Falcons 24 Redskins 14

The Atlanta Falcons FINALLY ended their four-game slide with a 24-14 win at Washington on Sunday. But, it didn't come easy. Atlanta found themselves down in a similar situation early in the contest, falling behind 14-0. But through a field goal and a touchdown toss from Michael Vick to Alge Crumpler, the Falcons found themselves only down 14-10 at halftime. The defense started playing better when they brought the blitz on newbie starting quarterback Jason Campbell. This paid huge dividends in the second half as safety Lawyer Milloy came on a blitz, was pulling Campbell down when the young quarterback just tossed the ball up for grabs. Defensive end Chauncey Davis got his mitts up to bat the ball down and into his own hands. He rumbled down inside the Redskins' twenty-five yard-line before Ladell Betts drug him down. That set up a touchdown toss from Vick to Michael Jenkins to give the Falcons their first lead of the game at 17-14, before Jerious Norwood scampered for a long touchdown run to put the game away.

Atlanta ran for 256 yards on the day. It was the first time in several games that Michael Vick wasn't the main threat in Atlanta's ground attack. Vick did run for 59 yards, but Dunn added 87 (his highest output for quite some time), and Norwood scampered for 110 yards and a score. The passing game didn't garner too many yards for the Falcons, but Vick only attempted 16 passes in the game, since the run game was so effective. To go along with the two touchdown passes, he also completed a forty yard pass to Crumpler, so his yards per attempt was solid. The receivers dropped at least three more balls on Sunday (two by Crumper and one by Lelie), but sad to say, that's far fewer than they had been dropping in the weeks previous to this one. The line did an okay job at protecting Vick, but he didn't drop back too often, so it's difficult to truly evaluate their pass blocking performance. They did an excellent job opening holes in the run game, however.

Defensively, Atlanta played bend but don't break. They've played this style for several weeks now, but broke in the end and in the best possible scenario, would allow a field goal. They actually created turnovers on Sunday: the before-mentioned play by Milloy and Davis and also a late interception by safety Chris Crocker to seal the win. The Falcons were porous against the run, giving up a career-high 155 yards rushing to Ladell Betts. But, they pressured Campbell late in the first half and into the second half, created turnovers, and made the plays when they had to. John Abraham looked more alive this week than he did in his past week's performance against the Saints.

Overall, the special teams were solid as well. All-in-all, this was the best played game by Atlanta for quite some time. Why? A lack of mistakes. The offense didn't turn the ball over. The defense gave up a minimal amount of huge plays and caused turnovers. The special teams did their job.

What's the Falcons' status now? They're 6-6 and tied with three other teams for the two Wild Card spots in the NFC, along with NY Giants, Philadelphia, and Carolina. As of right now, Atlanta would be ranked 7th in the NFC due to tie-breakers, behind the Giants and Eagles, but ahead of the Panthers. Since NY has already beaten the Falcons, Atlanta would need to finish a game ahead of them in order to achieve Wild Card status over the G-Men. But, they've already beaten the Panthers once and in their four remaining games, two of them are against both the Panthers and the Eagles. They control their own destiny right now to a playoff spot. If they win all four games, they're a shoe-in. If they win three of four, they'll likely go. If they win two out of four, there's still a chance, depending on who those two wins are against. That's right, we may very well see an 8-8 team go to the playoffs from the NFC. This upcoming week, Atlanta goes on the road to face Tampa Bay, whom they beat 14-3 earlier in the year. Tampa has improved since that game and is tougher at home. Atlanta has also had problems beating teams they're "supposed" to beat, so I'm very interested in seeing how Atlanta responds in their second consecutive road game following a big win this past Sunday that snapped their skid. I'll also be interested to see the gameplan. Atlanta ran for over 300 yards in their first meeting, so I imagine Tampa will be much more ready for the rushing attack at home following that first meeting. Whatever is the case, it's nice to see the team get back on track. It's a shame that they couldn't have done it earlier against the likes of Detroit and Cleveland, but thank God they're in the NFC where 6-6 could very well mean a playoff spot at this point in the season.