Falcons, Buccaneers Thursday Night Blowout by the Numbers

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers couldn't get off the field soon enough in their 56-14 blowout loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night, but unfortunately for them, the end came painfully slow.

Through four agonizing quarters, the Falcons continued to break franchise and league records, while the Bucs just tried to hold on for the ride.

A three-yard Vincent Jackson touchdown catch and Danny Lansanah 27-yard pick-six kept Tampa Bay from being completely shut out, but the fourth-quarter interception was of T.J. Yates, not Matt Ryan.

Meanwhile, Ryan threw three touchdowns, and the Falcons found the end zone four different ways. 

Just how epic was the blowout, which saw a score of 56-0 before Tampa Bay finally got on the board? The numbers tell the story.

The new NFL record for career touchdown returns is 20, set by Devin Hester and formerly held by Deion Sanders with 19. Hester set the record with former coach Lovie Smith and Sanders both in attendance on a 62-yard punt return, after which he hugged a security guard in celebration and was also flagged for high-stepping into the end zone.

The Falcons' franchise record for completion percentage is now 87.5, set by Matt Ryan before he left the game midway through the third quarter. Ryan connected with nine different pass-catchers, going 21-of-24 for 286 yards.

The Buccaneers racked up 110 penalty yards over 11 accepted penalties, having a hand in their own demise as much as the Falcons did. At one point in the game, Tampa Bay had nearly as many penalty yards as total yards, most of them the result of holding calls. 

Josh McCown's passer rating of 22.2 against Atlanta is his lowest in any game where he has thrown at least 10 passes since Nov. 16, 2003, via Pro-Football-Reference.com. Playing for the Arizona Cardinals against the Cleveland Browns in that game, McCown posted a microscopic passer rating of 5.3 as he went 4-of-11. Thursday night, he was 5-of-12. 

The point differential of minus-42 was the greatest loss margin in a game for Tampa Bay since Oct. 9, 2011, when the Buccaneers were routed 48-3 by the San Francisco 49ers, via Pro-Football-Reference.com. 

Against the Bucs, the Falcons had scored the most points by a team after three quarters since Nov. 15, 2010, when Philadelphia put up 59 points on Washington over the first 45 minutes, via Pro-Football-Reference.com.

It was also the second most in team history. 

Matt Ryan threw as many incompletions as he did touchdowns at three apiece. Think about this: The fewest incompletions Ryan had in any one game last season was six, and he threw three touchdowns only once, against, you guessed it, Tampa Bay. 

The Falcons found the end zone through four different scoring methods—passing, rushing, interception return and punt return—as broken down in the table below.

TD Method	Quarter	Time Remaining	Play
Passing	Q1	12:03	Harry Douglas 3-yd reception
Passing	Q1	3:03	Julio Jones 8-yd reception
Passing	Q3	8:23	Julio Jones 40-yd reception
Rushing	Q2	14:53	Devin Hester 20-yd run
Rushing	Q3	8:11	Steven Jackson 2-yd run
Rushing	Q3	1:47	Antone Smith 38-yd run
INT Return	Q1	2:38	Kemal Ishmael 23-Yd INT return
Punt Return	Q2	7:06	Devin Hester 62-yd punt return

It was a night for the books for all the right reasons for Atlanta, and all the wrong reasons for Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers dropped to 0-3 on the season, while the Falcons, with a Carolina Panthers loss Sunday, could be tied for the NFC South lead.  

Stats courtesy of ESPN.com unless otherwise noted.