Pete Carroll has reached an agreement in principle with the Seahawks on a deal to be their next head coach, multiple NFL sources confirmed to ESPN’s Adam Schefter early Saturday morning.

Carroll was expected to be introduced by the Seahawks as early as Monday, after the team interviewed Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier on Saturday morning.

According to the sources, Frazier met with the Seahawks in Minneapolis, satisfying the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview a minority candidate for head coaching and senior football operations hires.

Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke told Frazier prior to the interview Carroll did not have Seattle’s job. Frazier had been unwilling to talk with the Seahawks about the vacancy if Carroll had been promised full control of the Seahawks. Multiple sources indicated to ESPN he had been.

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Miller There’s a big issue in advance of USC’s pursuing candidates to replace Pete Carroll, writes ESPN.com’s Ted Miller. Who will be in charge of the search? Blog

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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, asked about the Seahawks coaching search on the field before the Jets-Bengals playoff game Saturday in Cincinnati, told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols he believed the Seahawks’ interview with Frazier was in earnest.

Goodell said Seattle had fulfilled not only the letter but the spirit of the Rooney Rule, saying there was “no done deal” between Carroll and Seattle as of Saturday morning.

On Friday, Jim Mora became the first Seahawks coach to be let go after one season when the team finished 5-11.

Seattle also contacted the agent for Chargers defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, but as of Saturday morning, nothing had been set up. An interview with Rivera also would satisfy the Rooney Rule.

But the bottom line is, Carroll’s agreement with Seattle is “100 percent done,” one NFL source close to the situation told Schefter.

On Saturday afternoon, The Associated Press reported a league official with direct knowledge of the coaching search had denied a deal was in place, saying the Seahawks and Carroll were only in “discussions.”

In a text message to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen on Friday, Carroll said, “You know I haven’t responded to a NFL question in two years.”

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• Blog network: NFL Nation

But a league source told Mortensen that Carroll was trying to persuade USC offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates to join him in Seattle — as opposed to Bates pursuing the same position with the Chicago Bears.

Carroll is no stranger to the NFL, having served as the head coach for the Patriots from 1997 to 1999 and for the Jets in 1994.

He was Jets defensive coordinator from 1990 to 1993 after stints as the defensive backs coach for the Vikings (1985-89) and Bills (1984).

Even before the deal had been agreed to in principle, the ripple effect from Carroll’s pending move was reaching beyond the NFL and college ranks.

When the news broke Friday that Carroll could be headed to Seattle, USC’s incoming freshman class at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio began frantically calling USC’s assistant coaches.

For the rest of the day, not a single USC assistant returned a phone call, according to sources at the game who spoke with ESPN’s Schefter.

By Saturday afternoon, some calls had been returned.

But witnesses said players such as All-American receiver Kyle Prater and running back Dillon Baxter could not figure out what was unfolding with Carroll.

Baxter had verbally committed to USC as a high school freshman and never looked at another school. But now that Carroll is expected to leave USC, other schools already have begun contacting players scheduled to enroll there in the fall.

NFL Insider Adam Schefter

Schefter Check out Schefter’s Insider blog Insider for more NFL coverage and analysis.

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Prater said on NBC’s broadcast Saturday of the All-American Bowl that he had spoken to Trojans passing game coordinator/receivers coach John Morton and he would discuss things further with his family and advisers before making a decision on enrolling at USC.

Prater said he was scheduled to fly to Los Angeles to sign with the team and enroll in classes starting Monday but would postpone the trip.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks’ search for a new general manager also is under way.

Giants director of college scouting Marc Ross will interview for the position Wednesday, according to John Wooten, chairman of the organization that oversees Rooney Rule compliance.

The panel, called the Fritz Pollard Alliance, agreed to allow the interview after being given assurances Carroll would not have full control of Seattle’s organization, but control over the 53-man roster.

In the opening game of the postseason, the Cincinnati Bengals fell behind early and couldn’t make up ground in a 24-14 defeat to the New York Jets. It was the second time in six days Cincinnati (10-7) lost to New York (10-7).

The playoffs are all about making the most of opportunities, and the Bengals failed at that miserably Saturday. They blew two timeouts with poor coaching challenges, allowed big passing plays to a rookie quarterback, and kicker Shayne Graham missed two key field goals in the second half.

These openings were all the Jets needed to advance to the divisional round. New York proved last week was no fluke by scoring 21 unanswered points to take control of the game.

Cincinnati has not won a playoff game since the 1990 season. This was the first postseason berth in four years for the Bengals, who finished 1-4 in their last five games.

The 2009 season for the Bengals included several landmarks, such as sweeping the AFC North division. But an early playoff exit was not what this team had in mind.

From the first practice in training camp until the last game, Brian Cushing was a tackling machine for the Houston Texans.

That’s exactly what the team sought when it chose the linebacker from USC 15th overall in the draft last April. What the Texans also got is The Associated Press 2009 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.

Cushing was a runaway winner in balloting by a nationwide panel of 50 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the league. Cushing received 39 votes Tuesday, easily beating Buffalo safety Jairus Byrd, who had six, and became the second Texans linebacker in four seasons to win the award. DeMeco Ryans took it in 2006.

“I’m just a much smarter football player,” Cushing said. “I’m much more advanced than I was this time last year and it was just a good way to start out a career. I’m happy about how everything turned out this year. Of course the playoffs would have been nice, but now we know what we have to do for next season.”

This season, Cushing had 133 tackles, 86 of them primary, according to the Texans, who went 9-7, their first winning record. Cushing’s best game might have been his nine solo tackles, one sack and an interception in a victory over Miami on Dec. 27.

Or maybe it was his nine tackles, interception and two forced fumbles in a win over Cincinnati on Oct. 18.

Overall, he had five sacks, four interceptions and the two forced fumbles, numbers that normally belong to a seasoned veteran.

Which is exactly how the 22-year-old Cushing played.

“He brought another element to our football team: his love for the game, his passion, his play, playing beat up, all these things,” coach Gary Kubiak said. “He played like a 10-year vet from the day he stepped on the field. Our players respect what he does with the game and how he goes about his business. We’re very fortunate to have him and we’re going to have him here for a long, long time. What a year. He was exceptional.”

Nobody can understand or appreciate what Cushing accomplished better than Ryans, who made a similar impact in ‘06.

“Brian is a special player,” Ryans said. “I saw when he first stepped on the field that he could be a special player for us. Just to watch him grow week in and week out, I’m just so proud of him. He’s like my little brother out there. I’m always out there talking to him about how we can be great as a unit. I say it to him every week, ‘Let’s go out and be great and be the best linebackers in the league’ and that’s our motto and that’s our goal.”

They’re closing in on it.

Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews, who also went to USC and was a first-round draft pick, earned three votes. Washington linebacker Brian Orakpo got the other two.

Cushing is the seventh straight linebacker voted top defensive rookie and the ninth in 10 years. Last year’s winner was New England’s Jerod Mayo.

The Indianapolis Colts kept saying 16-0 didn’t matter. Apparently it didn’t.

The previously unbeaten Colts (14-1) pulled Peyton Manning and a handful of other starters with a 15-10 lead and 5:36 left in the third quarter, and the Jets took advantage to rally for a 29-15 victory that ended the NFL’s longest regular-season winning streak at 23.

Brad Smith opened the second half with a 106-yard kickoff return to give New York (8-7) a 10-9 lead. The Colts regained the lead at 15-10 when Donald Brown scored on a 1-yard run.

But after Manning left, Marques Douglas returned a fumble from Manning’s replacement, Curtis Painter, 1 yard for a score. The Jets sealed it with a 43-yard field goal and Thomas Jones’ 1-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.

Cleveland Browns special-teams ace Joshua Cribbs has returned two kickoffs for touchdowns during Sunday’s road game against the Kansas City Chiefs, breaking and then extending the NFL career record.

After his 100-yard return in the first quarter set the league record, Cribbs sped 103 yards for another touchdown in the second quarter.

Cribbs’ first kickoff-return TD of the game was the seventh of his five-year NFL career and broke the record that he had shared with five other players — Dante Hall, Gale Sayers, Mel Gray, Travis Williams and Ollie Matson.

On his first return, Cribbs broke free from at least six Chiefs players who got their hand on him. On his second, Cribbs took the ball 3 yards deep in the end zone, cut left, then right and was hardly touched.

Cribbs’ 103-yard return was 1 yard short of the Browns’ record. His two kickoff-return TDs in a game tied the league record.

Cribbs came into the season with five kickoff returns for scores, then added a 98-yard return for a TD during an Oct. 18 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Alos, Cleveland Browns running back Jerome Harrison has broken Jim Brown’s single-game team rushing record.

Harrison finished with 286 yards with three touchdowns on 34 carries in Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. He came in with 301 rushing yards for the season. His career high before Sunday was 121 yards this season against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Brown had 237 yards twice, in 1961 against the Philadelphia Eagles and in 1957 against the Los Angeles Rams.

Harrison’s mark is also the third-best single-game mark in league history, trailing only the 296 yards posted by Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson (vs. San Diego, 2007) and the 295 yards by Jamal Lewis with the Ravens (vs. Cleveland, 2003).

Earlier in Sunday’s game, Cleveland’s Joshua Cribbs broke the NFL record with his seventh career kickoff return for a touchdown. He later added an eighth TD return.

Now we know for certain the New Orleans Saints are not a perfect team.

But come on, stop acting so surprised that the Dallas Cowboys came into the Superdome on Saturday night, dominated the Saints for three quarters, and were able to hold off a furious fourth-quarter rally on their way to a 24-17 victory.

This time, there was no miracle on Poydras Street, just Drew Brees getting crushed (again) and fumbling the ball — and his shot at the MVP trophy to Peyton Manning — as the clocked ticked down. So much for 16-0.

But isn’t this kind of appropriate anyway? Reach deep down and tell the truth — have the Saints really been anything close to a perfect team for the last month or so?

If you had visions of them going through the regular season undefeated and strolling on to win the Super Bowl (read 19-0), you were hallucinating or too caught up in the hype. Fact is, the Saints have shown their flaws every week (except for that New England game) since a Nov. 15 trip to St. Louis.

Maybe you should have seen rookies and old guys getting thrown into the secondary and getting thrown on. Maybe you shouldn’t have been nominating replacement left tackle Jermon Bushrod for the Pro Bowl and realized, that translated into Cajun, Bushrod means “smoke, mirrors and, in the end, duck.”

And maybe you haven’t noticed, but no matter who’s in the secondary, this defense just isn’t all that good when defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis isn’t on the field. Oh, and there also was that myth, although it sure looked true for a long time, that the Saints could spot anybody any lead and still find a way to win it in the fourth quarter.

Soon-to-be-former Cowboys kicker Nick Folk did open the door for the miracle of all miracles when he sent a short field-goal attempt on a collision course with the upright with two minutes, 16 seconds remaining. But 2:04 later, Dallas defensive end DeMarcus Ware blew past Bushrod and decked Brees and any shot at perfection.

“All of our goals are still out there,”’ New Orleans receiver Marques Colston said.

Several other Saints uttered similar words and they are absolutely right. The Saints are 13-1, they should win their final two games against Tampa Bay at home and Carolina on the road, and they should end up with home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.

And, yes, it is still entirely possible this could be a special season. A Super Bowl victory remains somewhere on the horizon.

But let’s not talk Super Bowl or even playoffs right now.

“If you’re playing a playoff game and you go out and play like that, you’re going to have the same result as tonight,” New Orleans safety Darren Sharper said.

Sharper is exactly right. Picture the Saints playing the way they did against the Cowboys against … oh, let’s say Philadelphia or Arizona or Minnesota or Dallas, again, in the playoffs. It would be ugly.

But this isn’t about bashing the Saints, so let’s look on the bright side. All the attention and pressure that comes with being undefeated is now gone. And all those questions about whether or not the Saints should rest their starters or shoot for perfection will stop.

“There is no type of relief,”’ New Orleans coach Sean Payton said. “It’s disappointing. It’s disappointing when you lose.”

Disappointing, but not really all that disastrous.

The Saints are still in a spot where everyone else in the NFC would love to be sitting. And, this might be the best news of all, there’s plenty of room to make it all better.

Now, the Saints can focus entirely on fixing their problems. They got banged-up cornerback Tracy Porter and linebacker Scott Fujita back on the field against the Cowboys. The Saints are always very tight-lipped with information on injuries and Payton wasn’t providing any postgame updates on running back Reggie Bush, linebacker Jonathan Vilma, center Jonathan Goodwin or cornerback Randall Gay, each of whom had to leave the field, for at least some time, with injuries.

All indications are cornerback Jabari Greer, who’s sat out the past six games with an injury, Ellis and tight end Jeremy Shockey, who was a bit of a surprise scratch Saturday with a turf-toe injury, will be back. Maybe before the regular season ends, and almost certainly for the playoffs.

Plug Greer and Porter back in as the starting cornerbacks and you don’t have to keep throwing rookie Malcolm Jenkins and veteran Mike McKenzie, who was on the street a month ago, out there. Plug Greer and Porter back in and Sharper no longer has to play mostly Cover 2 to bail out McKenzie and Jenkins. Sharper can roam free as he did early in the season when he was an interception machine.

Remember how good the New Orleans defense was early in the season? There’s really no reason it can’t be like that again. Get Ellis and Greer healthy and all the parts should be in place.

And get Shockey back healthy so the Saints can go with their two-tight end sets, with Shockey and David Thomas, instead of having to use only Thomas and leaving Bushrod without much help against the Dallas pass rush.

Picture all that and you still can see a bright ending for the Saints. It can’t be perfect now, but if the Saints can fix all that’s ailed them for the last month in time for the playoffs, a Super Bowl win would be better than perfect.

The NFL Players Association is offering to cover any fines that Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco would incur for wearing Chris Henry’s No. 15 jersey during Sunday’s game versus San Diego, a source close to the situation said.

Ochocinco wants to wear Henry’s jersey to honor his former teammate, who passed away Thursday, just as he did during practice last week, but league rules prohibit it. Ochcocinco is well familiar with NFL rules. He was prevented from changing the name on his jersey two years ago unless it was his legal name; later Chad Johnson officially changed his name to Chad Ochocinco.

The Bengals already are going to be wearing a decal with Henry’s No. 15 on their helmets. But Ochocinco wants to further honor his teammate, and it sets up an interesting situation leading into Sunday.

Bears usually hibernate in winter.

The Chicago Bears, however, are supposed to be in Baltimore by Sunday afternoon for a game against the Ravens. As of Saturday afternoon, though, with two feet of snow expected in Baltimore, when they actually will arrive in Maryland was anybody’s guess.

The Bears’ flight was canceled Friday night, and the team’s travel plans remained a work in progress Saturday, with Baltimore facing a blizzard warning from a major winter storm affecting much of the eastern seaboard.

The Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles both moved back the starting time of their Sunday home games to 4 p.m. ET, in order to give their cities time to deal with heavy snow removal. The Eagles are hosting the San Francisco 49ers, who arrived in Philly on Friday night.

The storm, a classic Nor’easter moving up the Atlantic coast, was expected to dump a foot of snow or more from the mid-Atlantic states to New England through early Sunday morning. It pushed back or postponed college sports events and complicated travel plans for teams and fans alike.

The Ravens, acting at the city of Baltimore’s suggestion, had already moved back the start time of Sunday’s game against the Bears to 4 p.m. ET Sunday from 1 p.m. ET.

Whether the Bears would be there in time to play remained to be seen. The team was hoping to fly to Baltimore on Saturday night.

“We won’t know until later [Saturday] when we will get out,” Bears spokesman Scott Hagel said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “They have plans and meetings later this morning to see what the Maryland situation looks like. We’re trying to find whatever window we can to get out.”

The NCAA Division III championship game in Salem, Va., between Mount Union and Wisconsin-Whitewater was been pushed back to 4 p.m. ET Saturday from its scheduled start time of 11 a.m.

With Washington D.C. also facing a blizzard warning, American postponed its men’s basketball game against UMBC, which was scheduled for 2 p.m. ET Saturday. A makeup date was not immediately announced.

The Atlanta Falcons, who are scheduled to play at the New York Jets on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, and the New England Patriots, expecting a 1 p.m. ET start against the Buffalo Bills, were both expected to fly to their destrinations on Saturday afternoon. Despite its reputation for heavy snowfall, no snow was forecast for Buffalo until Sunday night.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Henry died at 6:36 a.m. Thursday. Henry was 26.

“It is with great sadness to learn Chris has passed away,” Henry’s agent, Andy Simms, said in a statement. “For those who knew Chris, he was nothing like his public perception. A loving and caring individual, he was thankful for what he had in life, and proud of what he had overcome.”

Henry was rushed to the hospital Wednesday after being found on a residential road “apparently suffering life-threatening injuries,” according to police. Police said a dispute began at a home about a half-mile away, and Henry jumped into the bed of the pickup truck as his fiancee was driving away from the residence.

Police said at some point when she was driving, Henry “came out of the back of the vehicle.” They wouldn’t identify the woman, and no charges were immediately filed.

Shock, Sadness Over Henry’s Death

“We talked before every game and he would just say go out there and handle your business. I don’t know what else to say. He had been doing everything right.”
— Bengals WR Chad Ochocinco

“I enjoyed our time together at West Virginia and we shared a lot of great moments. I have many fond memories of our three years together and will remember those forever.”
— Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez

“The entire Mountaineer football family is deeply saddened by the tragic passing of Chris Henry. We say ‘Once a Mountaineer, always a Mountaineer,’ and Chris was a big part of our success during his time here. For me, he was a real joy to be around on a daily basis. He always came to work and loved to play football.”
— WVU coach Bill Stewart

“I remember recruiting Chris to West Virginia like it was yesterday. He came from a humble background and was a wonderful young man and football player. Chris was like a son to me and I will cherish all the great memories that I have of him.”
— Michigan offensive coordinator Calvin Magee

Police spokeswoman Rosalyn Harrington said homicide detectives have been assigned to the case but had no further information. Police have not released the 911 tapes, and Harrington wouldn’t say if the woman was present at the scene when police arrived.

Authorities have not announced the cause of death. Mecklenburg County medical examiner investigator Carol Cormier said they were expecting to receive the body later Thursday.

Henry is engaged to Loleini Tonga, and the couple has been raising three children. Tonga’s MySpace page identifies herself as “Mrs. C. Henry” and has a picture of her next to a person who appears to be Henry. She also has a post from Tuesday talking about buying wedding rings. A neighbor said Wednesday that the Tonga family owns the home where police say the incident began. Charlotte is home to his fiancee’s parents.

“He was good at what he did as a player, he was a teammate to our players and a friend to almost all of us in the building,” Bengals president Mike Brown said at a news conference Thursday at the team’s headquarters. “We knew him in a way that [was not consistent] with his public persona. We liked him. He had worked through troubles in his life … to a point where he was going to have the future we all wanted for him and that he wanted for himself.

“At the time of his tragedy he was running to daylight.”

Henry was away from the team after breaking his left forearm during a win over Baltimore on Nov. 8. He had surgery and was placed on season-ending injured reserve following the game.

Throughout his career, his temper and poor decisions got him in trouble, but the Bengals acknowledged Thursday that he was making strides in leading a better life.

Henry was ejected from a game and suspended for another at West Virginia, where former coach Rich Rodriguez told Henry that he was an embarrassment to himself and the program. His reputation was already costing him — the Bengals were the only NFL team to bring him in for a pre-draft visit in 2005.

Henry was shy and spoke in a quiet voice. They warned him that he had to stay in control if he was going to stay in the NFL. Then, they picked him in the third round.

In a sense, it was already a second chance.

“I’m worth the chance,” Henry said, when he showed up the following weekend for a rookie minicamp. “I’m just happy they took me.”

Henry become a vital part of the offense as a rookie, helping the Bengals reach the playoffs in 2005 with his ability to run past defenders to grab long passes. In the final month of the season, he also showed his other side, getting arrested for marijuana possession. After a playoff loss to Pittsburgh, he was arrested on a gun charge in Florida.

Henry and former Tennessee cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones became the league’s two most trouble-bound players. Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended both in 2007 — Jones for a full season, Henry for half of it — as part of a toughening of the league’s conduct policy.

When Henry was arrested for a fifth time following that season on an assault charge, the Bengals decided they’d had enough. At his arraignment on April 3, 2008, Municipal Court Judge Bernie Bouchard called Henry “a one-man crime wave.” He was released by the Bengals the same day.

It was a jolt to Henry, who had dreamed of an NFL career since high school, when he got the NFL logo tattooed on the back of his right hand. No team showed an interest in bringing him back. His career seemed finished.

Then, Brown — who refers to himself as “a redeemer” — changed his mind and gave him another chance.

“If you only knew him by hearsay, you’d think he’s some kind of ogre,” Brown said, during the Bengals’ appearance on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” series this summer. “It’s not true. He’s a good person. When you see him up close, you’ll find that you’ll like him. He’ll be a soft-spoken, pleasant person.”

This time, Henry seemed determined to stay out of trouble. After only 19 catches and two touchdowns in 12 games in the 2008 season, he set about making himself a top-flight receiver again. He got into top shape and worked out with teammates in the offseason, showing more resolve than at any point in his career.

“For those who knew Chris, he was nothing like his public perception,” read his agents’ statement. “A loving and caring individual, he was thankful for what he had in life, and proud of what he had overcome.

“Nobody worked harder to rehabilitate his image than Chris. He realized he made mistakes and made positive changes to his life. As a result of these changes, he had become a man that all Bengals, and [the] NFL, fans could be proud of.”

Henry indeed changed his personal life, spending more time with his fiancee and the children they are raising. Teammates noticed a pronounced change in his demeanor.

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said Thursday that the players “watched Chris mature as a young man and work through adversity and kind of come out of it and be a beacon of hope for other people.”

Before the 2009 season, Henry got a new tattoo that matched his new outlook. Below his left ear, in flowing one-inch script, was the world “Blessed.”

“I kind of felt like I dug myself out of the hole and started doing the right things,” Henry said in an interview with The Associated Press as training camp opened. “People say, ‘How you feeling now Chris? You doing all right?’ I just tell them I’m blessed. That’s why I got it.”

He caught a touchdown pass in each of Cincinnati’s four preseason games. A thigh injury slowed him early in the season, and he had 12 catches for 236 yards — his 19.7-yard average per catch leads the team — when he broke his left arm during a win over Baltimore on Nov. 22, ending his season.

When he showed up in the locker room for the first time since surgery to fix the fracture, Henry sounded confident he could get through the latest setback.

“It just comes with time, you know?” he said. “I learned to handle all situations, so I’ll be all right.”

The Bengals (9-4), in the midst of their best season since winning 11 games in 2005, lead the AFC North. They visit the San Diego Chargers on Sunday.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Indianapolis has shoved aside New England for the NFL record for consecutive regular-season wins.

Peyton Manning threw four TD passes Sunday and the Colts’ defense held off Denver for a 28-16 victory. It gave the Colts (13-0) their 22nd consecutive regular-season win, one more than the Patriots’ streak that ended early last year.

The Colts also clinched the AFC’s top playoff seed and broke San Francisco’s record for wins in a decade. Indy has 114, the 49ers had 113 in the 1990s.

Denver receiver Brandon Marshall also got in on the act by breaking the single-game record with 21 receptions. He tied it on a 5-yard TD catch with 9:44 left to make it 21-16. He broke the record on the Broncos’ final play.

But Manning, who also threw three interceptions, sealed the win with a 1-yard TD pass to Dallas Clark — his third TD catch of the game — with 2:25 to go.

Drew Brees threw for 296 yards and three touchdowns, Jonathan Vilma came up with two huge defensive plays and the Saints remained perfect with another tight win, 26-23 over the pesky Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.

Garrett Hartley won it on a 38-yard field goal with a 4:42 remaining after the Falcons rallied from 14 points down. The offensive-minded Saints (13-0) then turned to defense to preserve another victory — Vilma came up with an interception, then doled out a big fourth-down hit on Jason Snelling to finish off the Falcons’ final drive.

The Falcons (6-7) lost for the sixth time in eight games and their playoff hopes appear to be over. Atlanta played without two of its biggest stars, quarterback Matt Ryan and running back Michael Turner.