John Abraham | Atlanta Falcons Tickets

Falcons Crush Jaguars, 41-14, Improving Playoff Hopes

Matt Ryan threw three touchdown passes in less than three quarters of work, John Abraham had 3 ½ sacks and the Falcons clinched a fourth straight winning season with a 41-14 rout of the visiting on Thursday.

“Hopefully, we can play like we did tonight for the next couple weeks,” Ryan said.

This one was over by halftime. Atlanta (9-5) led by 27-0 when the teams trotted to the locker room. Blaine Gabbert and the shellshocked Jaguars (4-10) were saddled with a net passing total of minus-1 yard, and the Falcons were well on the way to strengthening their hold on an N.F.C. wild-card spot.

Gabbert had one of his worst games in a miserable rookie season, coughing up the ball twice on hits by Abraham. Both fumbles led to Atlanta scores, with defensive tackle Corey Peters scooping up the second one and trotting to the end zone early in the third quarter for a touchdown that ended any thought of the Jaguars getting back in the game.

“It wasn’t just me,” Abraham said. “The whole team was able to get to the quarterback.”

Ryan was 19 of 26 for 224 yards and 3 touchdowns, with a season-high quarterback rating of 137.3. Roddy White caught two of the scoring passes, Julio Jones the other.

Gabbert was 12 of 22 for 141 yards, also throwing an interception to cap a truly awful night of running for his life and making bad decisions. He got most of his yards on a meaningless final drive, hitting Chastin West on a 16-yard touchdown with 59 seconds to go. Jacksonville’s other touchdown came on a blocked punt after trailing, 41-0.

The injury-riddled Jaguars, playing out the season with an interim coach and a new owner, were coming off their best game of the season, having scored 41 straight points in a 41-14 victory over Tampa Bay. But, playing their third game in 11 days, they could not build any momentum toward closing out the season on a high note.

Michael Turner burst off left guard for 15 yards on the first play of the game, and the Falcons were off and running. Ryan capped the opening drive by stepping up to avoid the pressure, flipping a short pass to Jones, then watching the rookie turn on an impressive burst of speed for a 29-yard touchdown.

PLAN FOR TEBOW The New England Patriots say they are preparing for the ’ the way they do for any quarterback — by learning what he does well and what he does poorly and taking advantage of that knowledge.

There’s a big problem, though. Tebow is not like any other quarterback. “He’s a very unique person,” said Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who played with Tebow at Florida. “He’s a leader.”

Tebow has led the Broncos to a 7-1 record in his eight starts since they opened at 1-4. Their 8-5 mark going into Sunday’s home game against the Patriots leads the A.F.C. West.

New England has allowed the most yards in the N.F.L. despite a 10-3 record. The Patriots will have to be disciplined to deal with the scrambling Tebow.

“Anytime you have a quarterback that’s mobile, it definitely is a challenge for a defense,” said Patriots defensive back Nate Jones, a teammate of Tebow’s last season.

BROTHERLY ADVICE Before San Francisco 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh started his preparation for Steelers week, he had an important phone call to make to learn the ins and outs of how to beat Pittsburgh: to Baltimore’s coach and his big brother, John.

The Ravens have won both of their meetings this season against the Steelers in what has evolved into one of the N.F.L.’s fiercest rivalries. And Monday night’s matchup between San Francisco and Pittsburgh has plenty of meaning to Baltimore, which is tied with the Steelers atop the A.F.C. North standings and trying to win the division.

John Harbaugh asked a team official to make sure he was allowed to help his brother with any insight. “I know for a fact a lot of coaches have spent a lot of time talking about us before they play us,” John Harbaugh said. “So I’m sure we’ll try to help him in some way if we can.”

Ryan, Abraham Lead Falcons to 41-14 Rout of Jags

Maybe they’ll get it right this season.

With their best effort of an up-and-down season, the Falcons clinched a fourth straight winning record with a 41-14 rout of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday night. Matt Ryan had another big game, throwing three touchdown passes in less than three quarters of work, and John Abraham terrorized rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert with 3½ sacks.

“I feel like we’ve hit our stride,” said Roddy White, who had 10 catches for 135 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

A year ago, the Falcons won the NFC South with a conference-leading 13 wins. But they were one-and-done in the playoffs, blown out at home by the Green Bay Packers in the division round.

The Packers went on to claim the title and haven’t lost since.

Atlanta would like to follow their lead.

“You know, Green Bay did a heck of a job last year peaking at the right time,” White said. “I feel like we haven’t hit our stride. The last two games, we’ve been hitting it.”

Atlanta led 27-0 at halftime and stretched it out to 41-0 before Jacksonville scored on a blocked punt. Going back to the previous week, when the Falcons overcame a 16-point halftime deficit at Carolina, they ripped off 65 points in a row over five quarters.

Now that’s more like it from a team that was projected as a Super Bowl contender but had not quite lived up to expectations.

Atlanta (9-5) strengthened its hold on an NFC wild card and clinched its fourth straight winning season.

Ho hum. This team has much higher goals than finishing above .500.

“I’m glad we’ve been able to accomplish that as an organization and a football team,” coach Mike Smith said. “But believe me, it’s not one of those expectations we really want to talk about. If we’re where we think we are as an organization and a football team, that’s expected each and every year.”

It wasn’t so long ago that nine victories was a big deal. The Falcons went through the first 42 years of their existence without so much as back-to-back winning seasons.

All that changed when Smith and general manager Thomas Dimitroff took over in 2008.

“I can’t speak to the people who came before, but I know since Thomas and I had the opportunity to be here, we’ve just kind of put our heads down and gone to work,” the coach said. “When you do that, good things usually happen. We are not finished, believe me. Our expectations and internal goals are much higher than having a winning football season.”

This one was over by halftime, Gabbert and the shell-shocked Jaguars (4-10) saddled with a net passing total of minus-1 yard. It got as bad as minus-29 before Jacksonville piled up some meaningless yards on its final two possessions.

Gabbert had one of his worst games in a miserable rookie season, coughing up the ball twice on hits by Abraham. Both fumbles led to Atlanta scores, with defensive tackle Corey Peters scooping up the second one and scooting 13 yards to the end zone early in the third quarter for a touchdown that ended any thought of the Jaguars getting back in the game.

“It wasn’t just me,” said Abraham, who came into the game with only five sacks on the season. “The whole team was able to get to the quarterback.”

Ryan was 19 of 26 for 224 yards and three touchdowns, with a season-high rating of 137.3. Rookie Julio Jones had the other TD on a 29-yard reception, his third score in the past two weeks.

Gabbert was 12 of 22 for 141 yards, also throwing an interception during a truly awful night full of bad decisions when he wasn’t running for his life. He was sacked five times and got most of his yards on an irrelevant final drive, which resulted in Jacksonville’s only offensive touchdown: a 16-yard pass to Chastin West with 59 seconds remaining.

“It wasn’t our best night,” Gabbert said. “We’ve just got to learn from it, take the positives out of it and just get better.”

The injury-riddled Jaguars, playing out the season with an interim coach and a new owner, were coming off their best performance, having scored 41 straight points in a 41-14 victory over Tampa Bay. But, playing for the third time in 11 days, they couldn’t build any momentum for a strong finish.

Shahid Khan must have been wondering why he paid an estimated $760 million to buy the team from original Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver in a deal that was unanimously approved by NFL owners a day earlier.

Michael Turner had a 5-yard touchdown run and Matt Bryant kicked a pair of field goals to account for Atlanta’s other scoring in the 41-point barrage.

“We didn’t execute good against a good team and you saw what happened,” Lewis said. “Nothing really more to it. Things got out of hand way too fast and we weren’t able to recover.

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Livas Returns Punt for TD, Dolphins Beat Falcons

Atlanta rookie receiver Julio Jones, quarterback Matt Ryan and running back Michael Turner contributed on first-quarter scoring drives that gave the Falcons a 17-0 lead.

Henne threw interceptions on two of Miami’s first three possessions before connecting with Brian Hartline for a 44-yard touchdown pass that made it 17-7 early in the second quarter.

Henne, who completed 4 of 8 passes for 77 yards, did his best work against Atlanta’s defensive reserves.

But the same could be said, too, of Ryan, who completed just one of his first passes against Miami’s defensive starters. The difference, however, was that the Atlanta QB threw one TD pass and didn’t have an interceptions. Ryan finished 6 of 10 for 90 yards.

For the Dolphins, who host Carolina at home next week and open the regular season at home Sept. 12 against New England, it was more a matter of who didn’t play as coach Tony Sparano decided to avoid injury risk.

Running back Reggie Bush, receiver Brandon Marshall, defensive end Jason Taylor wore uniforms, but not helmets, and stood on the sideline. Left tackle Jake Long wasn’t in uniform.

Daniel Thomas started in Bush’s place and ran four times for 5 yards. Davone Bess subbed for Marshall and caught two passes for 8 yards.

Miami is coming off 7-9 season after which Dolphins owner Stephen Ross considered firing Sparano but brought him back when Jim Harbaugh took the San Francisco job.

Atlanta, which went 13-3 last year to earn the NFC’s No. 1 seed, will visit Jacksonville for a preseason game next week. The Falcons open the regular season Sept. 11 in Chicago.

On Henne’s first interception, tight end Anthony Fasano was running right to left when the pass arrived behind him. Defensive end John Abraham, who had dropped into coverage, grabbed the bobbled ball to set up the offense at the Atlanta 44.

Three plays later, Ryan threw a soft pass over the middle to Jones, who was running a left-to-right drag route just outside the line of scrimmage against cornerback Vontae Davis and advanced to the Miami 14 behind before safety Reshad Jones pulled him down.

Turner had a 2-yard TD run one play later.

Atlanta’s next drive started at the 17 before Ryan connected with Jones, the NFL’s No. 6 overall draft pick, for a 22-yard gain on an end route down the right side. On the next snap, Jones took a reverse handoff and sped 12 yards to the Falcons 49.

Ryan and Harry Douglas made it 14-0 seven plays later, connecting on a 20-yard touchdown pass that beat cornerbacks Nolan Carroll and Nate Ness.

Henne’s second interception, which came on the Dolphins’ next play from scrimmage, was a poorly thrown ball intended for Bess and picked off by cornerback Brent Grimes on the right side.

With Ryan and Atlanta’s other offensive starters out of the game, Third-string quarterback John Parker Wilson took charge of the offense and oversaw a six-play drive that ended with Matt Bryant’s 27-yard field goal and a 17-0 lead.

Wilson, who completed 12 of 19 passes for 111 yards and one interception, was knocked out of the game with an undisclosed injury midway through the third and had to be escorted off the field.

He lost a fumble near the end of the second quarter that led to Roberto Wallace’s 28-yard TD pass from Matt Moore and cut it to 17-14.

Moore connected with Edmond Gates on a 6-yard TD pass in the third quarter.

Adam Froman, a rookie from Louisville, played the rest of the game at quarterback for Atlanta, ending the game with an interception deep in Miami territory.