Dan Quinn went with his gut on the Falcons’ 4th-down call and his gut was wrong

With Sunday’s game against the Chargers on the line, Falcons head coach Dan Quinn took a risk. On fourth-and-1 from the Atlanta 45-yard line in overtime, Quinn elected to go for it rather than punt.

The result was a 33-30 loss for the Falcons.

Chargers linebacker Denzel Perryman dropped Devonta Freeman a full yard behind the line of scrimmage, ending the Falcons’ hopes of extending the drive and scoring. The Chargers scored on the next possession, securing the win.

Quinn said he simply went with his gut.

“Honestly, I had a real belief we were going to make it and just keep the drive going and keep extending it,” Quinn said Sunday. “Just a gut feeling that I went with. It didn’t work. We can second-guess. That’s easy to do, but it was more a mindset. I had such a belief in the guys to go get aggressive and get that half a yard that we needed. So when we didn’t, that was a costly mistake.”

The Falcons’ defense had a difficult time stopping Philip Rivers and the Chargers’ offense, giving up 371 yards through the air through five quarters of football. Atlanta allowed explosive play after explosive play. Receiver Tyrell Williams had a 48-yard catch, Dontrelle Inman had a 24-yard reception and Travis Benjamin had one for 21 yards.

Thanks to defense and some offensive mistakes, the Falcons blew a 27-10 lead and the game headed to overtime. They won the coin toss and got the ball on the first overtime possession with a chance to end the game before the Chargers got another shot on offense.

But the right call in this situation would have been to punt. Atlanta’s defense had trouble stopping the Chargers all day, and asking the Falcons to keep San Diego from scoring from their own 45-yard line in overtime was a particularly tall order.

Punting from that position would have pinned San Diego deep in its own territory, and field position alone would have given the defense a much better opportunity to stop the Chargers and get the ball back in Matt Ryan’s hands than the Falcons had from their own 45-yard line.

On Monday, Quinn stood by the call, saying he’d lost sleep over the loss, but not specifically about opting to go for it on fourth-and-1. He also said the decision wasn’t based on a lack of faith in the defense.

“We have one of the very best offenses in the NFL, and we’re going to ride that horse,” Quinn said. “And it has not a thing to do with not having it on defense. I thought honestly if we did (fail to convert on fourth-and-1) there, we’d get the stop, and we didn’t do that.”

The best shot the Falcons had to win that game was to punt. Quinn’s decision on fourth down was not the only reason the Falcons lost to the Chargers, but it was a mistake Atlanta couldn’t afford to make.