ATLANTA - Fighting for a division title even with a losing record, the Atlanta Falcons knew they couldnt afford another defeat. Jose Altuve Astros Jersey .Not after the New Orleans Saints won earlier in the day.Led by Julio Jones, the Falcons came up with the matching victory Sunday to stay tied for first in the anemic NFC South.Nothing weak about this showing by Atlanta, which got a career day from Julio Jones, piled up 500 yards of offence and cruised to a 29-18 victory over the punchless Arizona Cardinals, who suddenly find themselves in a bit of desperation mode.When we play consistent football, we can put that type of performance out there, said Falcons coach Mike Smith, who relieved some of the heat on his job a week after taking the blame for poor clock management in a loss to Cleveland on the final play.Jones hauled in 10 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown. Matt Ryan completed 30 of 41 for 361 yards with a couple of scores. Matt Bryant set a career high with five field goals, though most of them werent much longer than extra points.The Falcons (5-7) dominated against a team that had given up less than 300 yards in each of its four previous games.These are the type of games youve got to win in November and December in order to play in January, Ryan said.Arizona (9-3) still leads the NFC West after its second straight loss, but now by only one game over defending Super Bowl champion Seattle. More troubling for the Cardinals, they had gone more than 11 quarters without an offensive touchdown until a meaningless score with just over a minute remaining.Asked about his teams struggles, coach Bruce Arias said, Each man has to look in the mirror and find that answer.Steven Jackson broke off a 55-yard run — his longest since 2009 — on the Falcons opening possession to set up Ryans 1-yard touchdown pass to Levine Toilolo on fourth-and-goal.Jones hauled in a 32-yard scoring pass for Atlantas other TD.Bryant handled the rest of the scoring.The Falcons remained tied for first with the Saints, who won 35-32 at Pittsburgh, and hold the tiebreaker edge. It was Atlantas first win outside the division (they are now 1-7) and their first over a team with a winning record.Arizonas Patrick Peterson said earlier in the week that he was looking forward to going against Jones, the cornerback claiming he had won the majority of the battles since their days as Southeastern Conference rivals.Not on this day.I just didnt play my best game, Peterson said. He made the best of his opportunities. I just came up short.Jones eclipsed his previous career best of 182 yards receiving and made sure the Falcons didnt miss their other top receiver, Roddy White, who was out with an ankle injury.(Peterson) is a very good player. We think Julio is a really good player, too, Ryan said. Julio went out and competed really hard, made some really good catches for us. He stepped up when we needed it.The Falcons lost a touchdown when Devin Hesters 70-yard punt return was wiped out by an offensive facemask penalty just short of the goal line. The odd call came as he was trying to ward off Cardinals punter Drew Butler, who appeared to have an even tighter grip on Hesters facemask.It didnt matter.Not the way the Cardinals are struggling on offence with Drew Stanton at quarterback instead of Carson Palmer, who is out for the season.It sure didnt help that star receiver Larry Fitzgerald missed his second straight game with a strained left knee, and running back Andre Ellington went out in the first half with a hip injury.About the only Arizona highlight came with the Falcons looking to build on their 17-0 lead after the first quarter. Rashad Johnson intercepted a pass from Ryan and went 88 yards the other way for a touchdown.That was the Cardinals lone trip to the end zone until Stantons 3-yard pass to Stepfan Taylor with 1:05 remaining.Notes: The Cardinals missed a chance to wipe out Jones longest play, a 41-yard reception in the third quarter. The replay clearly showed that Ryan only got one foot inbounds, but Arians failed to challenge the call. ... Bryants previous career high was four field goals in a game. He connected from 20, 23, 21, 45 and 28 yards, improving to 22 of 24 on the season. His only misses have been from 57 and 59 yards. ... Arizona S Tyrann Mathieu left the game with a broken thumb.___AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL___Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 Mike Scott Jersey .com) - A pair of Eastern Conference rivals will meet on Saturday as D. Nolan Ryan Jersey .com) - Bradley Beals 22 points and seven rebounds helped the Washington Wizards erase a halftime deficit and top the Utah Jazz, 93-84, on Sunday. http://www.baseballastrosproshop.com/aledmys-diaz-astros-jersey/ . Former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds made his longshot request of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit upheld Bonds conviction in September.The Toronto Blue Jays got out of the gate with a dismal 10-17 record last season and dug themselves a hole they could never really get out of. Its a scenario they really cant afford to repeat in 2014. Prior to last season, 39 of the last 60 teams that were in first place in their division on June 1 went on to make the post-season. If you look at last years races division by division, there were only two teams that werent in first or second in June who went on to make the playoffs. In the American League West, Texas was in first through April and May with a 34-21 - two games ahead of Oakland. The As went on a 63-32 tear the rest of the way and won the division by five games over the Rangers, who played and lost a sudden death tie-breaker. In the Central, Detroit and Cleveland hit June 1firsy and second in the division with the Tigers leading by a half-game. Detroit wound up taking the division by one game over the Indians. In the East, Boston was on top at 34-23. This is one division where there was a slight exception. Tampa Bay was actually in 4th place heading into the games of June 1 at 30-25. But the Rays were only a half-game back of Baltimore and one game behind the second place Yankees. The Rays finished 61-46 to take second place. The Blue Jays were 23-33 through the first two months and never really came close to getting back in the race, even with that 11 game win streak. In the National League East, Atlanta was 33-22 through April and May and won the division easily with a 96-66 mark. Washington, a pre-season favourite, was 28-28 and missed the playoffs altogether. In the Central, St. Louis got off to a 37-18 start and led the division wire-to-wire on the way to a Major League best 97-65 record. Pittsburgh was third two months in, but overhauled Cincinnati for second place, though both teams won 90 or more and both made the post season. The National League West was the one division where all bets were off after two months. Arizona was on top at 31-24 with a two-and-a-half game lead on the Giants and Rockies. The Dodgers were seven-and-a-half games out through April and May at 23-31. The division practically turned upside down the rest of the way. The D-Backs faded and finished at 81-81 for the second year in a row. San Francisco and Colorado collapsed and both finished 10 or more games below .500. The Dodgers, though, inspired in large part by the arrival of Yasiel Puig went a scorching 69-39 down the stretch and won the division with a 92-70 mark. So it pretty much goes without saying, the Blue Jays need to be at least slightly above .500 through April and May to have any hope of competing in the tough American League East. Their schedule is, by no means, easy with 22 of their 57 games through the first two months against the A.L East, including six against Boston and seven versus Tampa Bay - the two playoff favourites in the division. The Jays only have 10 games over April and May against "lesser" opponentss, with three against Houston, three versus Minnesota and a four-game interleague series against Philadelphia. Jeff Bagwell Astros Jersey. 25 of the 57 are against teams that either made the playoffs last season or were involved in tie-breakers. The Jays also have just one day off in the month of May; a real test of the pitching staff. No team will ever admit theyre out of it after just two months. The Blue Jays didnt a year ago. But in five of the six divisions last season, the two-month mark painted a pretty vivid picture of where teams are really at. The other day I was reading about the new head of the Players Association, Tony Clark, when another name in the article caught my name. It was Steve Rogers, who also works for the Association as a liaison to the players among his many duties. I actually had to double check that it was the same Steve Rogers who once pitched for the Expos. It was. If you get into a conversation with anyone as to who the greatest pitcher in Expos history was, some might suggest Pedro Martinez, who went 55-33 in his four seasons in Montreal. Others might say Dennis Martinez for his perfect game, maybe Bill Stoneman for his two no-hitters or Ross Grimsley for being the Expos first 20-game winner. In my mind, though, it was Steve Rogers. I was surprised to see his career record was only 158-152, but its his other numbers that blow you away. Over 13 seasons, all with Montreal, he pitched over 200 innings in nine of them. Six times he was over 250 innings, four times over 270 and in 1977 when he won 17 games he pitched an incredible 300.2 innings. He actually pitched more innings per season than Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax and had a better career ERA at 3.17 than another Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan. Rogers was a five-time all-star and finished second in the rookie of the year voting and one year was second in the Cy Young balloting. It was a different era, but compare Rogers numbers to one of the Blue Jays all-time greats Roy Halladay in a couple of categories. Rogers had 129 complete games and 37 shutouts and Halladay had 67 complete games and 20 shutouts. Rogers, 64 now, had to retire at 35 when his shoulder essentially gave out on him. He is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame at St, Marys and tries to get back for the Induction Ceremonies every year. He concedes he might even have had a shot at Cooperstown if he had been able to pitch another 5-7 years and could have won another 70 games. The Expos only made the playoffs once in their history - 1981. Steve Rogers beat Phillies legend Steve Carlton twice in the division series and then defeated the Dodgers in Game 3 of the NLCS. But say his name today and many will only remember his relief appearance on "Blue Monday" at the Big "0," when he gave up the series deciding homer to the Dodgers Rick Monday. If you look at the numbers and the character of the man, Steve Rogers should be remembered for much more than that. ' ' '