ATLANTA — The Atlanta Falcons made plenty of mistakes. Fortunately, they had Michael Turner and John Abraham.
Turner ran for 152 yards, Abraham had three sacks and the Falcons finished off a sloppy performance with Jason Elam's 34-yard field goal in overtime, pulling out a crucial 13-10 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to tighten up the NFC playoff race.
Atlanta twice turned it over near the Tampa Bay end zone and had a huge breakdown on special teams late in the fourth quarter, allowing Tampa Bay to block a punt that set up Matt Bryant's tying field goal with 48 seconds left in regulation.
But the Falcons (9-5) stuffed Tampa Bay on the first possession of overtime as Abraham sacked fill-in quarterback Brian Griese on third down. After the punt, Atlanta drove 55 yards for Elam's winning kick, handing the Buccaneers (9-5) their second straight loss.
The Falcons pulled even with Tampa Bay behind first-place Carolina, strengthening their playoff hopes and ensuring their first winning season since 2004.
Turner had his seventh 100-yard rushing game of the season against a Tampa Bay defense that was looking for redemption after giving up 299 yards on the ground in a loss to Carolina.
Quoteworthy: "I'm not going to take any credit away from Atlanta, but I don't feel like they were the better team." -- Antonio Bryant, Buccaneers receiver
