Cousins and the Falcons ran 81 offensive performs, exhausting a beleaguered Bucs protection and setting the stage for a sensational rally. Their remaining play was a Cousins-to-KhaDarel Hodge 45-yard walk-off landing in time beyond regulation.
Cousins’ landing to Hodge concluded an impressive night time statistically by which his 509 yards stand as a Falcons franchise report, an NFL excessive this season and probably the most by a participant 36 or older in league historical past, per NFL Analysis.
“I feel the secret’s we bought extra at bats,” Cousins mentioned. “We had 81 performs. So, we had some video games this season with 50 one thing performs. So, you’ve 30 extra performs. That is like one other third of a recreation. It simply provides you extra probabilities to unfold it round and get guys concerned to be productive.”
The sport-winning OT drive, by which Cousins was 3 for 3 for 69 yards, got here simply moments after he had pushed the Falcons 46 yards in 1:14 for a Younghoe Koo 52-yard game-tying discipline aim.
These back-to-back, clutch-defining drives of Cousins prime-time magic got here simply two weeks faraway from orchestrating a 70-yard, game-winning march in opposition to the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night time of Week 3.
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris predicts there’s solely extra to return.
“We’re simply scratching the floor with him,” Morris mentioned. “We’re fired up.”
At one level in his profession, Cousins was 0-4 in prime time. He was memorably 0-9 in Monday night time video games. Now, Cousins has received three of his final 5 prime-time video games and each that he is performed as an Atlanta Falcon.
His efficiency on Thursday is of the all-time selection, although.
He began scorching, main a 70-yard opening drive that was wrapped up with an 18-yard scoring strike to Drake London. Then he tossed a pair of TDs to Darnell Mooney, the final coming with 13:18 remaining in regulation and resulting in a tie ballgame.
After the Bucs cast again forward, 30-27, the Falcons had a pair of probabilities to tie or go forward however appeared to squander any likelihood of victory. First, Mooney dropped a ball within the breadbasket on third-and-6 that may nicely have been a go-ahead rating had he hauled it in. A play later, a Koo discipline aim was blocked.
A Jessie Bates compelled fumble gave Atlanta one other shot, however Cousins was quickly thereafter picked off by Lavonte David.
For all intents and functions, that was going to show the lights off on any Falcons comeback aspirations. The Atlanta protection stood sturdy as soon as once more, although, and gave Cousins yet one more shot to be Comeback Kirk.
Cousins took it, engineering consecutive clutch drives which have propelled the Falcons to 3 straight wins and into first place within the NFC South.
Simply how spectacular and historic was Cousins’ efficiency? He joined Tom Brady, again in 2011 with the New England Patriots, as the one gamers to ever produce 500-plus passing yards and 4 or extra TD passes in a prime-time recreation, in keeping with NFL Analysis.
After an 0-2 begin, Cousins’ rally in opposition to the Eagles offered proof of simply why the Falcons signed him to a blockbuster free-agent deal. Following a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 4 by which the offense went scoreless, Cousins, who appears all the way in which again from his 2023 season-ending Achilles tear, reaffirmed simply how stellar this offense might be on Thursday night time.
“His recreation is all about confidence,” Morris mentioned. “His recreation is about going on the market and getting higher each single week. That is what he is been doing since he is been again. He is coming off a major harm and I’ve watched him get higher each single week.”
For thus lengthy, the Cousins narrative was that he wasn’t prepared for prime time.
He is most definitely prepared, prepared and main the Falcons to some memorable moments below the lights.
“I am happy with the way in which our staff fought,” Cousins mentioned. “I am happy with the resiliency we confirmed to simply preserve going and preserve enjoying by issues. I am simply happy with the grit. That is what this league takes, and we have been gritty tonight so happy to return away with a win. Win or lose, I might have been happy with the steps we took on offense tonight, nevertheless it’s quite a lot of enjoyable to win and have that second on the sphere along with your teammates and residential followers.”