police on Saturday night for soliciting sex in an undercover sting.
"That long pass is really going to haunt me," Robinson said. "I rotated the defense down to try to get a jam on Rod Smith, and I don't know if Ronnie Bradford heard as we rotated the defense. He didn't get a jam, which would impede his progress. He just came off straight, and as I was rotating to get to him, he is rotating to the inside, and then I have to make a decision to tackle him or play the ball. I tried to play the ball."
Instead, Smith hauled it in. And Denver led by at least 11 points the rest of the way.
