Falcons Rewind: Remember When Atlanta Killed The Giants?

Thinking back on the 2012 season, it's hard not to remember Atlanta's home victory over the New York Giants.

It came less than a year removed from the Falcons' ugly 24-2 playoff loss to what was mostly the same team. It also came the week after an ugly 30-20 road loss to the Panthers, and was within a month a two ugly wins over the Cardinals and Buccaneers.

Suffice it to say, there were a lot of questions about the Falcons entering this game, but these Dirty Birds answered those emphatically by stomping the G-Men 34-0 in the Georgia Dome.

As for the nuts and bolts of how this victory was engineered, the fine folks over at Big Blue View have a very interesting article up on the one play in particular that broke New York's back, so to speak, which they dissect using All-22 film.

That play in question was, of course, the interception Eli Manning threw on his first pass of the game.

Be sure to check out the full article itself, but what that throw essentially came down to was Mike Nolan relying on Asante Samuel's nearly unparalleled abilities in zone coverage. While in a Cover 4, Samuel jumped a Hakeem Nicks curl route and snagged the late Manning throw.

The Falcons would score four plays later, and the game quickly got out of hand for the Giants. Good times.