I've been covering sports for a while now, and here's a sentiment I've never heard expressed in a professional locker room: "Oh, we've lost (fill in name of key player), so we're doomed." That's never, as in not a single time, no matter who the lost player was. Not on the record, and not even off the record. Not once.

And I didn't hear it in Flowery Branch on Wednesday. The Atlanta Falcons went about their business as if it were business as usual, which it pretty much is. In sports, players get injured. The other players deal with it. Next man up and all that.

In fact, I didn't hear anyone say, "We're finished" in the same locker room 10 years and one month ago, after Michael Vick was lost to a broken leg suffered in the second exhibition of 2003. The mindset then was the same as now: The Falcons would press on regardless. That they were patently unable to win without Vick wouldn't become a fait accompli for a while -- as a rule, it's never a plus when a one-man team loses its one man -- but those Falcons didn't fail because they surrendered. They failed because they were no longer good enough.

We can't yet know if the Falcons will be good enough to hold up under this torrent of infirmity, but they've got a real chance. For one thing, the two best injured players -- Sean Weatherspoon and Steven Jackson -- are expected back at some point. For another, neither Weatherspoon nor Jackson would be included on my list of the four best Falcons. Those four, in alphabetical order, are: Tony Gonzalez, Julio Jones, Matt Ryan and Roddy White.

As mentioned in today's print column -- it's available on myajc.com, our premium site -- the Falcons should be able to keep doing what they do best, which is throw the ball and catch it. (If anything, the absence of Jackson and fullback Bradie Ewing grants the Falcons license to throw and catch even more.) The schedule ahead isn't easy, but it's manageable: The next two games -- at Miami on Sunday, against New England here on Sunday night -- are difficult, but after that they'll face the Jets, who are lousy, and then get a bye week, and then play the Buccaneers, who are 0-2 and in discord.

That's three consecutive home games, followed by trips to Arizona (1-1) and Carolina (0-2 and about to fire its overmatched coach). Only on Nov. 10, when Seattle arrives at the Georgia Dome, does the schedule take a turn for the wicked. If the Falcons can win four of the next six to get to 5-3, they'll be in decent shape for the schedule's second half. To be in decent shape when the second half arrives is all that matters.

We reference the 2010 Green Bay Packers, who lost 13 players to injured reserve and saw Aaron Rodgers twice concussed. They were 5-3 after eight games, 8-6 after 14. Of those six losses, the widest margin -- the widest, mind you -- was four points. But those Packers, who were handed every reason to doubt, won their final two regular-season games to make the playoffs as a wild card, and in January they beat the NFC's No. 1 seed -- maybe you remember -- 48-21 at the Georgia Dome. Then they won the conference title. Then they won the Super Bowl.

As insipid as it sounds, there's much to be said for hanging in there. The Falcons are weakened, yes, but they still have enough good players to win enough games to get them to January. And they are, after all, professionals. Hanging in there is what professionals do.

From myajc.com: Why the depleted Falcons should let 'er rip.