PHILADELPHIA — As the heavy metal doors to the Philadelphia visitor locker room closed, nothing and nobody was safe.
Atlanta Falcons team owner Arthur Blank’s plaid gray suit and dark pocket square were not off-limits as his players jubilantly sprayed water to celebrate a 22-21 prime-time upset of the Philadelphia Eagles.
Head coach Raheem Morris was doused so thoroughly he could not read the ink on the paper box score he had received moments earlier.
Rookie first-round quarterback Michael Penix Jr. tried to stay out of the spray zone, but “it was a lot of water thrown,” he told Yahoo Sports. “Everybody just excited for the first win of the season.”
They had reason to be.
Because after the Pittsburgh Steelers outlasted the Falcons 18-10 in Atlanta, a Falcons team that had already absorbed an unusual amount of criticism throughout the offseason was now facing it for on-field performance, too.
A franchise questioned for awarding $100 million guaranteed to one quarterback just before drafting another in the first round was under at least external fire throughout the week for how that $100 million acquisition performed in an inefficient loss.
So after the Falcons' offense scored a go-ahead touchdown with 34 seconds to play Monday and the Falcons' defense secured the game-sealing interception two plays later, Atlanta wasn’t ready to crown itself champions nor overstate the importance of this win.
But the first victory in the Kirk Cousins-Raheem Morris era gave a locker room full of players who preceded that duo more optimism than they’d felt in a while. For Morris, who won a Super Bowl as Los Angles Rams defensive coordinator, and for Cousins, who’s competed in five playoff games, a Week 2 nail-biter is not nirvana.
But a franchise riding six straight losing seasons needs to start its turnaround somewhere. Amid soggy box scores and spotted suits at the club’s first Monday Night Football appearance in three years and 11 months, they did.
“I can't remember a comeback win like this in a minute, and to be a part of it like that was something special,” Falcons 2022 first-round pick Drake London said after catching the winning touchdown. “There's a lot of doubters and a lot of naysayers. And I don't wanna say we shut them up because we got a lot of work to do.
“But at the end of the day, we got a win. And we’re gonna build on it.”
Beginning with Cousins.
How the Falcons rebounded from a 99.3% chance of loss
When Eagles running back Saquon Barkley missed a pass from Jalen Hurts with 1:46 to go, London saw the crack.
The Eagles were settling for a field goal to extend their lead to six. The Falcons would get the ball with a one-possession deficit.
“Everybody in the offense was like, ‘Let’s go,’” London said. “Gave us the opportunity, that’s all we need.”
Atlanta had already moved the ball down field well through the night. Their third-down attempts had sputtered, but when they could extend plays, they gained at least 50 yards on four different drives across the second and third quarters.
Cousins recognized that the Eagles' defense was playing softer outside the red zone and thought to himself: “They obviously are willing to surrender some yards.”
Philadelphia seemed willing to cede short and some intermediate passes “as long as we weren’t getting over their heads,” 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 tight end Kyle Pitts 11 yards up the middle of the field. He then dropped back and sailed a 21-yard pass to Darnell Mooney down the left sideline, and Mooney again left for 26 just outside the grasp of rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell.
“They’re playing the two deep safeties and they’re so deep trying to guard against giving up the big play that it opened up that boundary shot,” Troy Aikman said on the ESPN broadcast after Mooney’s first. “That was a big chunk play they needed.”
London was up next with a 5-yard catch and step out of bounds, followed by Ray-Ray McCloud missing an end-zone attempt that Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox denied. But the Falcons nonetheless benefited from it as distraction from where their next play would ultimately go.
The Falcons faced third-and-5, the game clock under a minute and a field goal insufficient to tie much less win. London motioned out just before the play and then juked inside to confirm his belief that cornerback Darius Slay believed his route cut in.
The stutter was sufficient for London to lose Slay on an out route whose ball placement Cousins nailed, and kicker Younghoe Koo knocked the extra point through to push the tie to a lead. Two plays later, safety Jessie Bates intercepted Jalen Hurts’ throw to DeVonta Smith and the 1-point decision was indeed over.
Cousins credited his entire team for the win, from the swatting defense to the separating London who “made it easy on 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 mistakes.
This wasn’t a repeat of the Falcons’ Week 1 offense. The narrative, they knew, was shifting.
“[Cousins] was just getting so much criticism throughout this whole week,” Bates said. “‘Kirk can't move. Kirk can't do this.’ To watch his poise [in the] two-minute drive and how sharp it was? The leaders on this team, when it’s nut-cutting time and it’s time to make play, that’s what we lean on.
“I’m happy that we got him.”
Eking out win vs. Eagles isn’t Falcons’ ultimate goal
Concern over Cousins’ first action back from an Achilles tear after his 36th birthday was warranted.
Against facing a stifling Steelers defense, Cousins had thrown for just 155 yards and one touchdown to two interceptions, his 59.0 passer rating well below the 101.2 rating he had averaged in six prior seasons with the Minnesota Vikings.
Questions hovered: Can Cousins ever return to form after the injury? How healthy was he, even, as he operated out of the pistol more than he had in the better part of a decade, and averaged a career-low 3.1 yards per dropback, per Next Gen Stats?
Eight days later, the Falcons had reintegrated play action and under-center throws 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 unlock things and now it's going to be this or that way,’” Cousins said. But “coming from behind, finding a way on the road in a tough environment against a good football team, that builds resolve … that we're going to have to lean on as the year goes on.
“The more we can be battle-tested and have these moments, I think it would set us up well for what's coming down the road.”
The Falcons hope further offensive rhythm is down the road, third-down efficiency top of their list after a 2-of-9 (22.2%) night, followed closely by red-zone efficiency which improved to 1-of-3 in the final minute of play.
Cousins and Co. know they will face stouter defenses than the Eagles, and they know that realistically they already have a tougher task 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: the Kansas City Chiefs will take the field in Atlanta in six days.
So celebrations for Monday night’s victory must be short-lived, game preparation beginning in earnest for the team that has lifted the Lombardi Trophy the last two years.
The Falcons understand the assignment ahead, schematically and emotionally.
They’ll find out soon whether they can execute it.
“On a short week, we got the defending champions coming into our house — that’s just how this season’s gonna go,” Bates said. “We s*** the bed a little bit the first week at home and then you come back, you have a big win. So it's just like a rollercoaster. You can't be too high, too low.
“It’s a big win for us. And [now], for us to just flush it and move on.
"This is a big-time game coming on the road against a really good team. I don't care if they had AJ Brown in or not. It's a big win for us and for us to just flush it and move on.”
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