The Atlanta Falcons will face their toughest test this season while trying to get themselves back into the race for the NFC South.

The Falcons weren’t able to stop Tony Romo, Dallas quarterback, in their Sunday 37-21 loss to the Cowboys. Suddenly they find themselves in danger of falling behind in the division.

Mike Smith, head coach for the Falcons, said he planned to use their extra time this week to consider some potential changes in personnel. This week Atlanta has an extra day for preparing for their very important NFC South game versus the Saints next Monday night in New Orleans.

Their most recent loss left the Falcons (4-2) trailing undefeated New Orleans by two games. Atlanta really can’t afford letting the deficit get bigger.

On Monday Michael Turner, running back, said this is a very big game to have a chance of winning our division. The guys in our locker room know that. We can’t fall behind by three games. It is tough in the NFL to catch up after falling behind by that many games with them having a win over you already. On Monday we need to do whatever we can to pull the win off.

Turner rushed for 50 yards on 18 carries in the game against the Cowboys. In four of Atlanta’s six previous games he had less than 70 yards rushing. His only 100 yard rushing game was in the team’s win over the Carolina Panthers in Week 2, although he did get pulled out of the game early in the Falcon’s win against the 49ers on October 11 after he had rushed for 97 yards and scored three touchdowns.

This season Turner is only averaging 3.4 yards a carry, after averaging 4.5 yards last season when he was the second ranked player in the NFL with a total of 1,699 rushing yards.

Backup player Jason Snelling, who has been getting a lot more playing time due to injuries to Ovie Mughelli, fullback, and Jerious Norwood, running back, had 68 yards rushing on 7 carries versus Dallas.

Mughelli has an injured calf and has missed two games in a row. Norwood missed the game due to a hip injury. Coach Smith stated that there wouldn’t be any updates to the injuries until Thursday, but also said that Snelling might have earned more playing time.

Smith said, yes if he keeps running with the ball like that. He ran very effectively with the ball. He has come in to play fullback as well as tailback for us. Every time Jason has gotten the opportunity he has been very efficient. His play might warrant some more touches.

Romo passed for 311 yards and had no interceptions and three touchdowns in the first game for Atlanta since they lost Brian Williams, cornerback, to a knee injury ending his season.

Atlanta’s defensive line was able to get to Romo.

Jonathan Babineaux, defensive tackle, said we mostly did stop the run. We just weren’t able to get after them on third downs and pressure rushes enough. Those things we need to get better with, especially with Drew Brees this week, who is one of the league’s best quarterbacks as far as passing right now.

Thomas DeCoud, safety, and Stephen Nicholas, linebacker, had Atlanta’s only sacks. John Abraham, defensive end, who last season had a career high 16 1/2 sacks, only has three sacks this season in six games.

Matt Ryan was sacked by the Cowboys four times. It ended the streak for Atlanta of not allowing any sacks in four games in a row.

Smith said that this week there could be some starting jobs on the line.

We are always thinking about changes we feel can help us, Smith said. We will be taking a hard look. We have an extra day which gives our staff a very good opportunity to evaluate personnel. We will make some changes if we feel that they are warranted.

Strong starts have been emphasized by Smith. However Atlanta wasn’t able to maintain any momentum after their long drive to open the game and take a lead of 7-0 over Dallas.

Smith said, we weren’t able to sustain anything after that first quarter. We really struggled in fact after that. We need to have the ability of sustaining that level of play in this league if we want to be successful. I’m the head coach and it’s my responsibility to ensure we do that.