The throw was nonsensical and had no chance of either reaching the sidelines as a throwaway or an Atlanta Falcons receiver as a reception.

When Matt Ryan tossed the ball up on the penultimate play of the third quarter during the Detroit Lions' 22-21 win over Atlanta on Sunday, it might have been one of the worst throws of Ryan’s career -- and he had plenty of time to make any play other than the interception he threw right at Cassius Vaughn.

Atlanta was in a 1st-and-10 at their own 47-yard line with 22 seconds left on the clock when Ryan snapped the ball with the Lions in their big nickel (or Vaughn nickel) package. Initially, linebacker DeAndre Levy took a step forward as if he was going to blitz up the middle but immediately stepped back and dropped into coverage along with Tahir Whitehead.

So the Lions rushed only four players and almost immediately collapsed the pocket on Ryan. The Atlanta quarterback was forced to dance around as he waited for a receiver to get open, but none did. One receiver, actually, was open, but Julio Jones was essentially at the line of scrimmage and all the way on the right side.

By the time Ryan had started moving to his left, it would have been a full cross-field throw that would have been broken on and intercepted as well. Ryan was forced from the pocket by pressure from Jason Jones on the right side.

As Jones collapsed on Ryan, Darryl Tapp broke free from his rush lane in the middle and started to take a clear, open path for an exposed Ryan. With Tapp about three steps away, Ryan began his throw, across his body and what appeared to be off of his back foot.

“Man, that was our D-linemen and just tight coverage, man,” Vaughn said. “That was us as a unit and we made a play. We tightened up in the second half and he threw us one and I ended up being able to catch it.”

It appeared he was trying to throw across the field to a receiver that didn’t exist. Instead, with the Lions in a zone, Vaughn was loitering in the general shallow area a few yards beyond the line of scrimmage across the field -- essentially keeping an eye on Jones.

Instead of coming close to Julio Jones, it fell to Vaughn’s hands, and Vaughn returned it 45 yards to the Atlanta 7-yard line. The man that kept him from scoring was Jones, who took off trying to catch Vaughn the second he caught the ball.

The throw was so poor it actually might have kept Vaughn from scoring because he almost had to wait for the ball instead of breaking on it and catching it in almost full speed.

“I moved to the left,” Ryan told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I was trying to throw the ball and I never saw (Vaughn). And that’s just a mistake that you cannot make in order to win football games.

“That one hurts.”