Falcon Report

Breaking Down Kirk Cousins's 'Cleanest Game' with Atlanta Falcons

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins shredded the Buccaneers defense this season, but his 500-yard effort in Week 5 may be second-best.

Clint Goss

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins joined elite company with his dismantling of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins joined elite company with his dismantling of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. / Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images
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Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris made no bones about it - he wanted an "elite processor" to lead his offense. Morris echoed the fruition of that conviction with yet his highest praise of QB1 Kirk Cousins following the Falcons’ 31-26 Win in Tampa. 

“That was probably his cleanest game as a quarterback as an Atlanta Falcon,” Morris said earlier this week. “I know it’s hard to say when you threw for 500 yards one week, but you know how I feel about stats. But yesterday, as far as being clean, as far as throwing the ball exactly where it needs to go, being able to exhaust his progressions, feeling really comfortable, being decisive, doing all the different things that Kirk does well. He actually ran the ball yesterday.” 

“Yesterday” is the one-year “anniversary” since Cousins tore his right Achilles in Week 8 of 2023. 

Let’s start breaking down that Rah comment by glancing at the stat sheet. Cousins managed 23-29, 276 yards, and 4 touchdowns against Tampa Bay’s defense.

Comparatively, he entered Week 8 with an average weekly stat line of 23-35 (66%), 261 yards, 1.4 TDs, & 1 INT. 

Step back from the micro and look at the macro with some math: what do those numbers get you compared to the rest of the league through eight weeks? 

  • Cousins has accumulated 2,106 yards through the air with 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions — good for a 97.8 passer rating. 
  • Pace for a 17-game season at this rate? 4,475 yards, 30 Touchdowns, & 15 Interceptions. 
  • Currently 4th in passing yards and 7th in completed passes, the ripple effect is weekly, as we see the best yet of Drake London, Kyle Pitts, Darnell Mooney, Ray-Ray McCloud, etc.  

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Step back from the micro and look at the macro with some math”, now flip that class. It is not just this past weekend that illustrates Cousins’s aggressive dismantling of the Bucs’ defense, it’s a sweep. 

As if a Falcons franchise-record 509 passing yards on Matt Ryan Night in Week 5 was not enough, Kirko became only the fourth NFL quarterback all-time to hang at least 750 passing yards and eight touchdowns on the same opponent in the same year. Dan Marino, Joe Montana, and Y.A. Tittle aren’t too bad of a golf foursome. 

12:58 1st Q, 4th & 3 @ ATL 36

The first touchdown score of the game to Kyle Pitts introduced multiples of Cousins making it to a second and third progression AND throwing his receivers open with uninterrupted momentum before breaking their route. 

Read 1: Drake London is the key on an in-breaker. The pace that Cousins diagnosed inside leverage by the boundary cornerback, the high safety coming downhill, and that leaving the deep hash vulnerable on the backend is the perfect encapsulation of a play that would’ve been a turnover on downs the last two years is instead a crucial touchdowns. Note, that Pitts is getting assaulted, even with illegal hands to the face.

7:27 2nd Q, 2nd & 10, @ TB 49

I’ll say it: Antoine Winfield Jr. punched the ball from Kyle Pitts’s hand right before crossing the goal line. Pitts lazily let up on the 7-yard line with an All-Pro breathing on his neck. Pitts was benched momentarily. I am not an NFL coach; having acknowledged that, I don’t know how you don’t tear Pitts apart for his effort on that score.

Moving on now, Kirk Cousins boasts the 4th highest completion percentage in the NFL in tight-window throws per contest. Adding to that factoid by circling back, Cousins is “throwing his receivers open with uninterrupted momentum before breaking their route.” 

Cousins is locked and loaded on his back foot (If you are questioning his ability to rip it again, watch this 20-air-yard clip until you’re dizzy) ready to cut it from shotgun when Pitts plants his right foot on the 42-yard hash and ultimately catches it on the 38. 

2:15 2nd Q, 3rd & 6, @ TB 30

Play is Trips Bunch -  to the right trio is typically the look this season. Pre-snap motion by Drake London sells that look, Kirk’s eyes start left, go right, and rips the second-best throw of the game, in my opinion, to Mooney for six. Again, if you are questioning Cousins’s ability to still freeze a rope, watch this clip until you’re nauseous. 

0:24 2nd Q, 1st & 10, @ TB 49

The best throw of the game. This is absurd.

Step-by-step this a bit:

  • Tampa comes out in a 4-2-5 Cover 2 Nickel Zone in a 2-Minute Drill
  • Cousins rips it from his own 43
  • Mooney plants his foot with outside leverage on the CB at the TB 38 toward the sideline
  • Mooney catches a layered ball in his breadbasket at the Tampa Bay 29.

This will make you $45 Million a year. 

In the second half of Sunday's win, Cousins went a perfect 9-for-9 for 52 yards and a touchdown.

Is this the best stat sheet game of Kirk Cousins’s season? No.

Is Head Coach Raheem Morris correct that this is the best game on tape? 

Yes.

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Clint Goss
CLINT GOSS

Clint Goss is an NFL & SEC football writer, as well as the on-air co-host of The Falcon Fade radio show at 99.1 WDJY and lead NFL Draft Analyst for Stadium Rant. He is a Rhetoric graduate of Georgia College & State University. A Roswell resident, find Clint at Mercedes-Benz Stadium every Sunday covering the Atlanta Falcons. You can follow Clint actively on Twitter/X @NFLDraftDome