Falcons’ Turnovers Let Redskins Turn Up a Win : NFC: Interception, fumble and bad snap on punt lead to 16 points for Washington in 30-17 victory over Atlanta.

Don’t blame the Washington Redskins if Atlanta doesn’t make the playoffs.

While the 30-17 score will go into the record book as a Washington victory, it was the Falcons who hurt themselves Sunday with fumbles, interceptions and other miscues.

The Redskins (4-10) took advantage of them for a change in their worst season in 32 years. Intercepting a pass by Falcon quarterback Bobby Hebert gave them one touchdown and a fumble that resulted from a sack another.

“Unfortunately, we made all the mistakes,” Coach Jerry Glanville said after the Falcons (6-8) saw their playoff hopes all but disappear despite winning six of their previous eight games, including a come-from-behind 27-24 victory over the 49ers a week earlier.

“We gave them 14 points when we had the ball; we had 10 penalties and they had zero,” Glanville said. “Add them all up and you could lose three games, let alone one.”

Washington (4-10) got nine more points--a safety and a touchdown after the subsequent free kick--on a bad punt snap by the Falcons’ Harper Le Bel.

Hebert was sacked seven times and had four passes intercepted in addition to his two fumbles. He completed 24 of 42 passes for 233 yards.

Atlanta took a 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the game after the Redskins’ Brian Mitchell fumbled a punt and Charles Washington recovered at the Washington 30.

Two plays later, Hebert found Mike Pritchard between defenders Tom Carter and Danny Copeland for a 28-yard touchdown.

But the Redskins took advantage of a 69-yard interception return for a touchdown by A.J. Johnson and a bad punt snap by Le Bel to score 16 points in the second quarter. That exceeded Washington’s points in nine games this season.

Le Bel’s snap from the 26 went over the head of Harold Alexander, who turned around and picked it up in the end zone. The safety was Washington’s first score since a 23-17 win over Tampa Bay two weeks earlier.

Mark Rypien then led a 64-yard drive with passes to Desmond Howard, Art Monk and Ricky Ervins. Rypien ended the drive by running around right end for a one-yard touchdown run.

Steve Broussard, playing for an injured Erric Pegram, almost single-handedly put Atlanta back in the game in the third quarter. Broussard ran for 56 yards in a 68-yard drive and scored from the two to make it 16-14.

He then carried nine times on a 55-yard march to the Washington 15. But a pass by Hebert was intercepted in the end zone by Carter.