Falcons receive scare when White hurts knee

The Falcons received a scare when wide receiver Roddy White went down with a mild knee injury in the first quarter on Sunday.

With the Falcons backed up to their 1-yard line, White caught a pass from Matt Ryan for an 11-yard gain, but he landed awkwardly after Tampa Bay's Quincy Black tackled him.

The Falcons medical staff had White try out a couple of different braces before he had his right knee taped.

"It was kind of tough, trying to get it back to where I wanted it to be at and not have it feel any different," White said. "But this is football, things like that happen."

White entered the game leading the league with 54 receptions. He finished with a season-low four catches for 49 yards. In his previous outing, he had 11 catches for 201 yards and two touchdowns against Cincinnati.

He missed all of the second quarter, but returned in the second half.

"They kind of taped it up so I could really restrict it," White said. "It was tight enough."

White didn't consider the injury a serious setback.

"Yeah, I'm going to be playing on Thursday," White said.

Robinson back in lineup

Cornerback Dunta Robinson returned to the lineup after missing the previous game against Cincinnati. He sat out because of a concussion suffered after he put a violent hit on Philadelphia's DeSean Jackson on Oct. 17.

Robinson was rusty. He gave up a 58-yard touchdown pass to Tampa Bay's Mike Williams in the second quarter.

"I can't slip and fall in that situation," Robinson said. "I just took a long step and I was on the ground. In that situation, when we didn't have a safety in the middle of the field, you can't fall down. I've got to get him down on the ground and I didn't. That was play was totally my fault."

Other than the long touchdown, Robinson felt his return went well. He finished with a tackle.

"I made some plays," Robinson said. "I was involved. I got thrown at more than I'm used to. I felt pretty good overall."

Specials teams up for scrutiny

Falcons coach Mike Smith was not happy with the play of the special teams. Namely Tampa Bay kickoff returner Michael Spurlock, who had four returns for 209 yards, including an 89-yard touchdown, gave them grief.

"From my vantage point, there were a couple of missed tackles," Smith said. "That's something that we are going to have to look at."

The Bucs also caught the Falcons unprepared for an onside kick. However, Tampa Bay kicker Connor Barth touched the ball before it went 10 yards, negating the Bucs' recovery.

"It was not a good operation," Smith said. "We are very fortunate that there was an illegal touching."

Williams to nickel back

Brian Williams took over at nickel back for second-year veteran Christopher Owens, who held that role through the first six games. Williams played right cornerback in the previous game against Cincinnati with Robinson out.

"My role was just special teams," Williams said. "It just grew a little bit more."

Williams left the game briefly when he had a left leg cramp.

Babineaux gets interception

The Falcons came up with two interceptions and didn't turn the ball over on offense. Defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux and cornerback Brent Grimes had the interceptions, giving the Falcons 13 interceptions from 10 different players.

Babineaux was hoping to score.

"I was trying to, but by the time I came down, everybody was on my back," Babineaux said. "I was just glad to come down with the ball."

Jenkins open for deep ball

Wide receiver Michael Jenkins got open for a 43-yard pass on the Falcons second possession.

"It was something that we worked up during the week," Jenkins said. "We knew that Ronde [Barber] would sit on the skinny post. We ran a little double move off of it and Matt [Ryan] put a good ball out there."

The deep pass helped to open up the rushing attack.

"It was huge because you always want to hit some plays over the top," Jenkins said. "They can open everything else up. That was big for us."

McClure gimpy but OK

Falcons center Todd McClure left the game briefly with a knee injury.

"It was nothing too bad," McClure said. "I just got rolled up a little bit. I'll be good to go next week."

Etc.