The Atlanta Falcons flew high for most of the season, but crashed to Earth on Saturday night, losing to the Philadelphia Eagles 15-10 in  the NFL divisional playoff football game. The loss ended the Falcons’ hopes of making it to the  Super Bowl for the second straight year.

Atlanta held a slim lead for most of the game, but got behind late in the third quarter, 12-10 after a field goal by Philly. Matt Ryan (210 yards) had time to find his receivers but couldn’t come up with big plays.

“One thing I’ve learned playing 10 years in this league is that past success, prior success, or lack of prior success really doesn’t have any bearing on the following season,” said Ryan. “Teams have to come together on their own each year. I thought our team did. I thought we dealt with a lot throughout the year. I thought we handled it well throughout the year. We’re certainly disappointed that we didn’t go further and get the job done, but next year’s a different year.”

Here are 5 reasons why the Falcons lost to the Eagles.

The Falcons have no identity

Are the  Falcons a high-powered offense led by the butterfly-like Julio Jones or a gritty, running team with two power backs? Steve Sarkisian’s West Coast system has been anomaly for most of the season, to the chagrin of Atlanta fans. Some believe that he should  have stayed in college at perennial power, Alabama, where he helmed the offense. Others feel he has ruined Atlanta’s once-high-flying offense (but more on that later).

Atlanta’s last play of the game was not a good one

The play, Sprint Right Pylon, was something the Eagles were waiting for. “I was like, ‘There’s no way they’re going to run this play,’” Eagles safety Rodney McLeod told Philly.com. “And as soon as I saw the tight end come over, I shouted it out. Yeah, I wouldn’t expect them to cut off half the field like that. But they had a lot of faith in their marquee receiver, and Jalen Mills made a big-time play – probably one of the biggest plays of the game.”

The defense let them down

The Falcoholic summed it up like this: “[The loss] was made worse by the defense. The fact that Atlanta allowed Nick Foles to march down the field against them was infuriating and unfortunate after they made real strides in 2017, but it’s the mark of a defense that still isn’t quite there yet. Their progress was still one of the most encouraging things about this year.”

The offense left them down

This from the AJC: “If any doubt remained as to the extent of the misallocation of offensive resources in their first post-Shanahan season, the final verdict was delivered here. The Falcons lost 15-10. Their 10 points came off Philadelphia turnovers. They were outgained 334 yards to 281 by a team working behind its backup quarterback.”

Sarkisian blew the game

While many feel Sark is not a good fit for the Falcons, head coach Dan Quinn voiced his support after the game. “I can take a long time to go through different spots, so it’s easy to place blame all onto one person, and that’s a shared responsibility when we don’t achieve at the level that we would like to,” he said. “There are a lot of really good things that we’ve done, and it was highlighted certainly [Saturday night] where we didn’t get the job done at the end of the game.”