Houston: Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan admitted his team were struggling to come to terms with their shattering Super Bowl loss on Sunday after the New England Patriots’ remarkable comeback victory.
The Falcons appeared to be surging to their first Super Bowl win after leading 28-3, only to see New England roar back to triumph 34-28 in overtime.
“There’s nothing you can really say,” said a dejected Ryan. “That’s a tough loss.
“Obviously very disappointed, very close to getting done what we wanted to get done, but it’s hard to find words tonight.”
Falcons head coach Dan Quinn summed up the mood: “For sure hurts like hell.”
It was the second time in two years Quinn has tasted an agonising Super Bowl defeat to the Patriots. He was an assistant coach for the Seattle Seahawks when the Patriots snatched a dramatic late win in 2015.
Quinn admitted the Falcons would struggle to deal with Sunday’s loss.
“No doubt that was a tough one for us,” Quinn said. “That’s a hard one in the locker room. No one place to put that mentally for us.
“But I’m proud of the fight that these guys have,” added Quinn, admitting that his team “ran out of gas some” in the second half.
“I think at the end, when we go back and watch it tomorrow, for sure, there were things that we could have done different or played differently.
“I was impressed with how hard the guys fought and battled for it. That’s why we’re hurting so bad right now.”
Ryan, meanwhile, was left contemplating a miscalculation in the fourth quarter, which could potentially have cost his team the game.
With the Falcons leading 28-20, the quarterback conceded a costly sack on the 23-yard line that took his team out of range for a field goal, which would have put Atlanta two scores clear.
“That was a tough one,” Ryan said. “I wish I could have done a better job of trying to get rid of the ball.”
Ryan said he believed the Falcons would recover but acknowledged the brutal nature of the defeat would stay with the team.
“It’ll sting tonight, for sure,” he said. “It’s not easy when you’ve come this far and didn’t get the result that you want.
“Like all things we’ll move past it, come together and, hopefully, put ourselves right back in this position.”
