Ricardo Allen said the defense was ‘flat’ late in loss

Falcons free safety Ricardo Allen said the defense was flat playing with a lead against Miami. Video by D. Orlando Ledbetter

Falcons coach Dan Quinn wanted more emotion.

He didn’t get it.

Quinn cited not playing with enough emotion as one reason why the Falcons loss to Bills two weeks ago, right before the bye week.

“We have to be ready to fight,” safety Ricardo Allen said. “At the end of the game when it’s 14-17 (Falcons winning), we were flat.”

Allen felt, clinging to a three-point lead, that the defense needed to slam the door on the Dolphins’ comeback. They couldn’t achieve that objective.

After a botched snap on a Falcons punt, the Dolphins added a 49-yard field goal to tie the game in the fourth quarter.

After a three-and-out by the offense, the defense allowed the Dolphins to get in position for a game-winning 38-yard field goal.

The Falcons blew a 17-point lead. A reminder that they blew a 25-point lead in  Super Bowl LI.

“That correlation doesn’t matter,” Allen said. “If you have a lead and you lose it (that) stings no matter what. Yes, that happened to us last year, but that correlation is just brought on by the media.”

The Falcons had the Dolphins on the ropes, just like the Patriots in the championship, but couldn’t put them away.

“We have to finish,” Allen said. “We have to battle through all of it.”

Quinn reminded the team how close games are early in the season. The Falcons were 13-point favorites over the Dolphins and apparently tuned out the message. 
"He came to us and told us that it's almost 80 percent, games are won at the end over the first six weeks of the season," Allen said. "When you show that to a team, that's your way of saying that we have to tighten it up and we've got to finish.

“We are going to be fighting until the end no matter how good we are and we are a pretty good team.”

Allen doesn’t know how things flipped so quickly on this team.

“We were winning,” Allen said. “That’s what I don’t understand. We have to keep driving. That’s what we have to do. We have to stay positive. We are up.

“I don’t care what they are doing. We should be jumping up and down and doing back flips. When you are up, you should have the momentum because you are winning at that point in time.”

But the Dolphins had the Falcons on their heels.

“You go out and play ball, sometimes if you feel because the other people are making plays, we have slow it down and keep grinding,” Allen said. “We have to bounce back from that stuff.”

Did the Falcons make the proper halftime adjustments?

“The only thing I kept saying was ‘don’t pull off,’ ” Allen said. “Let’s shut them out. Let’s be dominant. I know if we could do in the first half, I know for sure that we could do in the second half.”

They couldn’t.

The Falcons are searching for answers for how Miami’s offense was able to come alive even with a shaky passing attack.

“It was the same stuff,” Allen said. “They ran the same plays. It’s easy to be mediocre in this league and just win a game. Sometimes when you pull of the pedal, teams in this league are good.

“Teams are good in this league. It’s doesn’t matter who they have at quarterback, no matter what they are doing on their side, no matter what their record is. Any given Sunday it can happen in this league.”

Are the Falcons starting to doubt their ability to finish teams? Considering the recent history and that they’ve been outscored 72-40 in second halves this season, it’s fair to wonder.

“No,” Allen said. “(Doubt) never comes in.”