The Evening Tilt: Three Goals in Atlanta, Zero Points in Tampa

Two results, opposite scorelines, same destination. Nothing that mattered moved today.

Falcons Tampa Bay 16, Atlanta 0, at Raymond James Stadium. The Buccaneers did not complete a pass — Baker Mayfield went 0 for 3 — and rushed for 324 yards, a franchise record. Atlanta went 0 for 12 on third down and threw four interceptions.

The number that stays with me: Atlanta have scored 171 points this season, and they had scored 171 before kickoff. There is exactly one game on an eight-game schedule about which that can be said, and it was this one.

Miles has the forensic version, including what a shutout does to the plus-thirty-six quarterback ledger he published on Wednesday. He does that arithmetic against himself, which is the only way it is worth doing.

Atlanta United Atlanta United 3, Toronto FC 1, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, in front of 41,197 on the last home night of the year. Miguel Almirón, Cooper Sanchez and Alexey Miranchuk scored, all three left-footed, all three from the middle of the box.

It was the club's first home win since August 23 and it moved them from fourteenth of fifteen in the East to thirteenth. Tito's read is the one to have: he spent October arguing the home record was the season, and the final ninety minutes of the home season pulled the home and away columns exactly level.

Hawks Did not play. At Indiana tomorrow, 7:30 Eastern.

Braves Out of season.

The division Nobody in the NFC South is above .500. Carolina are 3-4, Atlanta and Tampa Bay are 3-5, New Orleans are 2-5. Carolina and New Orleans have each played a game fewer. Atlanta were shut out by a team that completed no passes and are still a game out of first place, which tells you less about the Falcons than it does about the neighborhood.

One more thing. Next Sunday the Falcons play Cincinnati at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, and they are the designated home team. A club that has been held under four points twice in eight games is about to find out what a home crowd sounds like from four thousand miles away.