Dan Quinn doesn’t think the Falcons lost because of a blown pass interference call

Plenty of people are continuing to talk about the blown pass interference call that would have given the Atlanta Falcons an opportunity to beat the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. Dan Quinn, however, thinks that’s not the reason his team lost the game.

“The message I gave to the team — and I wholeheartedly believe it — (is) it does not come down to one play,” Quinn said Monday. “We had opportunities in that ballgame to make game-winning plays, game-statement plays earlier, and we didn’t do that. So it just so happens that one all got magnified on.”

The play was undoubtedly pass interference, but it’s the kind of play that officials often miss for a variety of reasons. Whether the angle was bad and the referees didn’t see Richard Sherman hook Julio Jones’ arm, or whether the play just happened too fast in real time for it to register, the officials missed it. It happens.

Quinn correctly pointed out that the Falcons had other opportunities throughout the game. Atlanta was in a position to win had Sherman not committed pass interference, but the Falcons didn’t manage to score at all until the third quarter. One good quarter isn’t going to win a game.

Aside from a strong showing in the third quarter, the Falcons struggled to protect Matt Ryan, who took four sacks on the day. The Falcons had eight penalties that cost them 66 yards, and turnovers hurt them, too. They forced three fumbles, but didn’t recover any of them. For the Seahawks, Cliff Avril forced a fumble, and a pick by Earl Thomas changed the momentum late in the game in the Seahawks’ favor.

“For us, penalties were certainly a factor yesterday, and the turnover margin being minus-2 — zero takeaways defensively, or even on (special) teams, then being minus-2, we know how difficult that can be.”

Just because Quinn accepts that the missed call isn’t the reason the Falcons lost to the Seahawks doesn’t mean he wasn’t angry about the call. Quinn was livid on the sideline after the play, stomping down and yelling what seemed to be a lot of PG-13 language.

“I was certainly ticked off as a competitor,” Quinn said. “But I’ll let (the league) comment on the play. But as a competitor, you probably saw that on the sideline from me.”

The league will review the play and will issue a statement, but their assessment won’t change the fact that the call wasn’t made, and it’s not the reason the Falcons lost the game.