All the highlights and scores from the Falcons’ Monday night win over the Bucs

The Falcons hold on to win after a missed field goal from Patrick Murray. Putting them at 9-5 on the year.

The Falcons tried to hold onto the ball with a three point lead, but were instead forced to punt it away after this brutal down sack on Matt Ryan from Clinton McDonald.

Falcons 24, Buccaneers 21 The Buccaneers get within three after a 16 yard touchdown pass from Jameis Winston to Adam Humphries.

Falcons 24, Buccaneers 14 Devonta Freeman runs for a 32-yard touchdown to give the Falcons a comfortable two score lead.

Block! The Falcons had a chance to extend their lead to six, but the Buccaneers defense got through for a blocked field goal.

Falcons 17, Bucs 14 Tampa is back in it after Winston lobbed a deep bomb to Evans who went up and got it in double coverage.

Evans had a bad push-off that negated a big play earlier in the drive, so his touchdown grab was a good way to make up for his earlier mistake.

Neither team could mount a scoring drive in the final two minutes and the Bucs knelt it out to go into the locker room.

Falcons 17, Bucs 7 The Falcons took advantage with two huge plays — a 29-yard pass to Jones and a 22-yard run by Freeman got them into Tampa territory. Matt Bryant nailed a 57-yard field goal to extend Atlanta’s lead.

Nevertheless, Winston calmly drove the Bucs back into Falcons territory. Peyton Barber took a 9-yard run to the 9, but disaster struck when he fumbled the ball away on the next play. Huge setback for the Bucs, who looked like they were close to tying up the game again.

Charles Sims had an impressive run, taking a screen pass 32 yards while breaking tackles. Alas, he was ruled down on contact after a Falcons challenge, wiping out the big run, but a late hit out of bounds gave Tampa 15 extra yards.

Falcons 14, Bucs 7 The Falcons were marching down the field with little effort, with Tampa somehow leaving Julio Jones wide open on third and short. Freeman fumbled at the goal line, but Leving Toilolo recovered the ball in the end zone to give Atlanta the lead back.

The Bucs defense still doesn’t have many answers for Freeman, who broke multiple tackle attempts and got Atlanta deep inside enemy territory as the quarter ended.

Falcons 7, Bucs 7 O.J. Howard continued his string of highlight-reel plays in his rookie year, taking a Winston checkdown 30 yards down the sidelines. The touchdown was held up on review.

Tampa got its first first down when Falcons safety Ricardo Allen was flagged for a supposed helmet-to-helmet hit on Cameron Brate.

The Bucs had ten men on the field on Atlanta’s touchdown, which is less than ideal.

Falcons 7, Bucs 0 A busted Bucs coverage led to Justin Hardy getting wide open for a 27-yard catch, setting up the Falcons for an early scoring chance. After Devonta Freeman got them inside the red zone, Hardy closed the deal with a 6-yard touchdown.

Both teams traded punts on their respective opening drives.

The Atlanta Falcons will have a chance to solidify their wild card standing when they face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have nothing left to play for at this point. The NFC South rivals will square off Monday night at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN (WatchESPN).

These teams met just recently in Week 12, and not a lot has changed since then. Atlanta took care of business in a 34-20 win, with Matt Ryan throwing for 317 yards and Julio Jones absolutely owning the Bucs defense (12 catches, 253 yards, two touchdowns).

After a concerning loss to the Minnesota Vikings where the offense barely showed up, the Falcons had their share of struggles against the New Orleans Saints last Thursday night. Despite Ryan throwing three interceptions, the Falcons ground out a tough 20-17 win, and entered Week 15 with an 8-5 record, sitting in a wild card spot.

The Falcons haven’t been terribly consistent this year, and they’ve taken a clear step back from last season’s Super Bowl team. But at the end of the day, Dan Quinn has them in a pretty good spot, earning some crucial head-to-head tiebreakers over fellow playoff contenders (Seattle Seahawks, Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys).

As for the Bucs, they’ve officially reached the garbage time portion of their season. The team was a trendy playoff contender heading into the year, with a franchise quarterback in Jameis Winston and a defense that looked to be on the rise.

Instead, the team sits at 4-9 and there are possible questions about the future of head coach Dirk Koetter. Winston plateaued instead of taking that big leap forward, committing 12 turnovers (eight interceptions, four lost fumbles) in ten games and making some baffling mistakes for a third-year quarterback. He also missed three games with a shoulder injury, meaning that Bucs fans got three weeks with Ryan Fitzpatrick as the starter. It’s been that kind of year for a franchise that keeps taking one step forward and two steps back.

For all the withering remarks directed Ryan’s way, he’s put together the best quarterbacking career in franchise history by a wide margin. Even in a down year, he’s only had a couple of genuinely lousy games (the last one against the Saints being the best/worst example) and has overcome some bad luck to keep things humming for this offense. Things could be so much better, both for Ryan and the offense at large, but subbing out Ryan for Matt Schaub would absolutely catastrophic for the team.

On a sloppy Thursday night, someone needed to emerge in a highly contested divisional battle. There is plenty of star power between the Falcons and Saints. Given his track record against New Orleans, Deion Jones seemed like a prime candidate to make a game-changing play. The second-year player picked off Drew Brees and took it ninety yards to the house last season. It crushed Brees’ dreams of a fourth quarter comeback. Jones followed up a great performance with six tackles and three passes defensed in the regular season finale.

It seemed inevitable that Jones was going to have another standout performance against New Orleans. He is starting to embrace a leadership role in a defense that could use more leaders. A true leader needs to make a difference in the biggest games. In a must-win situation, Jones made plays all over the field. He stuffed the stat sheet with 13 tackles, three tackles for a loss, two passes defensed, and one game-sealing interception. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Some would argue that keeping Koetter is bad for Winston, because obviously the Bucs are losing and Winston is playing some inconsistent-at-best football. But Winston has improved in most statistical categories, and those turnovers have always been part of his game—especially when behind a very leaky offensive line.

All of this will be moot if the Bucs manage to win the final three games, or probably two of the last three. Progress and hope are what have generally convinced the Bucs’ owners to stick with their coaches. And if Koetter can show some of that, and plausibly blame the issues on the defense and injuries, he may be allowed to stay for another season.