As Falcons head coach Mike Smith has said over the years, after a loss, the only thing you want to do is get back on the field.
Fortunately for the Falcons they've not said that very often. Under Smith since 2008, the Falcons are 53-22. They've not had to say that very often at all two weeks in a row. Following a loss, the Falcons are 19-3. This Sunday they look to make it 20.
Their experience in bouncing back quickly from a loss and get back on the winning track will surely come in handy this week, as they prepare to move on from a bad loss to the Panthers in which they couldn't seem to get anything going for them. It's especially important to rebound this week since the 8-5 Giants are coming to town and they have some history against the Falcons, never mind that Atlanta is looking to lock up a No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
All of the external factors surrounding the game add hype to the Falcons-Giants matchup, but the Falcons history is on their side coming out of a loss.
"That's one of the things we can hang our hat on," safety Thomas DeCoud said. "We rarely drop two in a row and we don't plan on doing it this week."
The Falcons can't point to any one thing they did incorrectly through their preparation last week leading up to the second loss of the season. They can see where things went wrong quickly in the actual game.
"It wasn't necessarily anything that we did during the week, it was just our approach on Sunday," DeCoud said. "We were kind of asleep at the wheel and we didn't bring the energy that we had through the week to Sunday."
What they do know is they can't let it happen again. It's been a week of honesty in the Falcons locker room and they're checking the emotions at the door and seeing to it that the things that made last week go so wrong aren't present this week or on Sunday.
"You always have a gut check," DeCoud said. "You look at the man in the mirror when you take a loss like that."
