PHILADELPHIA — As the heavy metal doors to Philadelphia’s visitors’ locker room swung shut, nothing and no one was safe.
Atlanta Falcons Team owner Arthur Blank’s gray plaid suit and dark pocket square were not off-limits as his players happily sprayed water in celebration of a 22-21, surprise in prime time of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Head coach Raheem Morris was so doused he couldn’t read the ink on the scoreboard he had received moments earlier.
First-round starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. He tried to stay out of the catch-22 zone, but “there was a lot of water flowing,” he told Yahoo Sports. “Everybody was excited about the first win of the season.”
They had reason to be.
Because after the Pittsburgh Steelers outlasted the Falcons 18-12 in Atlanta, a Falcons team that had already absorbed an unusual amount of criticism throughout the offseason. Now we are also faced with on-field performances.
Franchise Slammed for Giving Quarterback $100 Million Guaranteed Just Before Draft another in the first round has been under fire from outside critics all week for how the $100 million acquisition ended up being an ineffective loss.
So after the Falcons’ offense scored a game-winning touchdown with 34 seconds left Monday and the Falcons’ defense got the game-sealing interception two plays later, Atlanta wasn’t ready to crown itself champions or overstate the significance of the 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’ve felt in some time. For Morris, who won a Super Bowl with Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator, and for Cousins, who has appeared in five playoff games, a Week 2 thriller is not nirvana.
But a franchise that has six straight losing seasons has to start turning around somewhere. Amid the soggy stats and stained suits of the club’s first Monday Night Football appearance in three years and 11 months, they did.
“I can’t remember a comeback like that in a minute, and to be a part of it like that was special,” the Falcons’ 2022 first-round pick said. Drake London “There’s a lot of doubters and naysayers. And I don’t want to say we’re going to silence them because we’ve got a lot of work to do,” the captain said after catching the game-winning touchdown.
“But in the end, we won a victory. And we’re going to keep going.”
Let’s start with the cousins.
How the Falcons bounced back from a 99.3% loss
When the Eagles Return Saquon Barkley missed a pass Jalen is in pain With 1:46 left, London saw the crack.
The Eagles settled for a field goal to extend their lead to six points. The Falcons got the ball back with a one-possession deficit.
“Everybody on offense was like, ‘Let’s go,'” London said. “They gave us the opportunity, that’s all we needed.”
Atlanta had already moved the ball throughout the night. Their third-down attempts had failed, but when they were able to extend the game, they gained at least 50 yards on four different drives in the second and third quarters.
Cousins acknowledged the Eagles’ defense plays softer outside the red zone and said, “They’re obviously willing to give up some yards.”
Philadelphia appeared ready to concede short and intermediate passes “as long as we don’t overtake them,” Cousins said. The question was whether Atlanta could finally convert in the red zone after settling for field goals the rest of the night.
So Cousins activated his “everybody eats” mode and found the tight end Kyle Pitts 11 yards to midfield. He then dropped back and threw a 21-yard pass to Darnell Mooney on the left sideline, and Mooney again went for 26 just out of reach of the rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell.
“They’re playing with both safeties deep and they’re so deep trying to protect against big plays that it opened up that boundary shot,” Troy Aikman said on the ESPN broadcast after Mooney’s first. “It was a big play that they needed.”
London was next with a 5-yard reception and an out-of-bounds pass, followed by Ray-Ray McCloud missing an end zone attempt by Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox refused. But the Falcons were nonetheless given a distraction from where their next play would ultimately take them.
The Falcons faced a third-and-5, with the clock under a minute and a field goal not enough to tie the game, much less win. London made a move just before the play, then took a false step inside to confirm his belief that the cornerback Kill Darius believed his route was cut off.
The stutter was enough for London to lose Slay on an outside route whose placement was nailed by Cousins, and the kicker Young-Hoe Koo scored the extra point to push the tie to one advantage. Two plays later, the safety Jessie Bates intercepted Jalen Hurts’ throw to DeVonta Smith and the 1-point decision was well and truly over.
Cousins praised his entire team for the win, from the defense that crushed the opposition to a London that “made it easy for me.” Teammates said Cousins actually made a tough job easy, as he completed 20 of 29 passes for 241 yards, two touchdowns and no errors.
This wasn’t a repeat of the Falcons’ Week 1 offense. They knew the narrative was changing.
“He’s been criticized so much all week,” Bates said. “Kirk can’t move. Kirk can’t do that.” Watch his composure (in) the next two minutes and how precise he was? The leaders on this team, when it’s time to cut nuts and make plays, that’s who we lean on.
“I’m glad we had him.”
Winning against the Eagles is not the Falcons’ ultimate goal
The concern over Cousins’ first return from a torn Achilles tendon after his 36th birthday was justified.
Facing a stifling Steelers defense, Cousins had thrown for just 155 yards and one touchdown against two interceptions, his 59.0 passer rating well below the 101.2 average he had averaged over his previous six seasons with the Steelers. Minnesota Vikings.
The questions have been asked: Can Cousins return to form after his injury? How healthy was he, when he was operating with the pistol more often than he had for most of a decade and averaging a career-low 3.1 yards per dropback, according to Next Gen Stats?
Eight days later, the Falcons had reincorporated the under-center playmaking and throwing 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’re unlocking things and now it’s going to be this way,’” Cousins said. But “to come back from that, to find a solution on the road in a tough environment against a good football team, it builds a resolve … that we’re going to have to build on as the year goes on.”
“The more we can be battle-tested and experience those moments, I think it will prepare us well for what’s ahead.”
The Falcons are hoping the offensive momentum continues, with third-down efficiency topping their list after a 2-of-9 night (22.2 percent), followed closely by red-zone efficiency which improved 1 of 3 in the final minute of play.
Cousins and Co. know they’ll be facing tougher defenses than the Eagles, and they know that, realistically, they already have a tougher task after this short week.
Morris’ message in the locker room after their first win as a team was: “Who’s next?”
The answer to the semi-rhetorical question: the The Kansas City Chiefs will be on the field in Atlanta in six days.
Monday night’s victory celebrations are therefore likely to be short-lived, with preparations for the match beginning in earnest for the team that has lifted the Lombardi Trophy for the last two years.
The Falcons understand the mission ahead of them, schematically and emotionally.
They will soon know if they can implement it.
“On a short week, we have the defending champions coming home – that’s how this season is going to go,” Bates said. “We kind of screwed up the first week at home, and then you come back and you get a big win. It’s like a roller coaster. You can’t be too high, too low.
“It’s a big win for us. And now we can just get out of it and move on.”
“It’s an important away game against a very good team. I don’t care if they have AJ Brown “It’s a big win for us and for us to just be able to win it and move on.”
