FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — The sign is neither oversized nor overstated. Taped to the exit door of the Atlanta Falcons’ training complex locker room, the 8×10-inch laminated sheet of team stationery delivers the following message in smallish black letters: “They Are In Our Way!”
“That’s Mike,” said defensive end John Abraham, referring to Mike Smith, who was just named the NFL coach of the year by The Sporting News. “Direct, to the point. That really says it all.”
Indeed, come 8 tonight inside the Georgia Dome, “they” will be the Green Bay Packers, the team standing between the Falcons and next week’s NFC championship game.
By defeating the proud Pack for the second time in seven weeks, Atlanta would host the winner of Sunday’s Chicago-Seattle battle for a spot in the Super Bowl against the AFC champion.
Lose and a magical season comes to a close, the Falcons once more denied a spot in their sport’s ultimate contest. Atlanta has reached the Super Bowl just once in its 44-year history, the 1998 team defeated by Denver.
“I think our guys understand the importance of being focused and being very businesslike,” Smith said earlier this week of his 13-3 squad. “I think the guys on our team, including our coaching staff, learned a lot from our playoff experience two years ago.”
For those with short memories, Smith and then-rookie quarterback Matt Ryan led the Falcons to a surprising 11-5 record in 2008, only to fall in the wild-card round at Arizona. The Cardinals lost to Pittsburgh in that year’s Super Bowl.
“Matt’s had confidence from the first day he got here,” Falcons center Todd McClure said Thursday. “He’s always had control of the huddle; his confidence has always spilled over to everybody else. But he knows this offense better this time around; he knows his players better. He’s definitely ready for this moment.”
Yet the Falcons’ biggest concern is the quarterback on the other side of the field, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, whose quarterback rating of 101.2 is more than 10 points higher than Ryan’s 91.0.
“He was their leading rusher the last time we played them,” Smith said. “Rodgers has a very good understanding of reading defenses and getting the ball out of his hands when they are in their quick-game mode. He’s one of the best in terms of escapability.”
Abraham was quick to echo Smith’s sentiments, adding, “I don’t think we’ll have a hard time pressuring him. It’s getting him down that’s the problem. He’s hard to catch.”
Indeed, the Falcons sacked Rodgers only once in November, while Ryan was brought down twice. Beyond that, Rodgers threw for 341 yards to just 177 for Ryan.
But the Packers were penalized more, turned it over once to none for the Falcons and owned the ball three less minutes.
“We’re going to have to control the line of scrimmage on the defensive side of the ball,” Smith said. “It’s imperative that our defensive linemen win their one-on-one battles. It’s going to be important that we take good angles and tackle well.”
It’s equally important that the Falcons’ offensive line wins its battle. Atlanta is 19-2 under Smith when it has a 100-yard rusher. Michael Turner ran for 110 yards against the Packers seven weeks ago.
“We’ll definitely want to get the running game going early,” McClure said. “It’s usually the team that establishes the running game best that wins in the playoffs. If we can get Michael going and Jason [Snelling] going, we can really make life easier for Matt.”
One thing McClure said his teammates won’t do is get caught up in the Green Bay mystique.
“The bottom line is that Saturday at 8 o’clock, it’s you against the guy across from you,” McClure said. “History doesn’t factor into that. Nobody’s going to be going against [the late] Reggie White or Brett Favre.”
But the Packers will be going against Smith, who once did the football team’s laundry during an assistant coaching stint at Tennessee Tech. He also mowed practice fields and painted locker rooms.
“You really learn about teamwork in those situations,” he told The Associated Press earlier this season.
To further hammer home that point, he said, “To me, there’s no better sense to feel than it’s the end of the game and you’ve been successful. You realize it wasn’t just one person, one play. It was an effort by every person in that locker room, whether they’re a coach, whether they’re a star player or backup player, whether they’re the trainer or the equipment guy.”
They’ll need all those guys tonight against the Packers, who won at Philadelphia last week and seem to be the trendy pick to reach the Super Bowl from the NFC.
But if that perception bothers the Falcons, they aren’t talking about it.
“We’re two games away from the Super Bowl,” Abraham said, “just like everybody else that’s still playing. Why would you say anything to fire up your opponent? Let’s just play and see what happens.”
Falcons owner Arthur Blank believes he knows what’s going to happen. Talking to the Atlanta Journal Constitution this week, he said of his Birds, “This team is very balanced — No. 5 in both offense [points scored] and defense [points yielded] and last in penalties. That’s not a formula for glamorous, but it is a formula for success.”
Especially for those who stand in their way of reaching the NFC title game, and, perhaps, the Super Bowl.