Chris Miller threw a 61-yard touchdown pass to Michael Haynes with 2:41 remaining Saturday to finish off an Atlanta comeback and bring the Falcons a 27-20 victory over the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the NFL playoffs.
It was the second win for Atlanta in the Louisiana Superdome in the last five weeks and deprived the Saints the first post-season victory in their 25-year history.Haynes' touchdown catch broke a 20-20 tie and the Falcons clinched their win when Tim McKyer intercepted a pass by Bobby Hebert at the Atlanta 30-yard line with a minute left.
The victory, the second playoff win in Atlanta's history, will send the Falcons (11-6) to Washington next Saturday for a second-round game. Washington beat Atlanta earlier this season, 56-17. That will leave Sunday's winner in the Dallas-Chicago contest going to Detroit.
Atlanta took over with four minutes to play after a New Orleans punt into the end zone and the Falcons converted one third-down play on a 13-yard throw from Miller to Andre Rison.
Then, on 2nd-and-9 from the Atlanta 31, Hebert threw a short pass to Haynes. And when Haynes spun away from defender Milton Mack, there was nobody between him and the end zone.
It was the second touchdown catch of the day for Haynes, who caught six passes for 145 yards after leading the NFL in average yards per catch during the regular season.
New Orleans gave itself a chance to tie the game and send it into overtime by marching from its own 17 to the Atlanta 36. But McKyer stepped in front of an Hebert pass to make the game clinching interception.
McKyer made the interception an exciting play by lateraling to Deion Sanders, who then lateraled to Joe Fishback.
Fishback ran the final 30 yards for a touchdown, but the lateral to him from Sanders was ruled to have gone forward.
The final dramatics ended an entertaining game that the Saints appeared to have in control early. But, as they have all year, the Falcons took advantage of the breaks they received to get back in the game and send it down to the wire.