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Tampa Bay soars back into NFC South lead

Tampa Bay Buccaneers fullback Mike Alstott leaps over the Atlanta Falcons' defense to score on a 13-yard, second-quarter touchdown pass from Chris Simms, with Atlanta's Chauncey Davis (92) chasing the play. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Fred Goodall Associated Press
Tampa Bay Buccaneers fullback Mike Alstott leaps over the Atlanta Falcons' defense to score on a 13-yard, second-quarter touchdown pass from Chris Simms, with Atlanta's Chauncey Davis (92) chasing the play. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

TAMPA, Fla. – For Matt Bryant, it wasn’t difficult to shrug off missing a potential game-winning field goal in overtime. He figured the rest of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would give him a chance to redeem himself.

Or so he said.

“We’re not going to give up. It doesn’t matter. We’ll take on the world. We’ve been doing it from the beginning,” the jubilant kicker said Saturday after redeeming himself by booting a 41-yard field goal to beat Atlanta 27-24.

It nudged the Bucs closer to their first playoff berth since they won the Super Bowl three seasons ago and eliminated the Falcons from the playoffs.

“The world picked us not to be very good and we’ve managed to prove the world wrong quite a few times,” Bryant added. “We’ve just got to do it one more time to get to the playoffs.”

The Bucs (10-5) also gained a share of first place in the NFC South heading into the final week of the season. They’re tied with Carolina, which lost to Dallas on Saturday, and can win the division with a victory over New Orleans at home next week.

The Bucs and Falcons (8-7) both wasted opportunities to win in the extra period. Atlanta’s Todd Peterson had a 28-yarder blocked after Tampa fumbled on the overtime kickoff and Bryant shanked a 27-yarder that would have won it 6 minutes later.

Chris Simms threw for 285 yards and two touchdowns and Carnell “Cadillac” Williams ran for 150 yards to eclipse 1,000 for the season, including a 6-yard burst that tied the game at 24 in the closing seconds of regulation.

Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick threw for 161 yards and two TDs and looked like he might conquer an old nemesis – the Bucs defense – when he led a 79-yard drive to put the Falcons ahead 24-17 on T.J. Duckett’s 2-yard run.

Vick, who is 2-5 against Tampa Bay and has had some of the worst games of his career against the Bucs, scrambled for 7 yards on third-and-7 and threw 37 yards to Michael Jenkins on third-and-4 from the Bucs 39 to set up the score.

But for the second time in just more than a month, the Falcons defense couldn’t protect a fourth-quarter lead against a Tampa Bay offense that’s shown steady improvement with Simms at quarterback and Williams putting together six 100-yard rushing games.

Atlanta coach Jim Mora considered trying to run out the clock when the Falcons got the ball for the last time with just more than 2 minutes left in overtime. But team officials couldn’t determine how a tie would affect the club’s chances of making the playoffs.

Mark Jones returned Michael Koenen’s punt to the Bucs’ 49, and Simms launched the winning drive from there with 54 seconds left.