Flying High

In the playoffs, when the best teams meet, games are often decided by a mistake here or there, or a penalty called or not called. Under Coach Pete Carroll, the Seattle Seahawks have built a reputation of minimizing those mistakes and forcing their opponents to make them instead.

But on Saturday, it was the Seahawks who came up short in a divisional-round playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons and their potent offense. The Falcons advanced to the N.F.C. championship game next Sunday, when they will face the Green Bay Packers.

The Seahawks were leading, 10-7, when they forced the Falcons to punt early in the second quarter. Seattle’s Devin Hester, who has returned 19 kickoffs and punts for touchdowns during his career, caught the kick, spun away from a defender, then sprinted down the sideline before being knocked out of bounds deep in Falcons territory. The Seahawks appeared poised to build a double-digit lead.

But a holding call on Seattle linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis negated the runback and reversed Seattle’s field position — from the Atlanta 7-yard line to its own 7-yard line — and two plays later, quarterback Russell Wilson fell backward into the end zone for a safety.After the ensuing kickoff, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan quickly hit receiver Taylor Gabriel for 37 yards. Four plays later, the Falcons kicked a 35-yard field goal to go ahead, 12-10.

The quick turnaround unhinged the Seahawks while the Falcons sprinted ahead and captured their first playoff victory in four years, 36-20.

After taking the lead in the second quarter, Atlanta’s potent offense had its way with Seattle’s defense — one of the stingiest in the N.F.L. despite missing the star free safety Earl Thomas, who broke his leg in Week 13. Just before halftime, Ryan led a 99-yard march that ended with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Tevin Coleman to put the Falcons up, 19-10.

“You knew it was going to be a fight in terms of their defense against our offense,” Falcons Coach Dan Quinn said. “We certainly have the respect of the style they play.”

Ryan may not be flashy, but he showed why he is considered a leading candidate to win the N.F.L.’s Most Valuable Player Award. He does not scramble like Wilson or throw fastballs into tight coverage like Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers. But at 6 feet 5 inches tall, he has a wide view of the field to go with an accurate arm.

This regular season, his ninth in Atlanta, Ryan passed for 38 touchdowns and nearly 5,000 yards. He had a 69.9 percent pass completion rate and the league’s top passer rating, accomplishments that have often gone unnoticed, perhaps because the Falcons rarely play in prime time.

Ryan’s numbers — 26 completions on 37 passes for 338 yards and three touchdowns with zero interceptions — were enough to prompt the Falcons fans to chant “M.V.P., M.V.P.” in the fourth quarter.

“It was pretty cool, considering the circumstances,” Ryan said of the cheers.

Ryan made few mistakes while Wilson threw two interceptions. Quinn noted that when the Falcons lost to the Seahawks in the regular season, his team had two more turnovers than Seattle. On Saturday, the reverse was true.

The Falcons’ defense, one of the most porous in the league during the regular season, overwhelmed Seattle’s offensive line and harassed Wilson, frequently forcing him to scramble. It also bottled up running back Thomas Rawls, who ran effectively early in the game but ended with just 34 yards, 15 fewer than Wilson.

After nearly being burned by Hester in the second quarter, the Falcons did a good job of keeping the ball away from him — until he returned a fourth-quarter kickoff all the way to the Atlanta 31-yard line, setting up Seattle’s final touchdown.“A number of us and especially everyone in this room has seen that movie before,” Quinn said of Hester, who played in Atlanta for two years, and his penchant for big plays.

In his five years in the league, Wilson has built a reputation for late comebacks. In 2012, his rookie season, Wilson led the Seahawks back from a 20-point deficit in a playoff game, also in Atlanta, only to lose on a late field goal.

That magic was not evident on Saturday in front of a raucous crowd at the Georgia Dome.

With his team trailing by 29-13, Wilson scrambled free while seeking a receiver. Unable to find one, he decided to do with his feet what he could not with his arm. He raced for the first-down marker only to be hit hard by Atlanta cornerback Brian Poole, who drove his shoulder into Wilson and threw him to the ground.

And it was the Falcons’ defense that ultimately provided the capstone.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Wilson was again forced to run out of the pocket. In desperation, he lofted a pass downfield that Falcons safety Ricardo Allen plucked out of the air and returned 45 yards. Ryan’s third touchdown pass, a 3-yard toss to Mohamed Sanu, soon put the Falcons up by 36-13 and the game out of reach.

The victory has given Falcons fans one last chance to visit the Georgia Dome, the team’s home since 1992.

Next season, the team will move into Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a $1.5 billion palace 90 feet to the south. The Falcons are now 4-2 in playoff games in the Georgia Dome.