Here's what Dan Quinn says he learned from the Falcons' Super Bowl collapse

It's hard not to dwell on the what-ifs, but Quinn says he's looking ahead, not back

PHOENIX -- Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn said he doesn’t like to play the what-if game after his team blew a 25-point lead in the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots last February.

So I asked him here at the NFL meetings if he plays the “should-have game” instead as it relates to the play calling late in his team’s loss, specifically the sequence that took them out of range for what likely would have been a game-winning field goal to make the margin 10 in the final minutes of the game.

“Sure, yeah, 100-percent game,” Quinn said “Same game.”

The situation was this: The Falcons, leading by 8, had a first-and-10 at the New England 22 with 4:40 left and the Patriots having all three timeouts. They got to the 22 after an amazing 27-yard catch by Julio Jones.

The conventional thinking -- the right thinking -- was to run the ball three times and kick a field goal to make it a 10-point lead. The Patriots would have used all three of their timeouts in that scenario, making it a tough comeback down 10 without any timeouts.

The Falcons did run it on first down for a loss of 1. That’s when the football-strategy wheels came off. They tried to throw a pass on second down, but Matt Ryan was sacked for a loss of 12 on inside pressure from Trey Flowers. The Falcons did hit Mohamed Sanu for 9 yards on third down to get back to the 26 and field-goal range, but a hold was called. Ryan threw incomplete from the 45 after the penalty and they had to punt up 8 with 3:38 left.

It was a terrible display of game management. Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, now the coach in San Francisco, made the calls. The Patriots tied the game on the next drive and then won on the first drive in overtime, giving the Falcons a gut-wrenching loss to think about for a long time.

“I think when you go down that road, it’s the hindsight stuff, it’s so easy to say right now,” Quinn said “Of course I wanted the outcome to be different. Most plays that we had designed for our best player (Jones), they usually end up pretty good. It’s a fine line between gutsy call and poor call. I totally trusted Kyle in terms of calls. That’s life. I can’t keep looking back. I learned my lesson. I gain from my scars. How do you get better? That’s kind of where the what-if game changes for me. Where did I improve so much that will help me in the next 20 years?”

Quinn said there were times last season where he did overrule the play call, but just not in that moment.

“I will always speak up when I think it’s the right thing to do for our team,” he said. “Would I have liked the consequences to be better? Yes.”

There are some coaches who might bristle at the subject. Quinn isn’t one of them. That’s why I think he truly will learn from the mistake. He will use it as a learning tool to get better.

And he’s already a damn good coach.

It’s just that his legacy for now is defined by that moment on the biggest stage. He should have overruled Shanahan. If he did, the Falcons would likely be getting fitted for rings right now.