A rare quality Thursday night game that for the most part worked out for me personally. I had the Falcons -1.5 in my home picking pool, I had Drake London in one league, and I had Younghoe Koo in three. Chris Godwin was a little disappointing in my NFFC Primetime though, and I had to start Bucky Irving in a BCL because J.K. Dobbins was on bye. Overall, it was good, and I imagine most people did not have Kirk Cousins active for his monster night.
Cousins threw for 509 yards, the 15th highest total in NFL history. It was so prolific even Kyle Pitts got involved, no doubt on your bench. Cousins put up these numbers under a fair amount of pressure too. He had great feel and anticipation for where his receivers would be, and it’s not surprising it might take him a few games before getting in sync on a new team. He won’t throw for 500 again, but I think the offense being in sync is the base case, the early-season struggles the anomaly.
Pitts actually made a couple catches while Drake London was being checked for a head injury. The real head injury is going to be to his owners who start him next week and watch him do nothing again.
London is a big, physical receiver who is agile for his size. It looks like he’ll have the monster year with Cousins people were projecting.
Darnell Mooney had a terrible drop, but otherwise had a monster game on 16 targets. He’s also viable every week now with London seeing most of the defensive attention.
Bijan Robinson has that smooth glide to his game and breaks tackles, but the volume just isn’t there yet. Granted the Falcons were throwing a ton on 1st-and-10 this game, and that won’t always be the case. Robinson will get his, but you’re looking at someone who should have been a mid-second round pick probably.
Younghoe Koo had another monster game despite missing twice (he got a second chance after an off-sides penalty, but missed again from closer in!), having a field goal blocked and the Falcons electing to punt at the end of the first half rather than trying a 56-yarder. He’s got an odd style too, but he hit the big 52-yarder to send it into overtime.
Baker Mayfield had three TD passes in the first half, did almost nothing in the second, as the Bucs got more conservative. He added some easy rushing yards through wide open lanes. You love to see your QB get easy ones without taking a hit.
Rachaad White is not a good runner. He had 72 yards, but 56 came on one carry. Usually he gets stuffed. He also had negative yards on three catches.
Bucky Irving is a far more explosive runner, but his late fumble let the Falcons back into the game.
Both Godwin and Mike Evans had modest games, but Evans’ two TD catches are a big difference. Godwin is a lock to produce *something* every week, but it feels like his ceiling is a bit capped.
It’s amazing the Bucs blew this game. Even after the Irving fumble, they forced Atlanta into a desperation interception on fourth down, got the ball up three on the Falcons 28 with 1:44 left. Somehow, they rushed White for a three-yard loss, then committed a holding penalty, then passed for a two-yard loss! Then they ran for a one-yard gain before punting out of the end zone! Basically, they took themselves out of FG range for no reason, didn’t execute the punt to pin them back and gave the Falcons the ball back at the 20 with 1:20 left only needing a FG! Even then, with no timeouts, the Falcons had to spike the ball to set up the FG with one second left, and I have never seen a team get set and pull that off faster than Cousins and the Falcons did on that play.
What a crazy game all around. My only regret is that the Falcons scored the TD in OT. I wanted another FG from Koo, and then a few catches from Godwin on the ensuing drive before a Falcons-cover-sealing turnover. Still not too bad.