Contained in the Eagles' epic collapse: How the Falcons accomplished a near-impossible comeback to shock Philadelphia

The Kirk Cousins‘ period with the Atlanta Falcons gave the impression to be on the brink Monday evening in Philadelphia. 

Atlanta trailed, 18-15, with 1:51 seconds left, and the Eagles possessed the soccer dealing with a third-and-3 on the Falcons 10-yard line. In the event that they bought the primary down, the sport can be over. In the event that they failed to take action by working the ball, then they’d kick the sphere objective to go up six factors with simply over one minute to play.

Nevertheless, Eagles new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore bought galaxy-brained, and he determined to name a play-action go to Professional Bowl working again Saquon Barkley. Philadelphia’s latest offensive weapon bought open and the ball hit him within the palms, however he dropped the go. That incompletion stopped the clock with 1:46 left to play, and the Eagles settled for a 28-yard subject objective to increase their result in six with 1:42 left to go.

That gave Cousins, who admitted to ESPN’s Troy Aikman that he’s “not 100%,” one final probability. He made probably the most of it, main Atlanta on a six-play, 70-yard landing drive that concluded with a seven-yard landing go to broad receiver Drake London in 1:05 with none timeouts. Cousins’ game-winning drive resulted in a 22-21 Atlanta win and the NFL’s Subsequent Gen Stats’ seventh-most unbelievable comeback since they started monitoring win likelihood in 2016. The Falcons had lower than a 1% probability of victory (0.7% to be precise) after the two-minute warning.

Some of the necessary offensive performs of the evening for Atlanta was Cousins’ first throw of the drive, a go over the center to tight finish Kyle Pitts for a achieve of 11 yards and a primary down. That play kickstarted a string of 63 yards of offense, together with that completion to Pitts, over the drive’s first 4 performs, which spanned simply 51 seconds. These performs featured consecutive deep throws to free agent addition Darnell Mooney for a mixed 33 yards after which the primary of two completions on the possession to London for 5 yards to get Atlanta right down to the Eagles’ seven. A fast incompletion to Ray-Ray McCloud briefly halted the momentum earlier than Cousins threw the scoring strike to London. 

Nevertheless, the Falcons taking the lead wasn’t assured. Kicker Younghoe Koo was tasked with draining a 48-yard kick for the additional level as a substitute of the default 33 yards as a result of London bought flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct following his seven-yard landing catch. Koo drilled it. 

Two performs later, second-team All-Professional security Jessie Bates III proved he was value each penny of his four-year, $64 million contract he signed in free company in March of 2023, materializing out of skinny air to seal the sport with an interception of Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. 

With the comeback full, Cousins discarded his big-game, prime-time choker’s label, leaving that knock behind in Minnesota. He has now gained consecutive “Monday Night time Soccer” video games as an underdog, going again to the Vikings‘ 22-17 upset win over the 49ers in Week 7 final season. Cousins’ 9 game-winning drives since 2022 are tied for probably the most within the league together with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith, a tally that features an NFL single-season document eight in 2022. He additionally improved to 4-1 in his previous 5 “Monday Night time Soccer” begins after starting his profession 0-9 underneath the brilliant lights. Possibly a very powerful stat since 2022: Cousins improved to 7-4 towards groups coming into with a successful document since after being 17-33-1 in such video games in his first 10 seasons. He additionally endeared himself to a locker room that additionally accommodates 2024 eighth general decide quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who was the 2023 Heisman Trophy runner-up with Washington.

Not solely did Cousins’ private popularity obtain a lift inside and out of doors of his franchise from Monday’s heroics; so did the Falcons’ playoff possibilities in 2024. Their playoff odds practically doubled from 24% to 44%, in line with CBS Sports activities knowledge scientist Stephen Oh. Atlanta improved to 1-1 on Monday as a substitute of falling to 0-2, which can not sound like an enormous deal, however positively is. Because the NFL playoffs grew to 14 groups in 2020, solely two squads throughout the final 4 seasons have begun 0-2 and made the postseason: the 2022 Cincinnati Bengals and 2023 Houston Texans. Solely 5 0-2 groups since 2020 even completed their respective campaigns with successful information. 

The Falcons have a assassin’s row of a schedule the following three weeks, dealing with the 2-0 back-to-back Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in Week 3, the 2-0 New Orleans Saints in Week 4 and the 2-0 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 5. As a substitute of coming into that stretch with their heads down, Cousins and the Falcons are coming into their upcoming gauntlet fired up. Everybody in Atlanta positively likes that.