Falcons rout the Rams

ATLANTA — There's more to the Atlanta Falcons than Michael Vick.

Sure, the Falcons' one-of-a-kind quarterback put on quite a show in the NFC playoffs, throwing two touchdown passes and running for 119 yards. But his teammates managed to escape Vick's considerable shadow, putting Atlanta within one win of the Super Bowl.

Warrick Dunn ran for a 62-yard touchdown, Allen Rossum set an NFL playoff record for punt returns and Atlanta routed the St. Louis Rams 47-17 Saturday night.St. Louis won its last two regular-season games just to make the playoffs with an 8-8 mark, then knocked off NFC West champion Seattle last weekend. But the Rams ran out of gas against the Falcons, who were off last week and had not played a meaningful game in almost a month.

It didn't take long for those fresh legs to pay off, especially when matched against the Rams' woeful defense and special teams.

On Atlanta's third offensive play, Vick got loose for a 47-yard run, which set up an 18-yard touchdown pass to Alge Crumpler with the game only three minutes old.

The tone was set for a first half: It resembled a track meet more than a football game. The Falcons led 28-17, the teams combining on the second-highest scoring half for a divisional-round game in league history.

Rossum did more running than anyone. The 5-foot-8 return specialist returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown with less than a minute to go in the first half.

He wasn't done, setting an NFL playoff record with 152 yards on three punt returns — a staggering 50.7-yard average.

Rossum had returns of 39 and 45 yards in the third quarter, setting up Vick's 6-yard touchdown pass to Peerless Price and Jay Feely's 38-yard field goal to give the Falcons a comfortable 38-17 lead.

Dunn rushed for 142 yards on just 17 carries, including the 62-yard touchdown that quickly eclipsed Vick's 47-yard scamper for the longest run in Falcons' playoff history. By the time he was done, Dunn had eclipsed Jamal Anderson's franchise record of 113 yards in a playoff game.

The Falcons looked every bit like the league's top running team, finishing with 327 of their 397 yards on the ground. Vick passed for only 82 yards but was an efficient 12-of-16.

Vick's only blemish was a fumble at the end of a run, and the Rams' defense had nothing to do with that. He simply lost the ball after stumbling to the turf without being touched.