Todd McClure will formally announce his retirement as a member of the Atlanta Falcons at 11:30 a.m. ET on Monday, March 25.

AtlantaFalcons.com will carry the press conference live.

After 14 seasons, the longest tenured Falcon is calling it a career.

Center Todd McClure tweeted Wednesday that he will retire as a Falcon and that more will come at a press conference that will be scheduled after the NFL’s owners meetings, which takes place next week.

McClure, a seventh round draft pick by the Falcons in 1999, played 14 seasons in Atlanta and was the starting center since 2000. We’ll have much more on AtlantaFalcons.com celebrating McClure’s incredible career when the press conference is announced.

A lot of fans have been asking about the captain’s “C” patch they saw on a couple of jerseys during Sunday’s divisional round win over Seattle, and the patches have been placed on select jerseys because the Falcons have voted for their 2012 captains.

The Falcons and Packers are the only teams in the NFL that do things a little backwards in that they vote for their captains of the year at the end of the season as opposed to the beginning of the season.

That’s why you never see the captain’s patch during the regular season.

After the season, the team voted on captains and head coach Mike Smith decided he wanted the patches on the jerseys of those who were voted to the honor: Matt Ryan and Todd McClure for offense, Sean Weatherspoon and Jonathan Babineaux for defense and Matt Bryant for special teams.

You may have also noticed the stars below the “C” on the patch. Each star represents the number of years that player has been a captain. For example, Ryan and McClure have four stars while Weatherspoon and Babineaux have one.

The five will be the standing captains for the rest of the postseason.

The media attention is coming in significantly, really, for the first time all year for the Falcons. There are some great links out there and I’ve compiled some of the best I’ve come across here for you:

• Want to know why Sam Baker has had such a resurgence this year? He’s healthy, and it all started with a new training focus during the offseason, as the Orange County Register writes.
• The focus this week nationally has been on the hot hand of Russell Wilson, but quarterback Matt Ryan — despite his playoff past — is ready to win, ESPN Stats & Information writes.
• He’s the only current Falcon to win a playoff game as a Falcon, and center Todd McClure tells ESPN.com NFC South Blogger Pat Yasinskas that he sees a more mature team this year that’s on a different level than years past.
• Tony Gonzalez says there is “no tomorrow” for him this time around, but head coach Mike Smith is still holding on to that five percent chance that the future Hall-of-Famer will return for another year.
• From SI.com, Dennis Dillon has a great story behind the hiring and hopes of Dirk Koetter and Mike Nolan.
• More from SI.com, here’s a breakdown of how Seattle rookie DE Bruce Irvin handled the run against Washington, complete with pictures and arrows and X’s.

Tony Gonzalez stood in front of his locker last Thursday, smiling at the media as he prepared to speak for his regularly-scheduled interview session when he was asked a question about whether or not he’s hoping his teammates have adopted a win-one-for-Tony attitude.

“I hope they do,” he said with a laugh. “I hope they want to do it for me because I want to do it for them. I’ll tell you that right now.”

Just then, wide receiver Roddy White pushed his way through the crowd of media members surrounding Gonzalez’s locker and finished the question for him.

“Yeah, we wanna win one for Tony,” White said in his playful manner, garnering a laugh from the contingent. “That’s what y’all wanna know. We wanna win one for Tony.”

“… And that type of attitude is what I like right there,” Gonzalez said, as White faded into the background. “Honestly, that’s the attitude I have for them.”

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The Falcons, especially those who have been with the team since 2008 or even 2010, definitely have that attitude. They’ve all bled together, worked together and fell short together during those years, so with another chance at getting to where they want to go, they want to win it for each other.

But there are three people in particular who the Falcons draw inspiration from — the team’s natural leaders: Gonzalez, center Todd McClure and linebacker Mike Peterson.

All three near the end of their respective careers, they’re approaching these playoffs like it’s the final run — because it very well could be. Gonzalez has said repeatedly that he’s 95 percent sure he’ll retire at the end of this season. McClure was re-signed in the offseason but the longest-tenured Falcon is in his 14th season. Peterson, who was added after the Falcons released middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu before training camp, is also in his 14th year.

All three have their minds focused on going through the experience for what could be that one last time.

“I’ve gotta think about it. Me thinking about failure keeps me driving. If I didn’t think about not being successful, I’d be cutting myself short, not putting my all in,” Peterson said. “I think about, if I don’t make it, I don’t ever want to have that thought in the offseason: ‘I was so close.’ So I’m going to do everything I can now. Young guys, I’m going to tell them everything. This is it. This is my final swing, so to speak. I don’t want to say this is my last go-around, but that’s the way you’ve got to treat it when you’ve been in the league 14 years.”

The younger Falcons are taking note. They don’t even have to give it much thought. Win one for Tony, Mike and Todd is just a natural reaction to the importance those three have had on this team.

Of course, the players want to win it for themselves, too, but that extra motivation provided by those three has carried the Falcons through the calm-before-the-storm that is the bye week.

“(Peterson is) one of those guys that’s been around a long time and for me, it was real big, him coming back this season in terms of helping me out and getting to learn the middle linebacker position a whole lot more,” Akeem Dent said. “For me, I know Spoon, Nic, Rob James and the rest of the guys around here, if this happens to be his last year, we want to send him out the right way.”

As a whole, the three haven’t seen much playoff success in their 34 combined years in the NFL. Peterson and McClure have won playoff games during their career, but Gonzalez — who most assuredly is headed for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility — has never tasted playoff success.

Combined, Gonzalez, McClure and Peterson have a 3-17 record in the postseason.

“This is why you play the game and you always think about what you’ve gone through in the past and the tough, heart-breaking losses that I’ve had in the playoffs,” Gonzalez said. “You hope it is for a reason. I’ll tell you what, my rookie year we went 13-3 in Kansas City and guys like Marcus Allen and Derrick Thomas were saying we were going to win a Super Bowl. If I had won it back then, it wouldn’t have been as sweet as if I win it this year. I know what it takes and I know going through an entire career of 16 years and to not even have a playoff win, let alone a Super Bowl, that it’s tough.”

Tough as it may be, those 20 playoff appearances between the three elder statesmen create experience — something that can’t be taught or coached. As they head into this all-important week, that experience is something they’re going to continue to impart into a team that wants to win one for them so badly.

As Gonzalez, McClure and Peterson continue to hear it from the younger players that want to do it for them, the three will continue to make sure the magnitude and importance of the next six days is not lost on those whose NFL journeys are just getting started.

“I think they can draw on their experiences. Those guys are very experienced, not only in the regular season but the postseason,” head coach Mike Smith said. “As I’ve said many times, the older guys on our football team are mentors and they’re mentors to these young guys. I believe we will draw on their experiences because they are an important part of the makeup of our football team.”

It’s an easy week to get unfocused. Football players are short-sighted on purpose, especially those under head coach Mike Smith. They work in seven-day bits and reset after those seven days are up.

Usually at the end of those seven days, there’s a game to be played. It’s where the focus lies from Monday all the way to kickoff.

Not this week. It’s a bye week, but it’s unlike any bye week these Falcons have experienced. The ones that occur during the season are full of rest, relaxation and the chance to unwind.

That’s how it was two years ago when the Falcons earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC and the bye before the divisional round of the playoffs. Head coach Mike Smith vowed this time around to make things very different.

The Falcons are practicing this week — exactly the same as they would during any regular game week. Wednesday was a normal Wednesday. Thursday is expected to be a normal Thursday, and so on.

But without that big goal at the end of the week, the Falcons are leaning on their leadership to keep them focused on what’s at stake. And the leaders are embracing that role.

“You don’t want to be two months from now saying, ‘I wish I would have did this on the bye week,’ ‘We should have done this,’ ‘Why didn’t we do this?’ This is the time to do it now,” linebacker Mike Peterson said. “That’s the living-in-the-moment-type thing.”

The Falcons of two years ago were trying to live in the moment, but with expectations so high, it was tough not to look just a little further down the road — perhaps a product of having most of the bye week before the divisional round loss to Green Bay off and away from team headquarters in Flowery Branch.

The purpose of the change this time around is to keep the car engine revved up. Staying with a routine, just like any normal week, helps the Falcons keep their sights on how important each day leading up to their divisional round game is.

For the leaders in the pack, this is really their time to shine and to play the role they’ve been thrust into.

“I wasn’t brought in here to play 1,000 plays. I was brought in here for these types of situations, to let guys know what’s at stake,” said Peterson, who after 14 years in the league believes this is his last shot at the NFL’s ultimate prize. “This is it.”

It’s the perspective of knowing that this is likely your last hurrah that not is only keeping the Falcons focused this week but is also pushing them to enjoy everything they’ve achieved so far.

It’s true, the Falcons have reached only a few of their goals this year. And there are still plenty more they’d like to achieve. But the living-in-the-moment mentality that the leaders exude is contagious and they’re hoping that the perspective of being short-timers drives home the point of where the team is right now, what they can achieve if they remain focused this week and next and how important it is to just enjoy the ride.

“Some of these young guys might not realize the opportunities that we have and how far and few between it can be. I often think about a guy like Takeo Spikes that’s been playing this game forever and hasn’t been to a playoff game,” center Todd McClure said. “You can’t take that for granted. We’re going to make sure everyone’s on-point, focused and ready to go. We’re not going to be distracted and we’re not going to let anything get in between us and what we want to be holding at the end of the year.”

Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has gained a reputation around the NFL as one of the toughest interior defensive linemen around. Right or wrong, he’s also gained a different one, too.

But the Falcons aren’t worried about the second one. Instead, they’re looking at figuring out how to stop one of the league’s top defenders in a game that holds so much importance to the Falcons’ postseason path.

“Talented player. Really talented player,” Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan said of Suh. “He’s got great size, great strength, but he’s quick off the ball. Really good pass rusher. One of the best pass rushers for an interior guy in the league and a guy who plays to the whistle and relentless. He’s certainly someone you have to account for.”

The Falcons are expecting a physical matchup with the Lions, and Suh, especially. The Falcons offensive line did a tremendous job in a 34-0 win over the Giants keeping Matt Ryan clean against perhaps the toughest, most effective defensive line in the league.

In stopping Suh, the unit will need a similar performance.

“You face guys every week that are tremendous athletes, tremendous players and he’s one of them,” Falcons center Todd McClure said. “We’re going to have to be on our A-game and know where he’s at at all times.”

Suh has 30 tackles and 6.5 sacks this season to go along with the 14 career sacks he had coming into 2012. Known for penetrating the offensive backfield and disrupting plays before they get going, Suh can do a lot of things that can give the Falcons fits on Saturday as they try to keep the offensive momentum they built against the Giants.

Regardless of how Suh goes about that, the Falcons acknowledge they’ll have to keep their cool and stay poised no matter what situation presents itself in the trenches as they respect the type of game he brings to the field every week.

“No, he’s not a dirty player. He plays hard,” running back Michael Turner said, describing Suh as “tenacious” when asked to sum him up in a word. “He gets a bad rep for some things, but he’s just giving a great effort out there. You wish more guys would play like that in this league.”

We keep saying that the Falcons are focused on a different Bowl at the end of the season, and now that we’ve gotten that out of the way again, it’s time to take a look at some Falcons who are getting a good amount of fan votes so far.

Remember, it’s a huge honor for these guys to be named to the NFC Pro Bowl roster, which is why — even though you hope the Falcons are busy with another game at that time of the year — you should vote as much as possible for your favorite players. And, clearly, you have been, because the number of players in the top 5 of fan voting is beyond impressive!

Take a look at where the Falcons rank in fan voting at their respective positions, and keep up the voting!:

• Matt Ryan, QB – third
• Roddy White, WR – fifth
• Tony Gonzalez, TE – first
• Sam Baker, T – fourth
• Justin Blalock, G – second
• Todd McClure, C – fourth
• Jonathan Babineaux, DT – fifth
• William Moore, SS – fourth
• Thomas DeCoud, FS – second
• Matt Bryant, K – fifth
• Matt Bosher, P – fifth

Running back Michael Turner burst into the end zone on Sunday against Tampa Bay in the second half and, in turn, burst to the top of yet another record in the annals of Falcons history.

His touchdown Sunday marked the 57th of his career with the Falcons — significant because it’s tied for the most touchdowns ever with the franchise with wide receiver Terance Mathis. It’s a virtual certainty that the record will fall completely into Turner’s possession by the end of the season, if not by the end of the week, putting yet another stamp on an impressive five-year career in Atlanta.

Whenever Turner’s career ends in Atlanta, he’ll leave with his name above the all-time great running backs in franchise history. William Andrews, Gerald Riggs, Jamal Anderson and Warrick Dunn have all had team records fall to Turner.

It’s not something he’s thought a lot about, but he knows one day he’ll be able to take it all in.

“I never thought I’d be up there,” Turner said Tuesday. “I just kept working every year, just trying to get better and just do my job.”

And his job translated into etching his name into the record books.

Turner holds eight distinguished records in those books by himself or with another player, and it looks soon to be nine.

Turner has the following records:

• Most rushing yards in a game: 220 vs. Detroit on 9/7/08
• Most career rushing touchdowns: 56 (Riggs is second with 48)
• Most career 100-yard games: 27 (Riggs is second with 25)
• Most points scored in a game: 24 (tied with TJ Duckett; Turner’s 24 points came against Carolina on 11/23/08)
• Most touchdowns in a season: 17 (Anderson is second with 16)
• Most rushing touchdowns in a game: 4 (tied with Duckett; Turner’s four TDs came against Carolina on 11/23/08)
• Most touchdowns in a game: 4 (same as rushing touchdowns in a game mark)
• Most consecutive games with a touchdown: 7 (2009)

“It’s unbelievable,” said center Todd McClure, who has blocked for Turner, Anderson, Dunn and Duckett. “It just shows the type of work ethic he has and determination. When we get down there and get it close, he’s going to get it in. It’s just unbelievable, and I’m glad to be a part of it.”

Aside from the records, Turner has been an integral part of the movement of the offense in the past five seasons.

Coming in during quarterback Matt Ryan’s rookie season, Turner dominated in the run game with 1,699 yards that year (good enough for third all-time behind Anderson and Riggs) and his record-setting 17 touchdowns.

The pressure that took off the young quarterback can’t be overstated.

“Mike’s been huge in my career,” Ryan said. “He’s been a staple of our organization for the last five years. Especially early on in my career, having that running game, knowing that you can turn around and hand the ball to him and he’s going dominate games, that’s been huge. He’s a great teammate; very unselfish, and a guy that brings great energy to the locker room every day.”

In total, on top of the soon-to-be nine records, Turner is on the list for:

• Most yards gained in a career (fourth behind Riggs, Andrews and Dunn)
• Most yards gained in a season (third behind Anderson and Riggs)
• Most 1,000-yard seasons (tied for second with Dunn and Riggs)
• Most yards gained in a game (he holds the top two spots in this category)
• Most rushing attempts (fifth behind Riggs, Dunn, Anderson and Andrews)
• Most rushing attempts in a season (third behind Anderson and Riggs)
• Most 100-yard games in a season (third behind Anderson and Riggs)
• Highest average gain in a career with a minimum of 750 carries (second behind Andrews)
• Highest average gain in a season with a minimum of 150 carries (second behind Dunn)

With the record he’s most proud of looking to be on the edge of shattering, Turner is more tuned in to how the team is performing, but the importance of this one record and what he’s meant to Falcons history in his five seasons so far is something that he will carry with him.

“It’s going to be a great feeling,” Turner said about possibly becoming the Falcons’ all-time touchdown leader. “I just can’t think about it too much. I’ll just go out there and keep doing what I’ve been doing every week and when it happens, I’ll look back on it later.”

The situation was so close to identical, it was eerie.

Facing a game-winning situation from the 1-yard line, the Falcons lined up Sunday just the way they had a week before with the game on the line. The play call was the same — Michael Turner up left guard.

Last week, it was stuffed. On Sunday: redemption

Turner found the end zone on the 1-yard run that had confounded the Falcons just seven days earlier, and it was enough to be the game-deciding score.

“I was pretty pumped, man,” said center Todd McClure, who showed his excitement after Turner’s score on the run. “The situations that happened last week and little do you know, it comes right back up. (First)-and-goal, game on the line and we got it done.

“It was a rough week for everybody (after the loss to the Saints) and there’s definitely a little added pressure there. The first third-and-short we didn’t get, but I don’t know if you want to use the word ‘redemption,’ but we got it done (Sunday) and we know we’ll have to get it done the rest of the season.”

As McClure said, the third-and-short problems continued in Sunday’s game against Arizona as the Falcons were stuffed in the second quarter when Jason Snelling went up right guard and got stopped short. Later runs on third-and-short, however, worked as Turner scored on the 1-yard run and RB Jacquizz Rodgers earned the crucial first-down conversion on third-and-2 with a 6-yard gain that allowed the Falcons to take a knee the rest of the way.

While the Falcons only rushed for 33 yards as a team Sunday against one of the NFL’s toughest defenses, the run was there when it counted and the Falcons weren’t afraid to use it when they needed it.

“That shows that (offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter) has confidence in his guys,” McClure said. “He’s got confidence in us up front. He’s got confidence in Mike running the ball. We just got it in. It was about will (Sunday) and we got it in when we needed it.”

Matt Ryan earned the nickname Matty Ice for a reason. It was his cool, calm demeanor in the face of ridiculous adversity that gave him the moniker that would follow him to the NFL.

Perhaps it should be no surprise then that, during a game that saw him throw five interceptions, Ryan came into the huddle at one point with a smile on his face and inspiration at the ready.

According to running back Michael Turner, Ryan entered the huddle, smiled and said, “I don’t know what I was thinking. All right, now let’s go.” The tension of being struggling with the Cardinals at the time immediately broke and the Falcons just went right to work.

“The quarterback cannot be rattled,” Turner said. “He can’t show signs of being rattled or being bothered by the game. He knew we were going to have his back.”

It’s good to have that support during what is probably the toughest game statistically of Ryan’s career. He went 28-of-46 for 296 yards, no touchdowns and five interceptions.

According to ESPN’s Stats & Info Twitter account, it’s the first time a quarterback threw five picks and no touchdowns in a win since Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr did it in 1967.

“I’m in good company,” Ryan said with a laugh after the game. “Bart’s one of the greats of all time. It doesn’t happen very often. It really doesn’t, but I’m surrounded by really good teammates that picked us up today and made the plays that we needed.”

Ryan’s right. It doesn’t happen often.

Sunday’s win was only the third time Ryan threw three interceptions in one game in his career. Prior to Sunday’s game, he was 1-1 when throwing three picks. It was also the first time he had thrown four or more.

Yet, through the struggles offensively, Ryan never lost his confidence.

“I’ve said it before: he never changes, if he throws five touchdowns or five picks,” center Todd McClure said. “He never changes. He stands in there. He takes some hits. He had blood coming out of his mouth at one point today and he was back up and ready to go again. Unbelievable guy, and a great guy to play with.”

The day after a win tends to be pretty quiet around Flowery Branch as players are given the day off, even though a good majority of them do decide to come in and work out.

The day after a loss is even quieter, even though the entire team is in the building.

Suffering their first of the season Sunday — a 31-27 decision at the hands of NFC South rival New Orleans — the Falcons went right back to work Monday, intent on learning from the mistakes of a game that allowed an unbeaten season to slip away.

“We have a veteran football team. We’ve won games, we’ve lost games. It’s all about the way you bounce back,” cornerback Dunta Robinson said Monday. “One thing I know about this team, in the years that I’ve been here, is that we’ve always bounced back after a loss and I don’t expect anything different. We’re 8-1, you know what I mean? You can’t be too down and you can’t be too disappointed about that.

“Did we want to win that game yesterday? Of course, and we should have won that game, but we didn’t get it done.”

Robinson’s comments were echoed around the locker room Monday morning. The Falcons, while quiet and reflective Monday, won’t stew on things for long and will work to fix the mistakes of Sunday’s game.

Tony Gonzalez said after Sunday’s loss that the confidence the Falcons have in themselves and their outlook for the rest of 2012 doesn’t change because of what happened in the Superdome. They’ll just take it as an opportunity to build on the confidence they already have in place.

“I don’t think we needed a wake-up call. There’s areas every Sunday that you can improve in, whether you win or lose,” center Todd McClure said. “This team wasn’t asleep. We worked hard last week; we just didn’t execute like we should have on Sunday. It’s tough to win a game on Sundays every week, much less nine in a row. Would we have liked to have won it? Yeah, we would have liked to have been 9-0 right now, but we’re not. We’ve still got a good football team — a lot of confidence in this locker room, and I think it’s going to take us a long way this year.”

Trust might be the most important thing between offensive linemen in the NFL. It’s more important than that extra rep on the bench press or that 20 extra minutes of film study.

Gelling as a line is all about trust, and perhaps it’s one of the hardest things to attain. It’s the reason why offensive lines with new members struggle at times. Trust just hasn’t been established yet.

For one reason or another, the Falcons seem to be the exception to the rule. Despite a rookie lining up at right guard, trust runs very deep along the front five, and it’s because in his short time with the team, Peter Konz has earned that trust with the things he does on the field and off it.

Fellow linemen Todd McClure and Tyson Clabo don’t pull punches. They’re brutally honest. One a 14-year vet, the other a Pro Bowl right tackle, they know good when they see it.

So when each goes beyond lip service to rave about the newest addition to the offensive line, it’s enough to take notice.

“He’s done a great job. He’s really come in and played well. He knows the system,” McClure said. “He’s a smart guy so there’s not a whole lot we have to do. It makes it easier when you’ve got a young guy that can come in and he doesn’t have to have a pacifier in his mouth the whole time. He can just go out there and play, and he’s done a great job.”

The right guard position has been in flux since the end of the 2010 season when the Falcons lost Harvey Dahl to free agency. Since then, there have been some growing pains at the position. Garrett Reynolds was named the starter last season only to lose the job midway through the year. Joe Hawley took over the slot and even left tackle Sam Baker was put into the role for a few plays after he had returned from a back injury.

During the offseason, the Falcons had a dream land right in their lap as Konz — slated to be a first-rounder out of Wisconsin — fell to the Falcons in the second round. Pulling the trigger on a player that could play both center and guard was a no-brainer. It was all about the future as the team knew he wouldn’t have to be thrust into a starting spot right away and could take a couple of seasons to gell with his teammates and the system before then.

As Reynolds won back the position and played it very well during the first six games of the season, a back injury kept him out of the Philadelphia and Dallas games, and this week, landed him on season-ending injured reserve.

In his stead, Konz took over, much sooner than the Falcons had anticipated. His first game was against Cullen Jenkins of the Philadelphia Eagles — a huge challenge for any linemen, let alone a rookie making his first start.

For the man who would be to Konz’s right, however, there was a sense of comfortability in his presence.

“You know what? It hasn’t changed what I do one bit. Peter has done an excellent job so far,” Clabo said. “On the road in Philadelphia against Cullen Jenkins is a test, and I thought he passed the test. I anticipate that he will continue to do well because that’s about as tough as it’s gonna get.”

Clabo went on to mention the trust that he has in Konz already — an unusual prospect for a relationship between a veteran tackle and a rookie guard. Clabo feels completely at ease with Konz to his left.

That trust comes from knowing what Konz has done week in and week out to prepare himself and seeing exactly how he approaches the work he has to do off the field. Clabo knows that sometimes, it’s his job to let a defensive linemen cross his face, because the right guard is supposed to be there.

With hesitancy in that task comes a huge risk of not performing your own job as a blitzing linebacker can easily cross to Clabo’s outside and get to the quarterback if he doesn’t play his assignment. Having Konz to his left, Clabo knows that he’s going to be there when that needs to happen.

He also knows he’ll be there even when it doesn’t need to happen. Clabo was blocking a defensive linemen during a recent game when he noticed Konz had come over to give Clabo help he wasn’t expecting.

After the play, Clabo looked at Konz and said, “What were you doing?”

“I didn’t have anything else to do,” Konz replied, matter-of-factly.

While Clabo and McClure spend time raving about the rookie, Konz himself spends a lot of time being extra hard on himself. After an Eagles game when he all but blanked Jenkins, Konz thought he could have done a lot better. In fact, in the two games he’s played, he’s not only kept himself from getting negative attention, he’s made big blocks, like the one to spring Michael Turner, getting the running game going against Dallas, in the second half of last Sunday’s win.

Even with those glaring facts and performances, Konz still goes into the film room looking to answer the question: “What can I do better?”

“It lets you know what you have to work on. It makes you hungry for the next game,” Konz said. “I think that’s one of the biggest things to winning is keeping an edge, because if you feel like you’ve done something or that you’ve made it or you’re comfortable, that’s when losses happen. That’s when you start losing your way. So when I’m hard on myself, not only is it to make myself better, but it’s to give me an edge to play on Sunday.”

The rookie is about to be indoctrinated into a hated rivalry this weekend as the first chapter of his Falcons-Saints story begins Sunday.

It’ll be loud. It’ll be rowdy. It’ll be hostile. Certainly enough to rattle even the most tested veteran.

Still, the expectation of Konz is that he’ll be just fine.

“I know it’s going to be loud in New Orleans, and so that’ll be a test for him,” Clabo said. “But I think that he’ll be able to handle it.”

Trust.

News came last week, when the Eagles were also into their bye, that head coach Andy Reid would be replacing defensive coordinator Juan Castillo with position coach Todd Bowles. As soon as that happened, a wrench had been thrown into the Falcons’s preparations for Philadelphia.

With six weeks of tape to comb over, the Falcons coaching staff had been preparing for Castillo and his tendencies. Bowles taking over means the Falcons will suddenly have some extra unknowns to get ready for.

“It’s harder to look at tape. You’ve just got to look at the guys for who they are and not necessarily the scheme, because some things might change,” running back Michael Turner said Monday. “You don’t expect them to change a whole lot, but we are going to expect some unscouted looks.”

That’s the sentiment that resounded throughout the locker room about the subject Monday. The Falcons will expect a few looks that they haven’t seen before on the tape they’ve got on the Eagles, but it isn’t much different from any other game.

The main unknown will be Bowles tendencies. Save for three weeks last year when he served as Miami’s interim head coach, Bowles hasn’t spent much time in positions of shot-calling during his career. Widely expected to be one of the NFL’s brightest up-and-comers in the coaching ranks, Bowles hasn’t ever called defensive plays, which means the Falcons can’t study his calls in different situations.

Still, there isn’t a ton of concern.

“Somebody asked me that the other day, and it’s a bit of a challenge, but there’s not a whole lot that somebody can come up with that’s new,” center Todd McClure said. “It’s football. You can only line up so many guys, but they’re going have some little things and it’s just like every game. They’ll come out with a couple things that we haven’t seen and we’ll make our adjustments on the sideline and be ready to go, but it definitely can present a little bit of a problem.”

Bowles coached last year with Falcons defensive coordinator Mike Nolan and defensive backs coach Joe Danna with the Dolphins, so there is some familiarity there. For the Falcons, however, containing Bowles and his defense is much more about them than the new coordinator.

“Most of it is about us. We’ve got to go out, and we have to execute,” head coach Mike Smith said. “… We’ve got to be prepared for some unscouted looks, and I don’t think there will be a mass change in what they do philosophically because they’ve invested so much time into the scheme that they’re running.”

If you were to ask several Falcons on the current roster where they were the last time Atlanta earned a win in the City of Brotherly Love, what kind of answer would you expect?

“I was 3 years old,” safety Thomas DeCoud said Monday. “I probably still had my binky, because I didn’t give up my binky until I was about 5. I actually told my mom, ‘You can take my bottle, but you can’t have my binky,’ so we were probably having that conversation.”

Yeah, it’s been that long. Gas was $1.08 a gallon, stamps were $.22, Todd McClure was in third grade, Sean Weatherspoon wasn’t even a year old and Trapper Keepers were, like, totally rad.

It was 1988 when the Falcons last won in Philadelphia — a 27-24 victory on Oct. 30 decided by a Chris-Miller-to-Michael-Haynes 49-yard touchdown pass at Veterans Stadium.

The Falcons’ longest tenured member at the moment, McClure says he was 11 years old then.

“For the record, I wasn’t playing in 1988,” McClure said with a laugh. “It’s a tough placed to play and they’ve always got good teams. I think we’ve got the team that can go up there and get the win, but it’s going to be a challenge.”

The Falcons won’t be thinking about history during those 60 minutes come Sunday, but the victory drought in Philadelphia comes at an interesting time. The Falcons have done something they’ve never done before — started a season 6-0 — this year and they’ll be looking to keep that going Sunday. In turn, they could rewrite their unfortunate Philadelphia history.

“I love breaking barriers. We’ve been breaking barriers this year,” Weatherspoon said, 23 years older and wiser since the last win in Philly. “This is just another one. We want to go out there and take care of business.”

Several Falcons spoke during the media’s open locker room period Monday, and the hot topic was the Falcons’ tackling struggles against the Raiders before the bye. Here’s a sampling of what they had to say:

• DT Vance Walker on his success this year: “I guess, I’d say just my experience. This is my fourth year and I see things a lot easier now. Everything’s kind of slowed down. Also, my training regimen, just training hard all offseason, which I had been doing the past couple of years, but everything is just falling into place for me. I think it’s just a testament to how hard I worked in the past.”
• RB Michael Turner on what the coaching staff communicated to the team after their self-scout: “It wasn’t just about the running game. It was about all sorts of things, all areas that we want to improve on. We’re 6-0 and we’ve still got room for improvement, so we’ll be fine.”
• DE Ray Edwards on the tackling issues: “All of us have been playing football since we were probably 10 years old. We know how to tackle. We’ve just got to do it.”
• C Todd McClure on the importance of time of possession in a hostile environment this weekend: “I think it’s really important. I think the bottom line is to score one more point than they do. But it is going to be a loud environment. They’ve got a great defense that can rush the passer, guys that love to do that. They love to put their hand down when it’s third-down-and-long and try to disrupt the passing game, so it’s definitely going to be a challenge for us and one that we’re ready for.”
• S Thomas DeCoud on having fewer missed tackles: “I think, now, we have the technique of tackling. Once we make contact, we know how to do that. But I think now it’s more so just our path to the ball. The speed of the game is a lot faster and it’s faster than it’s ever been before, so guys can eat up angles or make you wrong once you get on your way to the ball, so it’s more about the path to the ball and making sure we have the correct angles once we’re entering contact.”
• LB Sean Weatherspoon on the biggest point of emphasis against Philadelphia: “We’ve got to tackle. We’ll have the opportunities. We’ll be faced with some of the things that we’ve been faced with in the games previously, so they’ll watch tape and see things they think they can do against us and it’ll just be up to us to go out there and make sure we hit them whenever we have those opportunities.”

Welcome to a 5-0 Monday. It is also the first in franchise history. The Falcons are coming off a 24-17 win over Washington on Sunday to remain flawless in the standings and maintain a stranglehold on the NFC South. To celebrate, I scour the Internet to find things for you to read. See how that works? Enjoy.

After four preseason games, the line feels very comfortable with what they’re supposed to do when offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter calls for the screen.

“We do (enjoy it), to change it up,” center Todd McClure said. “If we get out there and get our blocks, there’s potential for a big play.”

If the preseason was any indication, running back Jacquizz Rodgers will handle a lot of the screen opportunities as far as toting the ball, but wide receiver Julio Jones looks to be in the mix there, as well.

The blocking scheme for linemen on the play — which is basically holding a block for a moment and then letting the defenders upfield so the offensive line can get out to the edge to block for the receiver — can sometimes cause them to miss the best parts of the play.

That’s OK with them. They’ll just catch the highlights later.

“We know we have the potential to be a really explosive offense this year, and sometimes you go out, you make the block, you may hear the crowd roar and you know something good just happened,” McClure said. “That’s what it’s all about for us. When you have a back or a receiver cut off of your block for a big play, that’s what it’s all about for us.”

The question is: Will there be more?

The Chiefs have several starters in question this week as injuries have plagued the team a bit during the preseason. The first official injury report comes out today, but KCChiefs.com reported earlier this week that some significant players could be in question for Sunday’s game.

The Falcons are preparing in a variety of ways. First, they’re going to go at practice as if the Chiefs will be with all their starters. From there, they’ll do plenty of work on the backups to make sure they’re prepared for as much as possible.

“They’ve been playing some time during the preseason, so you’ve got to look at the preseason games to see their techniques and things like that,” running back Michael Turner said. “You pick up the keys that way. You’re not going to get them in live action with the first unit, so you’ve got to pick and choose clips to look at.”

The uncertainty makes film study all the more important for the Falcons this week. With the Chiefs backups — much like those on the Falcons roster — spending a lot of time on the field during the preseason, there should be plenty of film to watch on the unknown players.

The Falcons, however, don’t need to watch tape on Hali to know how much the Chiefs will miss him. He’s serving a one-game suspension during the opening weekend.

“He’s a great player. He makes a lot of plays for their defense,” center Todd McClure said. “I can’t say we were upset when we saw that he wasn’t going to be playing, because he’s a great player. Phenomenal player. But they’ll have somebody that’ll line up where he was. They’re not going to just leave that spot vacant.

“They’re going to have somebody that’s paid to rush the passer that’ll be out there, so we’ve got to be on our A game.”

Jay Adams: You’ve been here a few months. What’s your assessment of the talent you have been working with on the offensive line?

Pat Hill: I like the group I’m working with. I think they’re highly intelligent. My job, like I told them, isn’t to come in here and split the atom. These guys have a lot of plays and a lot of schemes and they understand them very well. My deal that I want to do is I just want to keep working on fundamentals. I’m a great believer in fundamentals. This is a league where everybody runs a lot of the same stuff. The ones that have the edge are the ones that execute it the best. It’s the same thing on the offensive like. We just want to keep working on our fundamentals, get better at our footwork, get better at the understanding of the fundamentals that it takes to win. The run game, the pass game, the screen game — whatever it may be, if we get better at fundamentals, it increases your confidence.

JA: The left tackle position is one that a lot of fans are going to be paying attention to. Do you see that as a position battle that will drag on throughout training camp?

PH: You can’t get anything out of playing in shorts and T-shirts now, and that’s the great thing about pro football. We get a training camp and four practice games. In college, you don’t get that. Here, there’s a lot of time to sort that out. There’s a lot of things that are going to happen between now and September 9 in Kansas City. It’s going to be very competitive. It’s going to be great competition. My belief is I want to get the best five on the field, wherever they may fit.

JA: The Draft was kind to you in that you get Peter Konz and Lamar Holmes with the first two picks the Falcons had in 2012. Obviously, you haven’t seen Lamar out on the field yet (as he recovers from a foot injury), but what are your impressions of Konz’s abilities?

PH: Peter Konz comes from a program that runs a pro-style-type offense, so he’s familiar with inside zone, outside zone, the power run game, so the run game is very familiar. Their pass protection, there’s some similarity. You know, the difference is, like I used to tell my guys at Fresno, too — we ran a pro-style offense and a lot of our kids were able to move on — we’re basic math in college. We don’t go into all the details that happen at the pro level. The pro level, it’s a lot more sophisticated — you have the basics and then it’s an add-on game. The great thing is, though, for Peter is he’s coming out of a program where he has the basics. Now we can add on a lot easier. The guys that come out of some of these programs that are spread and maybe one- or two-protections or maybe two- or three-runs, all shotgun — there’s a lot more involved in that teaching, so Peter comes from a very strong program as far as fundamentals and basics. He had a great line coach in college I know very well (Bob Bostad) , who’s now in Tampa Bay with Greg Schiano, so he’s got a real good head start. The hardest part is, you’ve got to change the chip. The words are now different. If we all had the universal chip where all the blocks were the same and the plays were the same, it’d be a lot easier game, but everybody’s got different names for things. Same thing with me. For example, 62, 63 protection was a lot different for me than 62, 63 is here. It takes me a while to snap into the new chips, so we’re all learning a new language, but he’s picking it up fast.

JA: The big buzz this offseason has been “Protect Matt Ryan.” What do you see as the things that need to occur between now and the first game against Kansas City in order to ensure that happens?

PH: Fundamental work. I term it as being a swing coach. Tiger Woods has got a swing coach, who works with him on the same swing every day, over and over. Pass protection is learning how to get into a groove and having belief in your fundamentals. There are going to be times when you get beat, but when you get beat, you can’t get away from your fundamentals. You’ve got to step back, clap it off and come back and fundamentally get strong again. That’s the hardest thing about protection, because in the heat of battle, you’re going to get beat once in a while. It’s not going to be perfect every time. How can you snap back and get ready for the next play and put that beside you? There’s some times when even the great golfers have a bad shot every once in a while. We’re gonna have some bad shots, and when we have a bad shot, how do we recover and get to the next one. That’s what I’m concerned about.

JA: You inherit a guy here who seems like he’d be a gem for a new coach at any position in Todd McClure, who has seen his share of turnover in his NFL career. How much do you lean on a guy like that when you, yourself, are learning as much as the players you’re teaching?

PH: He’s a true pro. That guy’s got a wealth of knowledge. I’ll admit: as a new guy coming in — in the NFL, the more familiar you are with the personnel, the better you are. I don’t have a familiarity with any of the defensive personnel. When I was (the offensive line coach) in Cleveland, after one year, I knew the personnel in the league. I forced myself and said, ‘When I’m here, I’ve got to learn the personnel.’ So, right now, when we’re getting ready for a game plan, the first question you’ve got to ask is: Can you handle this guy? What kind of guy is this? Heck, I’m fine with that, just as long as we get it done as a joint effort, and when you’ve got a guy like Todd McClure and Tyson Clabo and JB (Justin Blalock) and those guys that have been through the wars, anything they can contribute, you’d be a fool not to listen.

Along with recent additions of center Todd McClure (@ToddMcclure62) and Tyson Clabo (@TysonClabo) is the newest member of the offensive line — and the newest Falcon on Twitter, Vince Manuwai, who the Falcons signed at the start of the free agency period.

Follow Vince @GreenBanana65.

Also, click here for an entire list of Falcons players, cheerleaders and personalities on Twitter.

With that said, NFL.com recognized its All-Unheralded Team and Falcons tackle Tyson Clabo is heralded on the list.

Now, Clabo, of course, is well-known among Falcons circles, and his brief flirt with free agency earned him a bit of national attention at the start of training camp, but even with a Pro Bowl under his belt, Clabo goes largely unnoticed nationally.

Speaking of unheralded players, I’ll go ahead and list just a few more off the top of my head: Ovie Mughelli, Todd McClure, Brent Grimes, Curtis Lofton, Jonathan Babineaux, heck, the entire roster. I’d tell you to suggest some of your own, but comments aren’t enabled on the blog yet, so you’ll just have to live with my list for right now.