Ouch man, you know how to hurt a guy. It stings 11 years later.:emperor:emperor:emperor This town never got over that game.
Tidbits
We were the chosen ones for that season. We were supposed to make it to the Super Bowl and play Denver. We had the high powered offense that scored a then NFL record 556 points with Randy Moss in his rookie season. We were beating everyone by at least 20 points except the lone loss to Tampa Bay in a 15-1 season. The Vikings juggernaut couldn't be stopped and we had a ball hawking defense to boot.
Funny thing happened though. We met a 14-2 Atlanta team and lost 30-27 overtime game in one of the best NFC Championship games ever played. We were rolling 20-7 and just before halftime Cunningham was stripped sacked which led to a Falcon TD to cut the lead to 20-14 with seconds remaining. We became conservative and struggled in the second half.
It seemed with all the blowout wins that season, we didn't know how to play in a close game and it cost us dearly.
~We were double digit favorites to win that game at home.
~Gary Anderson had made all his FG attempts that season. He was perfect. He then missed a FG late in the game that would have sealed the victory.
~Safety Robert Griffith missed an easy interception in the end zone very late in the game.
~There were grown men leaving that stadium seen blubbering after that loss.
~Me personally, I just went to my bedroom and stared at the ceiling for two hours.....with the lights on.
~There were many folks in the Twin Cities who had already booked their hotel reservations in Miami for the Super Bowl prior to playing Atlanta. It was a foregone conclusion that we would win.
~The worst part was I had to drop my brother off at the airport a couple hours later and there were Falcon fans dancing the "Dirty Bird" at the baggage claim section.
We shall never forget and we shall never overcome.
BTW, that 2000 game was absolutely shameful (41-0). I watched it with a good buddy and I left at halftime. We didn't speak again for 8 months.
