The Falcons don't look like a team about to succumb to a Super Bowl hangover

The signs are nowhere to be seen. There is no sluggishness, no apparent want to lie around, nobody running for the bathroom or holding stomachs in agony.

Sure, there is plenty of Gatorade being consumed, but for different reasons.

Where are the supposed hangover symptoms for the Atlanta Falcons? As they opened their second OTA practice of the year Thursday, there were no visible signs that this is a team still haunted by their unreal collapse in February in Super Bowl LI, blowing a 28-3 third-quarter lead to lose 34-28 to the New England Patriots in overtime.

It could be delayed-hangover syndrome -- some of you know what that can be -- but this is a team that appears to be past that gut-wrenching loss to the Patriots and eager to move on.

Or at least it seems that way.

"You can either sit around and let this ruin what we have moving forward, or you can get up off the mat and figure out a way to get better, as a team and individually," Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said. "I don't sense (a hangover) at all."

The loser of the Super Bowl every year is supposed to fall victim to the hangover, their following season going down the toilet like vomit from a 20-year-old after a night bender. The Carolina Panthers, one of Atlanta's division foes, lived it last season when they went from Super Bowl loser to a 6-10 team. Quarterback Cam Newton, the NFL MVP from their 15-1 season in 2015, hardly looked like the same player.

Now the Falcons are following a similar path: NFC South champions, a first-round bye, an MVP quarterback in Ryan and a stomach-punch of a loss in the Super Bowl on their resume.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/the-falcons-dont-look-like-a-team-about-to-succumb-to-a-super-bowl-hangover/