The Atlanta Falcons are this close to be 0-5.
They don’t care and they shouldn’t care. For the third time this season, the Falcons faced a loss and somehow pulled off a miraculous victory. This time it was a massive Thursday night matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Falcons had a big drive in the final two minutes of regulation to set up a game-tying field goal as the fourth quarter expired. The overtime didn’t last long.
KhaDarel Hodge took a pass in overtime, broke a tackle and scored a 45-yard touchdown on the first drive of overtime and the Falcons won 36-30 in overtime. Kirk Cousins threw for 509 yards in a fantastic performance. The Falcons are 3-2 after the win, tied with the Buccaneers atop the division.
The Falcons looked finished several times Thursday night. But somehow they pulled out an improbable victory, the third time they have done so in five weeks this season.
An explosive first part
The Falcons and Buccaneers had no problems moving the ball in the first half. The Falcons started the night with a long drive that ended with a Drake London touchdown. The Buccaneers came back with a Mike Evans touchdown.
Both quarterbacks continued to throw hooks. In the first half alone, Cousins went 21 of 28 for 253 yards and two touchdowns. Cousins hadn’t played anywhere near that level during the first month of his Falcons career. On the other side, Baker Mayfield was 12 of 15 for 131 yards and three touchdowns. Maybe all of that had to do with two tired defenses in a short week: The Falcons were the first team all season without a quarterback pressure in the first half of a game. according to next generation statistics – but it was still an entertaining half.
Mayfield’s third touchdown was a fantastic throw. He rolled to his right and hit a well-covered Sterling Shepard in the end zone for a touchdown. There was almost no separation, but Mayfield found a way to get a score.
The Buccaneers finally stopped the Falcons’ final drive of the half and led 24-17 heading into halftime. Not counting Tampa Bay’s kneel at the end of the first half, they scored on all four of their first-half possessions, while the Falcons scored on three of five, with only one missed field goal and one punt preventing the offenses from being perfect. before half time.
The game is close in the fourth quarter.
The defenses finally tightened up a bit in the second half. It was harder to get yards. During the third quarter and first half of the fourth quarter, the only touchdown by either team was Cousins hitting Darnell Mooney for Mooney’s second touchdown of the game.
However, Mooney made a big mistake in the fourth quarter. On third-and-six, Cousins made a good throw to Mooney, who had opened up, but Mooney dropped it at about the 15-yard line. Younghoe Koo had to go in for a 54-yard field goal and it was blocked.
It looked like the Buccaneers were going to win the game a couple of times after that, but the Falcons wouldn’t go away. Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving was running for a first down just before the two-minute warning when Falcons safety Jessie Bates III walked up and punched the ball. Atlanta recovered but couldn’t move the ball and then Cousins threw an interception on fourth down. However, the Falcons still had their timeouts and used them to force a punt.
Then Cousins, like he did against the Eagles in Week 2, ran a great two-minute drill. He hit London up the middle and the Falcons finished it off with one second left. There was a bad delay of game penalty before Koo’s attempt to tie the game, but it didn’t matter. He hit it from 52 yards and the game went to overtime. Last week, Koo kicked a 58-yard field goal in the final seconds to clinch the Falcons’ victory, and his key kick Thursday night kept the game alive.
The Falcons won the toss to start overtime and won it quickly. London left injured after a catch in overtime, putting Hodge in the spotlight for the winning score.
Atlanta has three narrow victories, but they are not complaining.
