The Falcons have been careful with the ball all season so it should be no surprise they have committed no turnovers in the postseason. They’ve also been fortunate.

In the NFC Championship game against the Packers, center Alex Mack’s direct snap to wide receiver Taylor Gabriel glanced off of Gabriel’s hands to the turf. Later in that game, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan dropped a snap from under center.

The Falcons recovered both fumbles, offering more proof that there’s an element of luck to avoiding turnovers. They likely can’t rely on good fortune in the Super Bowl on Sunday against the Patriots who, like the Falcons, typically don’t force many turnovers but also rarely give the ball away.

The Falcons and Patriots each committed 11 turnovers during the regular season. Only the Patriots in 2010 and the 49ers in 2011 had fewer giveaways with 10 since the league went to the 16-game schedule in 1978.

“I think, first and foremost, it’s going to come down to the ball,” Matt Ryan said Wednesday.

Like all teams, the Patriots and Falcons focus on ball security. They work on it in practice, during team scrimmages and during drills that emphasize it. They incessantly talk about the importance of protecting the football.

Unlike all teams, the Falcons and Patriots are able to translate their ball security mantras into action.

The Patriots have been among the most ball-disciplined teams for years and much of that is because of quarterback Tom Brady. He took his superlative accuracy to another level this season, with Pro Football Focus judging just 0.8 percent of his 432 passing attempts to be in danger of being intercepted.

“We trust the guys that we are giving it to, whether that be the quarterback (making) good decisions in the passing game or the skill players that are running with it,” Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said. “We work on it every single day in practice to try to prevent from being loose or even giving the defense opportunities to take it away from us. If they see an opportunity, then they are going to go for it as much as they can.”

While ball security has been a major part of New England’s program, the Falcons had to learn how to be stingier with the ball in Dan Quinn’s second year as head coach.

Moving the ball wasn’t a problem for the Falcons in 2015: They ranked seventh in yards per game and 11th in yards per play. But they tied for just 21st in points in large part because 30 giveaways held them back.

Some personnel changes helped the Falcons develop the league’s best offense. Quinn said it couldn’t have happened if they weren’t more careful with the ball.

“The first one for us, is we’ve had a much clearer vision of our taking care of the football,” Quinn said. “I love using turnover margin because it’s a team stat. Now, you can say, ‘Well, it’s just offense-related or defense-related,’ (but) it’s not. It’s the way the defense can go after the ball, but it’s the attitude and style that the offense takes care of it.”

A lot of that responsibility fell on Ryan. In 2015, his first season with coordinator Kyle Shanahan, Ryan fumbled the ball 12 times and threw 16 interceptions. His four picks and three lost fumbles in the red zone both were the most in the league.

This season, Ryan had just seven interceptions and four fumbles and just one of his turnovers came inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. Pro Football Focus determined that 2.6 percent of his 534 passing attempts were thrown into potential trouble.

“Two things that helped: really emphasizing being productive in the red zone (by) not giving them the ball in the red zone,” Ryan said. “And then, number two, just being more comfortable in the system.”

With the help of those fortunate bounces against the Packers, the Falcons have been turnover-free in the playoffs. The Patriots shown some cracks.

They had three turnovers in the divisional round against the Texans, including two Brady interceptions that set up the Texans on New England’s side of the field. They had just three turnovers over their previous seven games.

The Texans weren’t nearly good enough offensively to keep up with the Patriots, even with the benefit of those takeaways. If New England gets careless with the ball again, the Falcons certainly can make them pay.

“They stress that it’s all about the ball and they are right,” McDaniels said of the Falcons. “For us, it’s all about the ball. At the end of the play, we’ve got to have it and they want to take it.”