Michael Rothstein, ESPN Staff Writer 2y

The weird, strange, last-second history between the Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Lions

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Arthur Smith smirked. He had nothing to do with any of the games he was being asked about, wasn’t even in Atlanta as the Falcons' head coach yet. But yeah, he knows about games with interesting endings. And how sometimes teams can play each other and oddities occur.

So while he never has been with the Falcons when they’ve played the Detroit Lions, which will happen Sunday inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, there is a history to it. He himself remembered being at Ole Miss and just knowing that games with LSU always had something happen.

In the NFL, that has been the Falcons and the Lions. The last three games between the teams have taken place in three cities on two continents with five different head coaches. They all, though, had one very quirky, odd thing in common: All three games were decided on the last play of the game, ending in some bizarre ways.

“We can’t let weird stuff happen, man,” Falcons linebacker Steven Means said. “We want to stay away from a lot of the weird stuff.”

Weird has been the Modus Operandi for Atlanta and Detroit, two franchises which have seen significant shares of in-game and end-game craziness. So of course when they face each other, quirks are going to prevail. And maybe, just maybe, history can play a role.

“It really shouldn’t matter, if you’re looking at it practically,” Smith said. “But strange things happen.”

Don’t buy into it? Here’s proof.

2014: Lions 22, Falcons 21 (The delay of game field goal)

In all actuality, this game shouldn’t have been very close. The Falcons were in the last breaths of the Mike Smith era. Detroit, under first-year head coach Jim Caldwell, was on its way to its best season in decades.

And much of why that happened for the Lions occurred because of what transpired in London. Atlanta took a 21-0 first-half lead. The Falcons, who had dominated the Lions in the first 30 minutes, wouldn’t score again.

Atlanta surrendered 22 straight points -- at the time the 21-point blown halftime lead tied the biggest in team history -- but the final three were where it got tricky. Detroit got the ball back, trailing by two points, with 1:38 left on the Lions’ 7-yard line. Matthew Stafford drove the ball down the field to Atlanta’s 25-yard line to set up for a potential game-winning field goal by Matt Prater.

Prater lined up to kick a 43-yard field goal with four seconds left. And missed. Atlanta thought it won. Except for one small problem. The play clock ran out. Delay of game. Because there was no play run, there was no 10-second run-off enforced (keep this in mind for later) and Prater was given a second chance from 48 yards away (again, remember this).

“It was 100% unintentional,” Prater told ESPN last week.


Prater made an adjustment from his first kick to his second kick, and 5 yards further back, Prater made the kick, sent the Lions to 6-2 and continuing on the way to the playoffs.

"That was a hard one," Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said. "That was a tough pill to swallow."

2017: Falcons 30, Lions 26 (The run-off game)

It was an early-season matchup -- both Atlanta and Detroit were 2-0 -- and one between quarterbackswho had become good friends, Ryan and Stafford. The game began with players from Atlanta and Detroit kneeling and others locking arms during the national anthem in protest of comments made by then-President Donald Trump saying players should be fired if they don’t stand for the national anthem.

Then the game began and the Falcons jumped out to a 17-3 lead. Detroit came back, but trailed 30-26 when Stafford got the ball with 2:33 left needing a touchdown to win. The Lions drove to the Falcons’ 1-yard line with 19 seconds left. After two incomplete passes, Stafford took a snap with 12 seconds to go.

He threw a pass to Golden Tate, who initially had it signaled that he scored a touchdown to give the Lions the lead with nine seconds on the clock. Except as with every scoring play, there is an automatic review.

And this was close.

“It was weird, because for a split-second, we thought we lost,” Falcons left tackle Jake Matthews said.  “And then the ref comes back.”

The play was ruled down before the end zone -- tackled essentially at the goal-line by Brian Poole. The referees reversed the touchdown. Remember the lack of run-off in 2014? Because Detroit had run a play and had no timeouts remaining, this time a 10-second run-off was instituted.


Game over. Falcons loss turns into Falcons win. The shock from three seasons prior had changed sides.

“I don’t think anybody on our sideline besides maybe some of the coaches knew that there was going to be a 10-second run-off and the game was over,” Prater said. “That one was probably the most memorable, just because we ended up losing.”

The play was called correctly, even if Lions defensive lineman Cornelius Washington thought in the aftermath Detroit “got hosed by the refs.” They didn’t, even if the play taught a new rule to many, many fans.

2020: Lions 23, Falcons 22 (The touchdown no one wanted)

In a game between teams headed nowhere -- Atlanta had already fired head coach Dan Quinn; the Lions were a month away from releasing Matt Patricia -- excitement and a bit of wackiness still managed to show up.

Atlanta looked like it might get its second straight win under interim head coach Raheem Morris. All the Falcons needed to do was not score a touchdown. Trailing 16-14, they just needed to fall short of the goal-line and Younghoe Koo would have a chip shot field goal for a win.

Then Todd Gurley got the ball. Lions defenders avoided him the best they could. Gurley tried to stop before the end zone – and fell about 6 inches in, prompting Detroit linebacker Jamie Collins to celebrate by raising his hands with a touchdown signal. Lions linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin pointed at the end zone to make sure the refs saw him in.


It was odd for Gurley -- he had a similar situation in his last game against the Lions, when he was in Los Angeles -- and correctly fell. But “my momentum took me in.” The touchdown and two-point conversion gave Atlanta a 22-16 lead with 1:03 left.

“There’s always a learning experience from something like that,” Falcons receiver Russell Gage said. “People see that, ‘OK, the go-ahead, losing touchdown.’ But you scored a touchdown. There’s a lot of things, you had no timeouts, there’s a lot of things you can learn from that from a defensive and offensive standpoint, you know.

“The situation is very unusual.”

The Falcons once again gave Stafford the ball with a chance to win.

"We knew if Matt just had a chance," said then-Lions, now-Falcons safety Duron Harmon. "It'd be a good chance for us."

He drove the ball down the field and found tight end T.J. Hockenson in the end zone on the final play to tie the game. An extra point from Prater would win it.

But this wouldn’t be easy. Receiver Danny Amendola was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct on the touchdown. So the referees started marking off the extra point.

“I don’t know if it was a TV timeout or something out there trying to figure out the penalties and I felt like I was being iced out there before that kick for a long time,” Prater said. “When the refs started walking the steps I thought it was a 5-yard penalty.

“And then they kept going and I was like, ‘Wow, this makes it pretty interesting.’ “

The extra point, which Prater made, was from 48 yards -- his longest career extra point and the same distance as his delay-of-game-assisted-game-winning field goal the same weekend seven years earlier.

Based off the last three meetings between the teams, know anything can happen – but don’t be surprised if it ends up with a small bit of the bizarre. The last three games have perhaps manifested it on both of these teams.

Because depending on the player you ask, there could be something to it.

"I think it's just strange, the weird way so many of those games have ended," Ryan said. "Seemingly, every team you thought was going to win didn't end up winning those games, really since we played them in London.

"It's a strange coincidence, for whatever reason."

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