Quarterback Matt Ryan has to lead his team back from one of the most devastating defeats in sports history.
The Atlanta Falcons quarterback said Tuesday that coming back from that Super Bowl LI loss — a game in which the Falcons blew a 28-3 third quarter lead — is harder than ever, but that his team has no choice but to do so.
“It takes a little bit of time, there’s no question about that,” Ryan told Bruce Murray and Phil Savage of SiriusXM NFL Radio. “I think that the further you go and don’t end up winning that, the tougher it is. But at the same time, for me it was one of those things that you think about it, you try and assess what you could have done better, what you would do differently moving forward. And then, ultimately, you’ve got to move on.
“I felt like I took a couple weeks to get away from it and spend time just relaxing and kind of disappearing for a bit,” Ryan continued. “But when I got back and we started to work on this 2017 season and the team that we have now, all of my focus goes there. I think you’ll always have a little bit of that scar that kind of drives you and that’s fine. Never let go of that, but our focus is one hundred percent about what we’re doing and what we’re moving forward to.”
The Falcons are doing their very best to move on, but it wouldn’t surprise anyone if there was a hangover from such a devastating loss. Their mental fortitude will definitely be tested.
