ATLANTA — The Atlanta Falcons sulked off the field at the Alamodome. No smiles. No high-fives. No celebratory banter.

Hey, wait a minute ... didn't the Falcons WIN this game?

Yes they did, kicking a field goal on the final play to beat the New Orleans Saints in San Antonio last weekend. But, demonstrating just how much things have changed for this team, the Falcons were disgusted with the way they won.

"That was as morbid a win as I can remember," defensive end Patrick Kerney said.

The Saints pummeled Atlanta's injury plagued defense, rushing for 211 yards and averaging 6.6 yards per carry with a pair of backups (Antowain Smith and Aaron Stecker filled in for injured Deuce McAllister). New Orleans piled up a huge advantage in total yards, 456-266.

Still, the Falcons won. The defense and special teams each contributed a touchdown, while a much-disputed penalty on the Saints gave Todd Peterson a do-over after he missed his first chance at a game-winning field goal. He made the second from 36 yards, giving Atlanta a 34-31 victory.

Then, it was time for the non-celebration.

"It's one of the few times when I've walked to the locker room from the field after a win and it felt like a loss," receiver Brian Finneran said. "I know we won, but no one was jumping up and down, no one was hollering."

Indeed, while the Falcons (4-2) are off to one of the best starts in the team's mostly sorry history, most of the talk heading into Monday night's game against the New York Jets focused on the negative aspects of the latest victory.

Maybe that's an encouraging sign for a franchise that has never managed consecutive winning seasons.

The Falcons are coming off an appearance in the NFC championship game and insist that anything less than a Super Bowl title would be a disappointment.

"This is a new era," linebacker Keith Brooking said. "Three or four years ago, it might have been OK to win a game like that. The reality is: Yes, we're 4-2, but we won't reach the goals we've set for ourselves if we keep playing like we've played."

The goal is not another winning season, even though that would be a landmark in Falcons history.

"A lot of people have talked about whether this will be our first back-to-back winning seasons," Kerney said. "Well, a winning season is 9-7. No one here is interested in 9-7."

The way things have been going for the Jets (2-4), they would gladly take a winning season of any kind. New York's woes are epitomized by the quarterback position, where 41-year-old Vinny Testaverde was summoned as the emergency starter after the top two signal-callers went down with injuries.

Testaverde guided New York's struggling offense to a 14-12 victory over Tampa Bay in his first game, but the honeymoon ended last week with a 27-17 loss at Buffalo. The ancient one was only 12-of-26 for 161 yards, including two interceptions.

The road isn't a good place for the Jets to get well.

New York has lost five straight regular-season games away from the Meadowlands, while the Falcons are 9-2 at the Georgia Dome since Mora took over.

"There's no secret to what it takes to win on the road," Jets center Pete Kendall said. "You have to overcome certain things. A large obstacle for us to overcome will be crowd noise. We're going to play in a dome on Monday night against a team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations. I'm guessing that the city of Atlanta is going to be pretty fired up."

Testaverde said the offensive linemen must do a better job of relaying its signals in a noisy environment. They struggled to make calls in Buffalo's roofless stadium. This week figures to be even worse — especially with center Kevin Mawae lost for the season.

Mawae, who started every game the last 10 seasons, tore his left triceps in the loss to the Bills. Kendall is his replacement, moving over from guard.

"When you're out at practice or at a home game and that one guy makes the call, pretty much everyone can hear it," Testaverde said. "It's not as loud. When you're on the road, you have to be louder and you have to communicate. That's really the bottom line."

As for the Falcons, Mora was pleased to hear that his players were upset by their performance against the Saints, but he doesn't want to lose sight of Atlanta's bottom line — the second-best record in the NFC, trailing only division rival Tampa Bay (5-1).

"We have to realistic," Mora said. "We're still finding a lot wrong with this football team, and that's good to an extent. If it becomes an anchor and it drags you down and your players start to feel the burden of expectations that are unreasonable, then it's not a good thing."

"We just have to keep it in perspective — 4-2 is a good record right now."