Atlanta Falcons set records galore in 56-14 win

You know all the off-the-field issues the NFL has found themselves in over the past several weeks? Well, it appears that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the on-field equivalent of that.

The Bucs’ brought their winless record into the Georgia Dome for a prime time Thursday night game against the Atlanta Falcons, and the game was over before it truly began. Matt Ryan and the offense orchestrated a six play, 70 yard drive, which finished with a Ryan touchdown pass to Harry Douglas, and the Dirty Birds didn’t let up from there.

When all was said and done, the Falcons totaled 488 yards of offense and allowed only 217 of defense, with Ryan throwing for 286 of those yards and completed all but three of his 24 attempted passes, which equated to a 87.5% completion record, setting a franchise single-game record. He also finished the evening with a career-best QB rating of 155.9.

Ryan wasn’t the only record-setter tonight. In the second quarter, new Falcons return man Devin Hester took a punt from former Falcon Michael Koenen 62 yards into the endzone for his 20th kick return – be it a punt or kickoff – for a touchdown, which set a new NFL record, surpassing Deion Sanders, who was in the building for the TNF television coverage.

Atlanta held a 35-0 lead before the Bucs recorded a first down, and lead 56-0 after the completion of the third quarter, which was the 2nd-largest shutout margin through that time span in the Super Bowl era. And, one more for good measure, the 56 eventual points the Falcons would put up (coupled with the 14 Tampa would score in the fourth quarter) set an NFL record for the most amount of points in a Thursday night game ever – including all of the storied Thanksgiving games.

While I want to be satisfied with the win – not that I’m unhappy with it by any means – I just can’t figure out what this win means or what it is a product of, how good the Falcons were or how bad the Bucs were. But, in all honesty, it could be a combination of both – and, truth be told, the Falcons truly didn’t do anything special tonight except take advantage of Tampa Bay mistakes. They couldn’t catch a break to save their lives until the fourth quarter, but by then, it was too little way too late.

This is the third different team we have seen in as many games this year. We saw a team play from behind and comeback to start the year, a team that couldn’t get anything going on offense last week, and then tonight where it seemed like nothing could stop them. Hopefully, the former and the latter are what we will see most of, but the win is nice to have until next week, and the 2-1 record is something to be darn proud of. Halfway to last year’s win total, y’all!