The Falcoholic
Atlanta gets a big win, and there’s plenty to react to.
The talented Tre’Shon Diaz is traveling this week, so I’ve drawn the honor of putting out some snap reactions. As you can see, the snap is quite slow, because this is many hours later.
Nonetheless, there’s plenty to react to and talk about, so I won’t delay any further.
There’s something about playing the Buccaneers and their suddenly soft defense that Cousins loves. He has eight touchdowns against one interception in two games against Tampa Bay this year, and everything just seems sharper when he plays them. Whether it’s the terrible coverage in the middle of the field, the limited pass rush, or a general dislike for pirates, Cousins is borderline surgical in those matchups.
He needed to be on Sunday, and obviously obliged. He found Kyle Pitts and Darnell Mooney downfield, worked the flats to Ray-Ray McCloud and Bijan Robinson, and even pulled off an impressive scramble for 13 yards, pump-faking all the way as he braved the middle of field and followed that up with a sneak for a first down.
Let’s hope Kirkvember is as good as this.
Two fourth downs within reasonable range today, two clear signals to go for it from Raheem Morris and terrific calls from Zac Robinson. The Falcons managed to spring Kyle Pitts downfield—with a major assist from Pitts, naturally—on the first one, and Kirk Cousins arced him a touchdown pass on the team’s first drive. Later on, they surprised the Buccaneers with a Kirk Cousins sneak, something we weren’t sure we’d see in 2024.
The Falcons are now 9/13 on fourth downs this year, a top ten percentage in the league, and have converted more fourth down attempts in eight games than in 17 a year ago (8/19) and tied the team’s 2022 total (9/18). It’s not difficult to see that Morris is doing a good job with the details—getting this team to stop with the boneheaded penalties aside—and is willing to put his faith in his team and be aggressive in these situations. Paired with the talent on offense and Robinson’s fine work as a play caller, it’s helping this team convert in critical moments, and that in turn is helping a team built to live dangerously to weather the storm.
Defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake has been under constant fire from the fanbase this season because of Atlanta’s deeply frustrating and often lackluster play on that side of the ball. Lake has talked about patience, hard work, and a defense undergoing an evolution, and a first year defensive coordinator will undergo growing pains along with his players.
But at some point we need to see that evolution, and we’re not. The team had zero sacks on 50 Baker Mayfield dropbacks and allowed him to get away one either time for an easy first down scramble. They...
