FALCONS AT SAINTS: 1 P.M. TODAY (FOX, 92.9 FM): Give him an ‘A’

The Falcons pass a milepost this week, one reassuring them that they have put much distance between themselves and their Chernobyl. Slow down, pull over, enjoy the view.

A year ago Thursday, head coach Bobby Petrino fled town like a man jumping bail. Only no one wants him back now.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” center Todd McClure said.

“That was the day we started to heal,” safety Lawyer Milloy said.

The healer, of course, was a no-name Jacksonville assistant, as unglamorous as meatloaf. Little was known of him, and even less was expected.

In the months since his mid-January hiring, Mike Smith has revealed his bona fides as an NFL head coach. And along the way, he has provided the perfect antidote to Petrino’s patrician ways, which may play in college towns like Little Rock but flopped on the professional stage.

Even those who didn’t make the cut for this season’s Falcons revival recognized some special traits in the new guy.

Among the many players that Smith reached out to as soon as he was hired was Morten Andersen. He phoned the 48-year-old future Hall of Famer to introduce himself and to lay out the team’s plans to go with a younger free-agent kicker. Smith felt the obligation to deliver bad news personally (in contrast to Petrino, who left behind only a Dear John letter to the team when skipping out for Arkansas after only 13 games).

Later, Smith phoned to inform Andersen the Falcons were looking seriously at Jason Elam. Do you want me to call you again, he asked Andersen, when the deal is done?

No, that’s OK, coach, said Andersen, who suddenly was dealing with a caller more persistent than a hungry siding salesman.

“There are not too many people out there who treat you that way,” the now-retired kicker said. “It was nice to get a concise, clear message from him, even though I didn’t like the message.”

Communication is key

Here’s how quick Smith was to get in tune with all facets of the franchise: Even before the two met, he sent a handwritten note of congratulations to Falcons play-by-play man Wes Durham soon after he had won a broadcasting award early this year.

If Smith was that considerate of those not involved in the on-field product, think of how good he was going to be with those on the roster. Who says it’s just the devil that’s in the details?

Quickly he established a rapport with the locker room that had so obviously eluded his predecessor. The difference between a coach with nine years in the NFL and a charisma-challenged career college guy showed itself immediately.

“I think the thing you have to do as a coach, you have to present a plan to the team about how we’re going to get to where we want to go. That’s the first thing,” Smith said.

“And you have to be communicative. That’s very important with NFL players that you talk to them, because they aren’t high school kids, they’re men. This is their profession. You have to be able to talk to them.”

Asked how long it took him to buy into the Smith Method, McClure said, “It was real early. It was the small things you see, him coming up talking to guys in the locker room, just making conversation, even if it didn’t have anything to do with football. It was pretty early on I realized you could actually trust him.”

As this season has taken its shocking upturn —- 8-4 and in the playoff mix going into New Orleans today —- Smith has continued to display the sensibilities of an NFL leader.

There’s nothing terribly groundbreaking in the way Smith has orchestrated this season. He’ll shrug and say, “It’s all about trial and error. I’ve been very fortunate to take bits and pieces from coaches I’ve worked with before.”

But the result has been most uncommon by Falcons standards: Football stripped bare of the nonsense and crises, a professional product of a professionally geared mind.

He instituted a Victory Monday, giving players an extra day off after a win on Sunday. “That really didn’t change a whole lot of what we were getting done because players took it on themselves to come in and watch tape and get a workout —- the majority did,” Smith said.

Contrast that to this scene after a rare victory last season (a promise —- this is the final Petrino reference). Joy was hard to find, even then.

A Falcons official tells of the flight home after beating Carolina, the team plane arriving early. With another airplane at their gate, the players and staff could not offload for 10 minutes. Whereupon Petrino launched into a loud tirade against seemingly the entire air transportation industry.

“We’re here ultimately to win ballgames and be there at the end of the year,” linebacker Keith Brooking said. “But you don’t have to be in an uptight atmosphere where guys are walking around on pins and needles.”

Team lightens up

The current Falcons workweek ends with an adult version of a Punt, Pass and Kick contest on Fridays. Regardless of position, players compete in skills like kicking field goals and throwing passes at some distant target, usually to gales of laughter and an exchange of petty cash.

On the more serious side, Smith began an “Over 30 Club,” whose veteran members meet with him irregularly to discuss the state of the locker room.

Significantly, he has throttled back on the length and physicality of practice as the season has worn on. Their work in pads is noticeably less than at this point a season ago.

“Now our goal is to be the freshest team in the league in the month of December,” Smith said.

The NFL coach’s challenge is to strike a harmony between the opposing needs of prodding and patting his players. He is the one who sets the mood of a team.

When it all works, “It’s a wonderful thing,” team owner Arthur Blank said. “To me, it’s almost like a proud father when you see your kids grow up and they get along well.”

“It seemed like everyone here last year was more solemn, more serious,” said Doug Plank, the Georgia Force coach who is assisting the Falcons this season. “Now you can tell these guys actually like each other. They want to be here. These guys feel accountable to each other; they go the extra mile.”

Are the Falcons now winning because they are happy; or are they happy because they are winning?

That’s a question students of the Smith Method would love to ponder into January, and for untold seasons to follow.