With an epic comeback win against the Eagles, Kirk Cousins ​​has convinced the Falcons

PHILADELPHIA – When the heavy metal doors to the Philadelphia visitors’ locker room closed, nothing and no one was safe.

The gray checked suit and dark pocket square of Arthur Blank, the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, were not off-limits when his players jubilantly splashed water during prime time to celebrate their 22-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Head coach Raheem Morris was so thoroughly soaked that he could not read the ink on the scoresheet he had received moments earlier.

First-round rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr. tried to stay out of the spray zone, but “there was a lot of water being sprayed,” he told Yahoo Sports. “Everyone is just happy for the first win of the season.”

And they had reason to do so.

After the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Falcons 18-12 in Atlanta, the Falcons team, which had already received an unusual amount of criticism during the offseason, now had to face this criticism for its performance on the field.

A franchise that was criticized for giving one quarterback $100 million guaranteed just before drafting another in the first round found itself under fire all week, at least from the outside, for that $100 million deal resulting in an inefficient loss.

After the Falcons offense scored a touchdown to take the lead with 34 seconds left on Monday and the Falcons defense secured the game-winning interception two plays later, Atlanta was neither ready to crown itself champion nor overstate the significance of this victory.

But the first win of the Kirk Cousins-Raheem Morris era gave a locker room full of players who preceded that duo more optimism than they had felt in a long time. For Morris, who won a Super Bowl as defensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams, and Cousins, who has played in five playoff games, a nail-biting Week 2 game is no paradise.

But a franchise that has suffered six straight losing seasons has to start turning things around somewhere. Amid soaked score sheets and stained suits at the club's first Monday Night Football appearance in three years and 11 months, they did just that.

“I can't remember a comeback win like this, and to be a part of it was special,” said Drake London, the Falcons' 2022 first-round pick, after catching the game-winning touchdown. “There are a lot of doubters and a lot of naysayers. And I don't want to say we've silenced them, because we still have a lot of work to do.”

“But at the end of the day, we won. And we will build on that.”

Starting with cousins.

How the Falcons recovered from a 99.3 percent chance of losing

When Eagles running back Saquon Barkley missed a pass from Jalen Hurts with 1:46 left, London saw the crack.

The Eagles would have had to settle for a field goal to extend their lead to six points. The Falcons got the ball with a possession deficit.

“Everyone on offense was like, 'Let's go,'” London said. “They gave us the chance, that's all we needed.”

Atlanta had been pushing the ball all night. Their third-down attempts had stalled, but when they were able to extend plays, they gained at least 50 yards on four different drives in the second and third quarters.

Cousins ​​noticed that the Eagles' defense was playing weaker outside the red zone and thought, “Obviously they're willing to give up some yards.”

Philadelphia seemed willing to allow short passes and some intermediate passes “as long as we didn't go over their heads,” Cousins ​​said. The question was whether Atlanta could finally score in the red zone after having to settle for field goals the rest of the night.

So Cousins ​​activated his “everybody eats” mode and found tight end Kyle Pitts 11 yards up the middle of the field. He then dropped back and threw a 21-yard pass to Darnell Mooney down the left sideline, and Mooney threw the ball again for 26 yards just out of reach of rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell.

“They play with the two deep safeties and they're so deep that they're trying to not allow the big play that made that boundary shot possible,” Troy Aikman said on the ESPN broadcast after Mooney's first. “That was a big play that they needed.”

London was next with a 5-yard catch and a step out of bounds, followed by Ray-Ray McCloud's missed end zone attempt that Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox picked off, but the Falcons still benefited from the distraction from how their next play would ultimately go.

The Falcons were facing a third-and-5, the game clock was under a minute, and a field goal wasn't enough to tie, let alone win. London made a move to the outside just before the play and then faked inside to confirm his assumption that cornerback Darius Slay thought his route was cutting inside.

The stuttering was enough for London Slay to lose on an out route whose ball placement Cousins ​​was perfect, and kicker Younghoe Koo booted the extra point to put the tie ahead. Two plays later, safety Jessie Bates intercepted Jalen Hurts' throw to DeVonta Smith and the 1-point decision was indeed over.

Cousins ​​credited the win to his entire team, from the stout defense to London, who “made it easy for me.” Teammates argued that Cousins ​​actually made the difficult look easy, as he completed 20 of 29 passes for 241 yards, two touchdowns and no fumbles.

This was not a repeat of the Falcons' Week 1 offense. They knew the storyline was changing.

“He's been criticized so much all week,” Bates said. “'Kirk can't move. Kirk can't do that.' To observe his attitude [in the] Two-minute drive and how sharp it was? When it matters and we want to play, we rely on the leaders of this team.

“I'm glad we got him.”

A narrow win against the Eagles is not the Falcons’ ultimate goal

Concerns about Cousins' first appearance since tearing his Achilles tendon on his 36th birthday were justified.

Against a stifling Steelers defense, Cousins ​​had thrown for just 155 yards and one touchdown against two interceptions, and his passer rating of 59.0 was well below the 101.2 average rating he had achieved in his six previous seasons with the Minnesota Vikings.

Questions remained: Could Cousins ​​ever return to his old form after his injury? How healthy was he after firing more shots than he had in nearly a decade and averaging 3.1 yards per dropback, the lowest of his career, according to Next Gen Stats?

Eight days later, the Falcons had incorporated play action and under-center throws back into their presentation. Cousins ​​averaged 5.0 yards per dropback in Philadelphia and his passer rating rebounded to 117.2.

Progress.

“You can never say, 'Oh, we've got things under control and now it's going to go this way or that way,'” Cousins ​​said. But “coming back from behind and finding a way in a difficult environment against a good football team, that builds resolve … that we have to lean on as the year goes on.”

“The more battle-hardened we are and the more moments like this we experience, the better prepared we are, in my opinion, for what is to come.”

The Falcons hope that the offensive rhythm continues in the future. Third down efficiency is at the top of their list after a night of 2 of 9 (22.2%), closely followed by red zone efficiency, which improved to 1 of 3 in the last minute of the game.

Cousins ​​and Co. know they'll face a tougher defense than the Eagles, and they know they realistically already have a tougher task ahead of them after this short week.

Morris' locker room message to the team after their first win as a unit was: “Who's next?”

The answer to the semi-rhetorical question: In six days the Kansas City Chiefs will take the field in Atlanta.

The celebrations for Monday night's victory are likely to be short-lived, as the team that has won the Lombardi Trophy for the past two years is now beginning its preparations in earnest.

The Falcons understand the task ahead schematically and emotionally.

You will soon find out if you can do it.

“We're hosting the defending champions on a short week – that's just how this season is going to go,” Bates said. “We messed things up a little bit at home in the first week and then we come back and have a big win. So it's like a rollercoaster. You can't be too high or too low.”

“This is a big victory for us. And 1726570994so we can just wash it away and move on.”

“It's a big away game against a really good team. I don't care if they had AJ Brown or not. It's a big win for us and we can just put it away and move on.”