Playoff Game | Atlanta Falcons Tickets

Falcons Shoot for a Rarity: A Playoff Win

Since 2008, when Mike Smith became head coach and Thomas Dimitroff became general manager, the Falcons have had four consecutive winning seasons. But that next step for the franchise has been onto an ice-covered ledge. They are 0-2 in the playoffs, with a and a .

“It’s about time we won, it’s about time we got a W,” said wide receiver Roddy White, who has been with the organization since 2005. “Everybody wants to win really, really bad, and get that first one out of the way.”

Asked what a playoff loss to the Giants on Sunday would mean, White said: “It’ll be devastating because this will be our third opportunity and we came up short. It’ll be tough for a whole ’nother six months.”

The franchise did not give up four draft picks and swap first-round selections in the 2011 draft with Cleveland to sixth over all, only to be flattened against the same ceiling. The Falcons drafted the explosive Jones and signed the pass-rush specialist Ray Edwards to break through and close the gap with Green Bay and New Orleans, the two dominant teams in the N.F.C.

The , but they beat just two teams with winning records, Detroit and Tennessee. They were clobbered on the road by New Orleans, 45-16, yet fought the Saints and the Packers at home before losing close games to both.

The Falcons have skill on offense with quarterback Matt Ryan, tight end Tony Gonzalez, running back Michael Turner, and White, but the running game and the red-zone offense have wobbled at times, and the defense lacks a star in the secondary.

On Sunday at MetLife Stadium, the Falcons understand that they will be branded as just another team, or a really good team.

“There’s a lot of pressure to win, and to relieve that pressure, we need to win a playoff game,” offensive tackle Tyson Clabo said. “We’re not just trying to win one playoff game, we’re trying to win four. If we win one and then lose, it’s just as disappointing to us.

“The goal is the . If you don’t get there, what’s the difference between losing Sunday or losing another game after that?”

Turner said the Falcons could not let the stage Sunday overwhelm them. They cannot have wide eyes and rabbit ears, and become distracted.

He was asked what the Falcons learned from two playoff losses. “Play smarter in those games; we made some critical mistakes,” Turner said. “Don’t let the games get too big for us.”

Turner said that although the Falcons were a young team in the past, “I think we have the experience under us now that we can actually make a push.”

The Falcons went 43 seasons without having back-to-back winning seasons, but the climate has changed significantly. They are long past being lampooned, and are instead seen as reliable and trustworthy because of Smith, Dimitroff and the owner Arthur Blank.

The Falcons are not as beloved here as the University of Georgia football program, or Southeastern Conference football in general, but the momentum from season after season of being a Super Bowl contender — and a playoff win or two — can change the status of the brand. The organization wants to use some public money to build a $750 million open-air stadium in the next five to six years to replace the outdated Georgia Dome, and postseason success can only make that a smoother path.

White said the message from Smith this week was that the Falcons had plenty of seasoning to win a playoff game on the road. They have 41 players on their 53-man roster who have playoff experience, and that is something to lean on.

“It’s time for everyone to take their game to the next level,” White said. “We’ve all played in playoff games, so it’s time for us to go win one.”

No Longer Upstaged, Nicks Stars for Giants

All week, he stored his ego on a shelf in his dressing stall, alongside his helmet, right next to the irresistible Victor Cruz.

The recurring crowds formed to the left of Hakeem Nicks, , the undrafted wonder of the universe, and leaving the man with the first-round pedigree to mind his own preplayoff business.

“When it comes to the media, if you ask me a question, I’ll talk to you,” Nicks said when asked what it felt like to be a receiver with 1,192 yards and 7 touchdowns and yet drawing no coverage. “If not, well, maybe another day.”

Sunday — in the first playoff game of Nicks’s three-season Giants career — was his day to draw the crowds, the questions and the kudos as the most spectacularly deployed weapon of the Giants’ suddenly multidimensional arsenal.

“There were times I was in the slot and they paid more attention my way,” Cruz said. “That opened things up. Hakeem did a great job of taking advantage.”

Cruz acknowledged that it couldn’t have been easy for Nicks, having reporters to get Cruz’s attention.

“To do it here, on this stage, I’m just so happy for him,” he said.

With Cruz largely kept under control, Nicks caught two touchdown passes and contributed a diving third-down reception to set up a field goal. By the time those 17 points were on the board, the Falcons were mentally on the bus, dirty birds — playoff pigeons, really — on the way home to Atlanta.

In what is becoming a leaguewide epidemic of bad imitations of opponents’ victory dances, Nicks performed his version of the Falcons’ Dirty Bird celebration dance after his catch of a short pass over the middle and electrifying run for a 72-yard touchdown late in the third quarter of the .

Not the natural showoff, Nicks copped to the plea that Giants safety Antrel Rolle put him up to it. Under the hot lights of the interview room, he removed his dark glasses and casually dispelled the notion of his feeling envious or compelled to succeed in light of being upstaged this season by Cruz.

“I didn’t feel like I had to prove nothing,” he said. “I know what I am capable of. Victor Cruz is a great addition to our offense, and he makes plays when he is called on, and the same with all the other guys.”

When you beat a very good offensive team, 24-2, and outgain it, 442-247, there is no shortage of playmakers, beginning with the quarterback. Though he’ll never ace the audition of the White Swan, Manning woke up a sleepy Giants offense by scrambling for 14 yards on third down before Brandon Jacobs rumbled 34 yards to set up the first touchdown — a leaping 4-yard grab by Nicks in the back of the end zone.

Jacobs, with 92 yards, spearheaded the Giants’ much-maligned ground game. Led by Nicks’s six receptions for 115 yards, Manning spread his 23 completions among eight receivers.

As for the defense, its stop of Matt Ryan and the Falcons from punching out a measly yard at the Giants’ 21 with 4 minutes 21 seconds left in the third quarter begat the Manning short pass to Nicks, who broke free for the 72-yarder.

“It was zone coverage, and I was actually about to sit,” Nicks said, meaning he would get underneath the safety and just wait to see what developed. “But when I saw all the linebackers’ zone-drop out of there, I just tried to get in Eli’s vision.”

It was no surprise that Jason Pierre-Paul helped stuff Ryan and set the stage for Nicks to complete what might have been a symbolic sequence, the rebirth of the Giants as a contender.

The Packers will have much to say about that on Sunday at Green Bay. But the Giants at least have the look of a dangerous team again, with a superior front four anchoring its galvanizing defense; breakaway weapons on the flanks; a capable if not overwhelming running game; and a seasoned quarterback who once upon a time won three playoff games on the road, then triumphed over perfection itself in the .

It is instructive to note that in the years after they scaled two New England mountains, Brady and Belichick, the Giants bade farewell to their most dominant defensive lineman, Michael Strahan. He has clearly been replaced by Pierre-Paul, selected 15th over all in 2010.

They lost the impact receivers Amani Toomer and Plaxico Burress, and General Manager Jerry Reese added Mario Manningham (who caught the Giants’ third touchdown pass Sunday) in 2008, then drafted Nicks in the first round in 2009 before adding Cruz last season.

So a little draft-day credit for Reese is in order. Cruz may be the once-in-a-generation diamond among the undrafted, but here were the Giants on Sunday winning their first postseason game since the Super Bowl four years ago with two of Reese’s last three first-round picks dominating on both sides of the ball.

“We play for a great organization,” said Nicks, in full company-man mode. “They obviously know what they are doing.”

On an overcast day in the Meadowlands, the Giants did enough to make people think they could even have a chance going forward, location notwithstanding.

“All of us have pretty good relationships and we all make plays,” Nicks said.

Ignore any at your own risk.

Saints Top Falcons to Claim Playoff Spot

The (11-4) earned the opportunity under fire Monday night, shaking off the Atlanta Falcons by 17-14 in the charged atmosphere of the Georgia Dome.

The win gets New Orleans through the playoff turnstile, assuring them at minimum a wild-card berth. The Saints, who host the in the season finale, can still win the N.F.C. South, but it is not likely. Atlanta (12-3) would have to stumble at home against lowly Carolina.

“It feels good,” Saints quarterback said after the game. “You just want to punch your ticket to the big show, and we’ve done that.”

It took awhile this season for the Saints to discover that, as the defending Super Bowl champions, “Everybody is going to give you their best shot,” safety Roman Harper said. “No game is just a gimme.”

“Everybody plays the champs like it’s a playoff game every time,” defensive tackle Remi Ayodele said. “We’re just trying to get into the tournament. Give us a shot.”

The Falcons, driven to show skeptics that their status as the pending top N.F.C. seed is no fluke, led by 14-10 well into the fourth quarter. After an Atlanta punt, New Orleans stared at a gulf of 90 yards between the line of scrimmage and the goal line.

But Brees shook off a dreadful start to the period and whipped his squad to the winning score, a 6-yard pass to Jimmy Graham with three and a half minutes left.

“He’s gonna come through for us,” Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma said of Brees. “We never worry about Drew Brees.”

The teams flipped the anticipated script on a clash of forceful offenses — New Orleans’s quick strike, Atlanta’s ball control — with a defensive tour de force.

Setting the tone in the first quarter were the teams’ six combined punts, nearly matching the rushing total, 7 yards.

“We made them do something else than let them run Michael Turner and throw to Tony Gonzalez,” the Saints’ Harper said.

Defensive end Alex Brown said: “We gang-tackled. We were pretty sound all night.”

The Falcons’ defense seemingly turned the game in their favor with a pair of fourth-quarter interceptions, neither by a defensive back.

Brees tossed a high-risk pass with the Falcons’ Jonathan Babineaux wrapped around him. Defensive end Chauncey Davis picked it off and lumbered 26 yards to lift Atlanta in front, 14-10.

In no time, Brees found Marques Colston in the end zone for an apparent go-ahead score, but a penalty wiped it out. On the next play, Falcons linebacker Sean Weatherspoon deflected a Brees pass and plucked it out of midair to stave off the threat.

The Falcons’ defense thought it had induced yet another turnover, pouncing on a fumble that would have set up their offense a step outside the red zone with just over two minutes left. But a replay rightly reversed the call.

Though unexpectedly short of scoring, the game fit nicely into a rivalry that is one of the ’s least appreciated, partly because of its provincial nature and sorry legacy of insignificant games.

The league’s two most deeply Southern cities broke in their teams a year apart in the mid-1960s. During decades of mostly inept seasons — until the Saints’ Super Bowl run last year, the franchises had combined for only eight playoff wins — the twice-annual games were highlighted on fans’ schedules.

The animus was altered when sent thousands of New Orleans residents to the Atlanta area, where many resettled for good. Some switched, or at least split, their allegiances, while others stayed loud and proud.

Atlanta inadvertently did its part to help restore New Orleans, losing to the Saints in the first post-Katrina game at the Superdome four seasons ago.

The rivalry, if changed, remains intense, and Falcons wide receiver Roddy White fanned the flames last week with the thoroughly modern version of athletics trash talk: posting on . Though White also posted an apology on Twitter, he was often at the center of chippy play early Monday.

Late in the first half, White helped Atlanta cut the deficit to 10-7 on a 7-yard scoring catch, the 3-point margin being a 52-yard field goal by Garrett Hartley.

Hartley almost lost his job by misfiring from about half that distance in overtime of a loss to Atlanta in September, the low point of the Saints’ bumpy 4-3 start.

The Saints promptly added the veteran John Carney to the roster, which scared Harley straight, and he returned to good graces a few weeks later.

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, 19-1 as a starter at home before Monday, could not rescue his team. Atlanta fans, many of them unwilling to let go of the era by wearing his old No. 7 jersey to games, now prefer Ryan’s No. 2 as their fashion statement.

But the player known as Matty Ice never warmed up, steering his offense to a single score.

“We just didn’t make the plays,” Falcons Coach Mike Smith said. “We still like where we’re at.”

So do the Saints, their chance to repeat as Super Bowl champions not rinsed away.