The Falcons’ charmed season came to a screeching halt at the Georgia Dome on Saturday.
The Green Bay Packers, the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoffs, totally dominated the No. 1-seeded Falcons and posted a 48-21 victory in front of 69,210 fans, most of whom couldn’t stomach the end and left early.
The Falcons finished 13-4, while Green Bay (12-6) advanced to the NFC championship game. Their opponent will be the Chicago Bears, who defeated the Seattle Seahawks 35-24 on Sunday.
The Falcons, winners of the NFC South title, earned the right to have a bye and had home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
But the Packers, behind the pinpoint passing of Aaron Rodgers and his fleet of receivers, were just too much for Falcons’ young and inexperienced defense.
Simply put, the Falcons got into a shootout with the Packers and couldn’t keep up.
Using their passing game and two interceptions by cornerback Tramon Williams, the Packers built a 28-14 lead at halftime.
Rodgers, who was snubbed for the Pro Bowl in favor of Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, completed 31 of 36 passes (86.1 percent) for 366 yards and three touchdowns against the Falcons’ depleted secondary.
The knife in the side of the Falcons’ neck came on the last play of the first half. The Falcons were trying to get back in field-goal range on a short pass, but Williams intercepted the pass and returned it 70 yards for a touchdown.
The Falcons got off to a good start.
Pro Bowler Eric Weems returned the ensuing kickoff 102 yards for a touchdown to put the Falcons back up 14-7, but there wasn’t much else to celebrate after that.
Most national pundits had predicted a Packers’ victory, but no one could have envisioned the Falcons suffering their worst playoff loss in history. The previous lows were three 17-point losses: to Washington 24-7 in the 1991 playoffs, to Green Bay 37-20 in the 1995 playoffs and to Philadelphia 27-10 in the 2004 NFC championship game.
Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez thanked the fans on his Twitter account.
He wrote, “Hey Guys, I wanted to thank you all for your support this season. Without you we never would have made it that far. Thanks!!”
Falcons Pro Bowl receiver“I want to apologize to all the falcon fans for our horrible performance last night it was not good and I’m sorry,” he wrote. Roddy White apologized to fans via Twitter.
“I want to apologize to all the falcon fans for our horrible performance last night it was not good and I’m sorry,” he wrote.
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