PACKERS FREEZE OUT FALCONS\Their next stop San Francisco\GREEN BAY 37, ATLANTA 20.

Byline: Bob Ford Philadelphia Inquirer 

As they have been all season in homey, homely Lambeau Field, the Green Bay Packers were a coldly efficient football team Sunday. The Atlanta Falcons - on a throwback day that featured snowfall, but no snowballs, and was missing only John Facenda in a voice-over role - were merely cold.

If the ghost of Vince Lombardi was indeed lurking amid the soupy winter mix, smiling at a familiar sight as the Packers kept their unbeaten home playoff record intact, then somewhere the spirits of Dan Henning and Jerry Glanville recognized the Falcons as well.

The Packers beat the Falcons 37-20 in another wild-card game that was decided on the bulletin board as well as the blackboard. They advance to an NFC semifinal Saturday in San Francisco against the 49ers. The Falcons, as usual, merely retreat.

Emboldened by their must-win last week over San Francisco, some of the Falcons expressed the idea that beating the Packers in Green Bay would require something less than a miracle. They were right on one count: The Packers were a beatable team Sunday. But not by the Falcons.

"Some of them guys were running their mouths entirely too much for a team that's never won anything," Green Bay defensive end Sean Jones said of Atlanta. "They had beat the world champions last week, and said we hadn't beat nobody, but they're going to wake up tomorrow and realize this is the playoffs."

That was precisely the same lesson learned this weekend by the ultra-confident Detroit Lions as the Eagles advanced to the conference semifinals, to be held Sunday in Dallas.

"I brought up the Philadelphia-Detroit game to the team last night," Green Bay coach Mike Holmgren said. "I just wanted them to be aware how emotional and mental attitude play a part in how you play."

If Holmgren was worried that his team would be lulled into some self-satisfaction of its own, particularly playing in front of a boisterous, adoring crowd, his concern peaked after the Packers' opening drive.

The Falcons' temperamental quarterback, Jeff George, christened "Boy George" during his term in Indianapolis, began the game by throwing an interception that set up Green Bay on the Atlanta 22-yard line. But after quarterback Brett Favre passed for one first down, the Packers went steadily backward, thanks to a penalty and a sack, before Chris Jacke missed a 46-yard field goal.

"I was mad. I was mad mad," Holmgren said. "I had a couple of mini-huddles and told them I won't tolerate that type of effort or play."

His humor didn't improve when George made amends on the next series by scrambling out of the pocket to find Eric Metcalf alone down the right sideline for a 65-yard touchdown.

Metcalf, after running through the end zone, taunted the crowd a bit by pretending he was going to vault himself into the stands, a post-touchdown ritual performed by Packers after a score.

It was the last time the game would seem very humorous for Atlanta.

Favre took Green Bay to touchdowns on the next two Packers possessions. They closed those drives with an 8-yard run by Edgar Bennett, who finished with 108 yards, and then a 14-yard completion to Robert Brooks, the first of three TD passes for Favre.

There would be two more Green Bay touchdowns in the half, on the way to a decisive 27-10 lead.