FLOWERY BRANCH — After getting kicked in the teeth by the rival New Orleans Saints on Monday night, the Falcons, with a playoff berth clinched, take their first steps toward redemption against Tampa Bay at 4:15 p.m. Sunday at the Georgia Dome.
The Falcons, who will be either the fifth or sixth seed for the NFC playoffs, are looking to rebound from their 45-16 loss to the Saints. They will try to build as much momentum as they can against a 4-11 team.
Tight end Tony Gonzalez believes the Falcons still can storm into the postseason.
“Any team that plays us better be scared, just from a talent standpoint,” Gonzalez said. “We are capable talent-wise and then execution-wise; there is no doubt about it from what we’ve done this year.
“That’s why nobody in this locker room should keep their head down. Yeah, we got embarrassed, but we know what we’re capable of doing, and come playoff time, anything can happen.”
It doesn’t matter what happens against the Buccaneers, the Falcons will be perceived as a team stumbling into the playoffs.
“There are not too many times when the wild-card team wins because they have to go on the road,” said Gil Brandt, nfl.com’s senior writer and a former longtime personnel executive with the Cowboys. “It’s tough to go on the road and play in the playoffs.”
However, the Falcons can look to recent playoff history for inspiration from other teams that stumbled into the playoffs, but came to life and made Super Bowl runs.
Just last season, the Green Bay Packers were defeated by the 2-10 Detroit Lions and backup quarterback Drew Stanton in Week 14. They dropped to 8-6 with a loss to New England the following week before they rallied to 10-6 and earned the NFC’s final playoff berth over Tampa Bay on a tiebreaker.
They carried momentum from victories over the New York Giants and Chicago into the playoffs where they defeated Philadelphia, the Falcons and Chicago on their way to the Super Bowl, where they defeated Pittsburgh.
Near the end of the 2008 regular season, the Arizona Cardinals were pummeled 47-7 by New England in Week 16. They regrouped and went on to the Super Bowl. They started their postseason run with an upset of the Falcons at home.
During the 2007 regular season, the New York Giants lost two of their last three games to finish 10-6 and earn the sixth seed. They stormed to the Super Bowl with road wins over Tampa Bay, Dallas and Green Bay. Dallas was the No. 1 seed and had beaten the Giants twice during the regular season.
Before their playoff run, which culminated with a Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots, Giants quarterback Eli Manning, like Matt Ryan now, was 0-2 in the playoffs.
In 2006, the Colts’ run defense was leaky all season. In a Week 16 loss to the Houston Texans, Ron Dayne ran for 153 yards on 32 carries. But when hard-hitting safety Bob Sanders returned from injury, the unit regrouped and Peyton Manning led them to a Super Bowl win.
There is a common theme running through all of those playoff rebounds. Either the offense got white-hot like Green Bay or the defense — like Arizona, New York and Indianapolis — stiffened in the playoffs.
The Falcons’ offense, which has been a work in progress as they’ve tried to integrate wide receiver Julio Jones all season, could get hot or the defense will need to improve against the run or discover a pass rush.
There are several playoff scenarios.
The Falcons could face the third or fourth seed in the first round. Green Bay (14-1) has wrapped up the No. 1 seed. San Francisco (12-3) or New Orleans (12-3) could still earn the second seed. The winner of the game between Dallas (8-7) and the New York Giants (8-7) will earn the fourth seed. While Detroit (10-5) and Atlanta (9-6) will end up either as the fifth or sixth seeds.
The Falcons could open the playoffs at San Francisco, New Orleans, Dallas or New York.
“The only road to me that the Falcons could have success going down, that would keep them alive for a bit, is if they get to play at Dallas, provided the Cowboys win the NFC East and then they play San Francisco,” said Alex Marvez on the “Late Hits” show on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
The Falcons plan to handle the business at hand and then get amped up for the playoffs.
“When you get in the playoffs, you see it year in and year out, it doesn’t matter what teams’ records are or what they did the week before or five weeks before,” center Todd McClure said.
Ryan is determined to have some postseason success. “We kind of understand where we’re at and know that we’ll be playing in January, but it’s important for us to play well this week and get some momentum heading into the playoffs.”
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