Monday Morning Quarterback: Hillary Clinton Is To The Election As The Falcons Are To The Super Bowl

Originally Posted at Free Market Shooter

Hillary Clinton has emerged from hibernation and found her way back into the news, and she made sure to start off by letting the world know that she took “personal responsibility” for her historic loss to President Trump:

“I take absolute personal responsibility. I was the candidate, I was the person who was on the ballot. I am very aware of the challenges, the problems, the shortfalls that we had,” Clinton said.

But, by now everyone knows that the claim of “personal responsibility” was just a token statement for the blame game that came afterwards.  So, for the first time ever, Free Market Shooter will do a “Monday Morning Quarterback” analysis of Hillary Clinton’s statements, analogizing them to a previously established comparison – the New England Patriots’ comeback win over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.

(Note: this comparison is particularly apt, as Atlanta Falcons owner, Arthur Blank, donated to and supported Hillary Clinton, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, coach Bill Belichick, and quarterback Tom Brady are all known Trump supporters.  In fact, Blank made sure to rib Kraft at the Super Bowl media day for that reason, as seen below.)

Shady Arthur Blank ? #SB51 #SBOpeningNight pic.twitter.com/plOnIBypsy

— LizzLocker (@Lizzs_Lockeroom) January 31, 2017

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Without further ado, let’s start with a comparison that Sean Spicer already made publicly:

“If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president.”

And if the Super Bowl ended in the 4th quarter at the two-minute warning, the Falcons would have won.  But the Falcons let the Patriots tie the game up and take it to overtime, and the election was held on November 8th.  What happened to “playing until the last whistle”, Hillary?

Speaking of “whistles”, who knew Jim Comey was the election referee?

…she was “on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me and got scared off.”

The Falcons were on their way to winning as well; with 4:47 left in the game, they were up 8 points, with a first down at the New England 22.  All they had to do was run the ball three times, kick a field goal, and hold on.  They ran once… then lost 12 yards on a sack, 10 yards on a penalty, and were forced to punt.

Poor Hillary; of course taking a Wikileaks sack and a Jim Comey penalty had nothing to do with her horrendous playcalling; it was all a big (football) conspiracy.

How about the “penalties” against Trump that weren’t called?

But she’s offered similar – if less pointed – comments about those things before. The role of misogyny in her loss is something she seemed eager to preview in her book and encourage people to read about.

“It is real. It is very much a part of the landscape politically and socially and economically,” she added. “It [played] a role in this election, and I will have a lot to say about it.”

Sounds an awful lot like crying about a missed penalty (of which there are many throughout the course of any football game, including this Super Bowl), doesn’t it?

As noted by CBS Sports colleague Pete Prisco on Twitter, the Patriots got away with a violation of Rule 8, Section 5, Article 4, which makes it illegal for offensive players to block defensive players while a pass is in the air.

You can clearly see two players blocking “in the vicinity of the player to whom the pass is thrown” when the ball is in the air:

By the rules of the league, Pats got away with one here. Overlooked in this wild finish. pic.twitter.com/CHllZoMFr3

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— Pete Prisco (@PriscoCBS) February 6, 2017

 If you think Hillary stopped Monday Morning Quarterbacking with misogyny, think again:

Later in the same conversation, Clinton also suggested that debate questions were to blame, saying moderators didn’t ask about how the candidates planned to created jobs.

“I’ve watched a million presidential debates in my life, and I was waiting for the moment when one of the people asking the questions would have said, ‘Well, so, exactly how are you going to create more jobs?'” Clinton said. “Right? I mean, I thought that, you know, at some moment that would happen.”

The truth is, Lester Holt asked Hillary Clinton the jobs question (that she was likely fed by Donna Brazile) in the first debate, she just whiffed on the answer…

NBC News’ Lester Holt actually specifically asked both candidates about their jobs plans during a debate held on Sept. 26, 2016. In fact, it was the very first question of the very first presidential debate.

…which sounds an awful lot like the Falcons being set up for victory, up 16 with 8:31 left in the game, only to have Devonta Freeman whiff on a block, allowing Donta Hightower a clear path to force the fumble that kicked the Patriots’ comeback into overdrive:

Matt Ryan is SACKED.
And FUMBLES!@Patriots ball! #SB51 #Patriots https://t.co/o1lgQktgrI

— NFL (@NFL) February 6, 2017

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Freeman had the block and missed; Hillary had the questions asked and missed.  And, just like the Falcons’ crucial turnover, Hillary’s first debate was what really set Trump’s epic comeback into motion.

Finally, and in spite of her loss, Hillary made sure to remind everyone that she “won” the popular vote…

“Remember, I did win by more than 3 million votes than my opponent. So, it’s like … really?”

…which would be like Matt Ryan saying he was the better Super Bowl quarterback than Brady because he had the higher QB rating, or saying the Falcons defense was better because they had more turnovers.  You can keep all the tallies you want, but at the end of the day, the only tally that matters is the one on the scoreboard, where both the Patriots and Trump won decisively.

The Falcons gave the game away because they made major mistakes and played poor football when it mattered the most.  Hillary lost in part due to a poorly executed campaign strategy that involved virtue signal campaigning in California which all but ignoring crucial swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin; which were previously Democratic states that Trump managed to flip to the Republican side.

Indeed, many jumped to support the Falcons due to the New England Patriots’ support of Trump, solely for the sake of rooting against Trump.  And like Hillary, they thought victory was a foregone conclusion, counting their chickens long before they hatched.

Another crucial truth involves looking at the teams/candidates.  The Patriots were simply the far better team – despite their offensive firepower, the Falcons faded down the stretch, and poor defense as well as poor play calling doomed them.  Hillary Clinton was without question the inferior candidate – only able to beat Bernie Sanders because of corruption within the DNC, despite every advantage she had, she couldn’t overcome even Donald Trump, who was perhaps the most disliked candidate in history prior to his big win.

But, you don’t see the Falcons players or coaches pointing fingers – they simply accepted defeat and moved on, content to try again next season.  Though there will likely be no “next campaign” for Hillary, the part where she said she “accepts responsibility” for her defeat is as laughable as the countless number of memes that have emerged likening her to the Falcons.

Take notes, Hillary: if you don’t accept defeat and move on, your detractors won’t either.