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The Atlanta Falcons grabbed the lead — and the No. 5 seed in the playoffs — and wouldn’t let go.

Fans from half of the NFC North have already turned their attention to the 2012 draft, for which I can offer you the slightest of morsels to chew on. We’ve already noted that the Minnesota Vikings will have the No. 3 overall pick as the only 3-13 team in the NFL. And according to ESPN Stats & Information projections, the Chicago Bears will draft No. 19 regardless of the outcome of Sunday night’s game between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys.

The Washington Redskins’ 11th loss of the season improved their draft position a little bit. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Redskins now hold the No. 6 pick in the NFL draft, having moved ahead of Jacksonville due to their loss and the Jaguars’ victory over the Colts. It’s unlikely the Redskins will be able to draft one of the top two quarterbacks in the draft –Stanford’s Andrew Luck or Baylor’s Robert Griffin III, if the latter decides to skip his senior year — at that spot, but they have a little bit less far to go if they want to make a move and trade up for one of them.

Ray Rice ran Baltimore to a 24-16 victory over Cincinnati and clinched the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, but the Bengals also got into the postseason thanks to other teams’ losses.

The New Orleans Saints set an NFL record for the most yards of offense in a season on Sunday, while Drew Brees broke Peyton Manning’s 2010 mark for single-season completions.

Remember back in the day, when a 5,000-yard passing season was a huge deal? Not anymore. There were more 5,000-yard passers in the 2011 season than there had been throughout NFL history prior to this season. Drew Brees broke Dan Marino’s record last week, and today Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford joined Brees in the…

CBS Sports reports Jacksonville Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew not only clinched his first NFL rushing title Sunday, he set a franchise record for single-season rushing yards. He rushed for a season-high 169 yards Sunday and finished the season with 1,606 yards.

Good thing the San Francisco 49ers opened the playbook in the finale.

Charles Tillman’s interception return in the second quarter gave Chicago the lead for good, and the Bears stopped their five-game losing streak with a 17-13 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday despite 3½ sacks by Jared Allen.

CBS Sports reports with Green Bay Packers starter QB Aaron Rodgers inactive for Sunday’s game against the Lions, backup QB Matt Flynn will make his second career start. The highly touted fourth-year, who’s a free agent after the season, reiterated this week that he wants to be an NFL starter somewhere, meaning Sunday will be something of a league-wide audition.