The Falcons are heading into new territory, but they'll do so holding onto as much normalcy as possible.
For a team that has been to the Super Bowl just once before, with a roster nearly devoid of Super Bowl experience, what lies ahead in the next two weeks can be a bit overwhelming. That's why head coach Dan Quinn is stressing "the process" that got the team to this point, and the players' devotion to it.
"Week 4, Week 8, Week 12, Week 16, Week 19," Falcons head coach Dan Quinn said. "When you are inside these walls, it should feel the same. We try to throw a championship week every time we go. ... It didn't change last week and it didn't change the week prior. Our process, the guys have a very clear understanding how hard we have to go against one another to get ready and we'll do that again this week."
They are doing it to face a franchise that is making a record ninth trip to the Super Bowl, to face a coach and quarterback who are doing it for a seventh time in search of a fifth ring.
"We're not going to make it up in two weeks," Quinn chuckled about the gap in resumes. But he said the gulf only makes it that much more important to cling to the script.
"This experience is different, I want to fully recognize that," Quinn said. "However, when we do get to the game, it's still going to be the game. There is a lot of hype that leads up into it. There's more media exposure that goes along with it. But our process of getting ready doesn't change. Our intent of how we're going to play doesn't change. The attitude and identity we want to play with doesn't change. Those things are going to stay really consistent and really the same."
It's something the Falcons were relying on while the confetti was still falling in the Georgia Dome on Sunday.
"We're gonna do what we do," wide receiver Julio Jones said of how having the eyes of the football world on them might alter their preparation. "It doesn't matter, everything on the outside. Everything is in house with us. We're going to continue to do what we do. We're going to keep working."
Quinn is making his first Super Bowl visit as a head coach, but he went in two of the previous three years as an assistant with the Seahawks. When the Falcons had their bye two weeks ago, he sat down and outlined the plan for these weeks, which will include practicing and preparing in Atlanta at the beginning of this week, flying to Houston on Sunday, then immersing the team in Super Bowl LI's whirlwind before regrouping to bring the focus back to football in the days before the game.
"I've gone when it's gone well and I've gone when it hasn't," Quinn said. "I knew some of the things I really liked, some of the others that were pitfalls."
The biggest of them this time may be the Patriots themselves. Quinn spoke briefly about their expansive offensive playbook and attention to details.
"We're going to have a hell of a challenge and have to battle," he said.
But that won't be any different. Just like this week won't be. Even after beating the Packers on Sunday, Quinn said he was happy with "the appropriate amount of excitement" from the players.
"Winning the NFC championship affords you a chance at the next opportunity," he said. "That's what I wanted our team to feel like, and it did. Going to the Super Bowl is not the reward. It's playing really well and winning."
