Falcons wear down Packers with long drives

"It's something that, as players, you can't really worry about that much," quarterback Matt Ryan said. "You know you'd love to stay on the field to keep them off the field. But, with that said, our mindset doesn't change ever. You're trying to score every time you snap the ball.

"You'd love to score on one play every time. But it's not always going to work out that way. It ends up working out, though."

That it does. These long drives, especially the ones that end in touchdowns, wear down an opposing defense, helping make it a little easier to get that crucial block and a little simpler for the receivers to get that extra step.

The offensive line is usually the first to see the effects of the punishing drives as these guys shove and look into the eyes of the men they're blocking.

They pick up on the change in the opposition as the drive goes into double-digit plays and takes eight minutes or so off the clock.

"You can see them getting a little frustrated," center Todd McClure said. "The D-line, when Matt completes a pass, they'll turn around and talk to the secondary or talk to the linebackers. It gets really frustrating. And that's when you know you have them."

Not only does grinding out long drives help the offense, but it also helps the Falcons defense, giving them more time to rest and less time for a quarterback like Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers to show why he's considered one of the league's best.

The Atlanta defense has been good all year, but the Packers have had an offense that takes advantage when given one too many chances to beat you.

"Any time you play against an explosive offense like that, you want to keep them off the field as much as possible," McClure said. "When we put the long drives together, it gives our defense more time to rest. They were rushing the passer hard; that's a tough quarterback to get down because he moves so well in the pocket. Any time we can put those long drives together, it's good for the whole team."

Still, the Falcons' offensive players insist it's not by design that they're averaging nearly three of these long drives per game.

It's just a product of what they do, and they'll keep with their strategy as long as it wins games.

"It's just what we do," running back Michael Turner said. "We don't think about it. We don't think about long drives; we just try to execute each play one at a time. And it just tends to be long drives. We just take our time and keep executing. And eventually, we're going to try to get in the end zone."