ATLANTA Losing is one thing. Losing with a distinct lack of class is another. Yesterday in the Georgia Dome against the Atlanta Falcons, the Washington Redskins, 2-6 this season and losers of 12 of their past 16 games, entered the “another” zone. They played in the first half without discipline, organization, emotion and class.

NEW ORLEANS—Every time Drew Brees and the Saints’ potent offense stumbles, New Orleans’ resurgent defense is right there to pick up the slack. The Saints intercepted three Matt Ryan passes, with Jabari Greer returning one 48 yards for the club’s sixth defensive touchdown this season, and New Orleans stayed perfect with a 35-27 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night.

ASHBURN—DeAngelo Hall has plenty of positive things to say about his old team, the Atlanta Falcons. His old coach? That’s another matter. The Washington Redskins cornerback made it clear yesterday that he’s still no fan of Bobby Petrino, the coach who quit the Falcons during the 2007 season. The former Virginia Tech star and Petrino got in a shouting match on the sideline that year, leading to a $100,000 fine for the player and no doubt hastening the coach’s abrupt departure for the University of Arkansas.

ARLINGTON, Texas—Tony Romo is running around and having fun again, and Miles Austin is the reason for it. Romo returned to his swashbuckling style, keeping drives alive by improvising and turning one near-disaster into a touchdown, and Austin proved his breakout game was no fluke by coming up with big play after big play, leading the Dallas Cowboys to a 37-21 victory over the Atlanta Falcons yesterday.

ARLINGTON, Texas - The Dallas Cowboys certainly felt better after a weekend off. Receiver Roy Williams, running back Felix Jones and safety Gerald Sensabaugh were among the injured players given some extra recovery time after already missing games and should be back tomorrow against Atlanta. The Cowboys (3-2) also moved into a second-place tie with Philadelphia and gained a half-game on the NFC East-leading New York Giants without even playing - all the other division teams lost last weekend while Dallas had its bye.

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. - The Atlanta Falcons will have a new look in their secondary Sunday at Dallas after losing cornerback Brian Williams to a season-ending knee injury. Coach Mike Smith said yesterday that Williams tore the anterior cruciate ligament “and some other things” in his right knee in Sunday night’s 21-14 win over Chicago. Smith said Williams faces reconstructive knee surgery.

FALCONS 45, 49ERS 10 SAN FRANCISCO—Roddy White had a 90-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown and a 31-yard TD reception, Michael Turner ran for three scores and the Atlanta Falcons flattened the 49ers 45-10 yesterday to end San Francisco’s five-game home winning streak. White finished with eight catches for a career-high 210 yards against the 49ers’ typically stingy defense.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Patriots finally got their offense rolling with a balanced attack as Tom Brady threw for 277 yards and Fred Taylor ran for 105 in a 26-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons yesterday. “You want to be balanced going into games, but some situations don’t allow for it,“ Taylor said. “You want to establish that momentum and look over across the ball and see the frustration in the defensive guys’ eyes.“

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga.—Lawrence Sidbury says he wants to learn how to be a great NFL pass rusher. Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith says the rookie defensive end is picking the right mentor to help him reach that goal. “The thing that I’ve been most impressed with Lawrence is he has gotten into the hip pocket of John Abraham and tried to stay with John as much as he can to try to learn from a great pass rusher in this league for a long, long time,“ Smith said.

Michael Vick now is free to move around the country, provided he checks with his probation officer. Vick is far from free to join an NFL team. He remains suspended indefinitely by Commissioner Roger Goodell. A decision on Vick’s football future needs to be made as quickly as possible, not for Vick’s sake, but for the sake of closing the debate on Vick’s future.

ATLANTA - Less than five years after the Atlanta Falcons signed Michael Vick to a $130 million contract, the suspended quarterback was released in a 98-word statement. Before yesterday’s announcement - a move that clears Vick to sign with any NFL team - General Manager Thomas Dimitroff called the team’s former franchise player. Dimitroff said Vick, who has missed two seasons while serving a prison sentence for running a dogfighting ring, deserved to hear first about his release. He said Vick “was upbeat” in the short conversation and was looking forward to moving on.

Fallen NFL star Michael Vick told a bankruptcy judge yesterday that he became a changed man in prison and is determined to do all the right things upon his release, including repaying his creditors with the millions he hopes to resume earning in professional football. But after more than three hours of testimony in which Vick laid out what he called his “exit strategy,“ U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Santoro rejected it. Santoro told Vick to draft a new Chapter 11 plan, one with more certainty.

An agent for suspended NFL star Michael Vick told a bankruptcy court yesterday that he hopes the former All-Pro quarterback could return to the league by September.

Michael Vick has agreed to pay the Atlanta Falcons $6.5 million as part of his bankruptcy case, clearing the way for the team to release him before training camp, a person familiar with the settlement said today.

The U.S. Department of Labor filed complaints today accusing suspended NFL star Michael Vick of illegally spending about $1.3 million in pension-plan funds for his own benefit, including paying restitution ordered in his dogfighting conspiracy case. The department filed the complaints in federal district and bankruptcy courts the same day Vick left a federal lockup in Kansas, apparently bound for Virginia to appear at a bankruptcy hearing next week. Vick was at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City late this afternoon.