Falcons stand atop mountain at 8-0

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. – Todd McClure can tell this is becoming a special season for the Atlanta Falcons, just from all the extra time he’s spending on the phone.

He’s getting hit up for tickets. And extra tickets. And anything with a signature on it.

“I guess it comes with the territory,” the Falcons’ longtime center said Wednesday, “so I’m embracing it.”

McClure is also embracing the idea of perfection, the goal that every team strives for but few will ever reach. The Falcons have won their first eight games, the best start in franchise history and halfway to a 16-0 season.

The 1972 Miami Dolphins are the only team in the modern era to make it through an entire year without a loss. The 2007 New England Patriots are the lone squad to go undefeated in a 16-game regular season (before losing, of course, in the Super Bowl).

Now, along come the Falcons.

Can they reach perfection?

“We can,” McClure said without a hint of hesitation. “There’s no reason we can’t. If we play our game, go out and do what we’re supposed to go, we can. The sky’s the limit for this team. Is it going to be hard? Yes. Will it be hard this week? Yes.

“But,” he added, “if we approach it week by week, it’s definitely possible.”

An 8-0 start is not all that usual – the Falcons are the 10th team to do it in the last two decades, according to STATS LLC – but this is where the pressure starts to mount. There’s more and more media attention, more and more questions about the streak. Opposing teams start to play with a little extra fire, eager to be the team that ends the unbeaten season.

That’s why another Falcons’ lineman, right tackle Tyson Clabo, is realistic about the chances of going 16-0.

“We’re only halfway there,” he said. “Statistically, the chances of that are really slim. I mean, we base our game plans on statistics. Statistically, this what’s going to happen, so we’re going to do this. So I don’t think we should deviate from our entire mindset based on this big, golden cow that everybody thinks we should try to get to.”

Besides, despite being the league’s only unbeaten team, the Falcons are still searching for a little national respect.

Outside of Atlanta, there’s still a great deal of skepticism about whether this team will end up holding the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the season, no matter how good it looks at the moment.

The Falcons have defeated only one team (Denver in Week 2) with a winning record. The combined record of their first eight opponents is a rather dismal 24-41. Perhaps the two toughest games are still to come – Sunday’s contest at New Orleans against the surging Saints, Atlanta’s fiercest rival. Then there’s a December contest against the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

“At this point, we have so many other goals that are more important than” going 16-0, Clabo said. “Like winning the division. Like trying to get a game in the (Georgia) Dome in the playoffs. We have a whole bunch of things we have to do before we even worry about doing that other thing.”

Still, the odds of the Falcons running the table start to look much better if they get to 9-0. Other than the NFC East-leading Giants (6-3), the remaining opponents on the schedule are a cumulative 17-24 (Atlanta still has two games left with division rival Tampa Bay). Four of the last seven games are at the Georgia Dome, where the Falcons have a 30-7 record since Mike Smith took over as coach in 2008.

“I think we’ve got the pedigree to do it,” receiver Roddy White said. “Offensively and defensively and how we are as a team. The locker room is very, very united right now.”