Atlanta came into this game desperate for a win, if we’re being honest. They needed a win to stay alive and to prove that they were not an absolute mess minus Grady Jarrett, Deion Jones, Keanu Neal and Ricardo Allen, among others.
In fits and starts, the Falcons traveled that path. Mike Smith’s Buccaneers defense wasn’t good enough to stop Atlanta, and yet they did often enough that the Falcons couldn’t run away with this one. The defense came up with a couple of stops and actually got some pressure on Jameis Winston, but couldn’t do enough to prevent this one from being close until the very end.