Falcons Beat 49ers and Odds : NFC: Backup Hebert leads Atlanta into playoffs after 28-27 upset of San Francisco. Rice sets two more records.

Improbably, the Atlanta Falcons are going to the playoffs.

“Nobody outside this locker room thought we could beat the 49ers,” linebacker Jessie Tuggle said. “We showed people we deserved to be in the playoffs.”

The Falcons upset San Francisco, 28-27, with Bobby Hebert coming off the bench to throw two touchdown passes to Terance Mathis and a maligned defense made it stand.

“Making plays, I think that’s what I have going for me,” said Hebert, pressed into service when starter Jeff George left the field with a sprained neck with 1:53 remaining in the first half.

Snapping a string of three consecutive lopsided losses in the series, the Falcons (9-7) upset the defending Super Bowl champions despite another record-setting day for Jerry Rice.

Hebert threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to Mathis to give the Falcons a 22-21 lead in the third quarter. Then the same pair connected on a 37-yarder for the game-winner with 1:45 remaining.

“Hebert is a poised quarterback,” 49er Coach George Seifort said. “He reads coverages well and has a good touch pass. He was not airing it out. We just were not making plays on the ball.”

Hebert completed 17 of 27 passes for 197 yards.

Atlanta will be at Green Bay next Sunday. The 49ers have a first-round playoff bye.

The 49ers (11-5) could have clinched home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs with a victory. But the Falcons cinched the game when Kevin Ross intercepted a Steve Young pass with 19 seconds remaining.

“To execute like we did offensively against a defense that may be the best in the league is a tribute to our guys,” Falcon Coach June Jones said.

Rice caught 12 passes for 153 yards, giving him 122 for 1,848 yards in 16 games this season, giving him a record for receiving yards in a season. The old mark of 1,746 yards was set by Houston’s Charley Hennigan in a 14-game AFL season in 1961.

Rice also moved ahead of Art Monk for the most catches in a career with 942, breaking the record of 939. Monk added one more reception for Philadelphia on Sunday in a loss at Chicago.

“That’s great,” Rice said. “But I feel the most important thing is to win the game. I feel like we have something to prove now.”

Rice also threw the first touchdown pass of his career on a reverse, connecting with a wide open J.J. Stokes on a 41-yard pass late in the first quarter. Rice scored the first 49er touchdown when he fell on Adam Walker’s fumble in the end zone after Walker had taken a five-yard pass from Young to the one.

The Falcons also got in the record-setting act. Morten Andersen set a season mark for field goals of 50 or more yards with eight, kicking a 52-yarder in the first quarter and a 59-yarder--fourth longest in NFL history--just before halftime. He also kicked another from 28 yards.

Atlanta’s other score came on a 12-yard pass from George to Eric Metcalf.

San Francisco scored on its first three possessions, the third coming on a one-yard run by Derek Loville to cap a 65-yard drive that featured Young’s 57-yard pass to Rice to the Atlanta eight.

The 49ers never scored another touchdown, settling for Jeff Wilkins’ field goals of 39 yards for a 24-22 lead early in the fourth, and a 32-yarder that stretched the lead to 27-22 just before Hebert engineered Atlanta’s winning 80-yard drive.