Falcons Want to 'Run the NFC South'. They'll Need More Offense from Kirk Cousins

The Atlanta Falcons' offense failed to score a touchdown against the New Orleans Saints. The Falcons survived, but they need more moving forward.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins and the offense didn't score a touchdown in Sunday's win vs. the New Orleans Saints. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Defensive end Zach Harrison's feet were in the Atlanta Falcons' locker room after Sunday's 26-24 victory over the New Orleans Saints at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but his mind was back in the spring, sitting in the team's meeting room in Flowery Branch.

Harrison could hear Falcons head coach Raheem Morris's voice permeating through his head in the moments following Atlanta's last-second win over its NFC South rival.

"Rah, the first thing he said when he came in, 'We've got to run the South,'" Harrison told Falcons on SI postgame. "That's our goal, and it started with this week."

But really, accomplishing that feat started long before the Falcons and Saints kicked off Sunday afternoon.

Falcons linebackers coach Barrett Ruud, who addressed his position group in the morning, told his players games like Sunday's are what Atlanta chooses its roster for.

"We pick the rosters for winning the Saints game and winning these conference games," Ruud told the room.

On Sunday, the Falcons did that. It was their first NFC South game of the year, and the start of a three-week voyage around the division. Atlanta hosts the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football before getting a mini bye week and traveling to take on the Carolina Panthers the week after.

For the Falcons, beating the Saints always means more. It's a rivalry now tied at 55 wins apiece, one that dates back to 1967.

It also means a two-game swing in the NFC South -- New Orleans entered Sunday one game ahead of Atlanta, but the two are now tied. With a win, the Saints would've held a two-game edge.

The Falcons' path to victory was far from routine. They won without scoring an offensive touchdown for the first time since Sept. 26, 2004. They found the endzone on both defense and special teams, something the team hasn't done since Dec. 11, 2016.

Atlanta's offense struggled. It mustered only 12 points, with kicker Younghoe Koo connecting on four field goals, including a career-long 58-yarder with two seconds left to win the game.

The Falcons recorded 14 first downs to the Saints' 25 and possessed the ball for just 24 minutes to the Saints' 36. New Orleans also ran 19 more plays than Atlanta.

But the theme from the Falcons' locker room is this: Atlanta knows it has lots to fix, but it's much happier to do so after a win than a crushing home defeat.

"I do dislike this about myself that I have a standard that's maybe unreachable, and even after a win, you feel like you've got to play better," Cousins said. "I'll still enjoy the win, believe me. There's just a lot we left out there."

Cousins was frustrated after the game, which he said wouldn't have been the case if he and the offense had played well. In his eyes, it didn't.

The 36-year-old Cousins completed 21-of-35 passes for 238 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. Atlanta totaled 15 carries for 88 yards, an average of 5.9 yards per carry, but it ultimatey never reached the endzone.

Cousins cited penalties as the team's biggest drive killers, both in and out of the redzone.

Atlanta had a 19-yard touchdown catch by running back Bijan Robinson get negated due to a holding penalty on left tackle Jake Matthews.

Center Ryan Neuzil was called for a false start on 4th and inches, forcing the offense to leave the field and settle for a field goal instead of getting a chance to push toward the endzone.

Left guard Matthew Bergeron committed a facemask penalty that not only took away a 13-yard completion on 2nd and 10 but pushed the Falcons into an unrecoverable 2nd and 25. The drive ended with a field goal after Atlanta failed to move the chains.

"I think we just shot ourselves in the foot," Bergeron told Falcons on SI after the game while taking accountability for his penalty. "Got to be better and got to go back to work."

Atlanta went 4-of-11 on third down, doubling its previous season high of two third down conversions, a mark it hit each of the first three games. As a result, the Falcons sustained more drives, as five of their nine series lasted at least six plays, and their lone three-and-out came in their penultimate drive.

But that drive was Atlanta's chance to put New Orleans to sleep. The Falcons couldn't do it then. Their defense, which played admirably over the final three quarters, allowed a touchdown with a minute remaining.

Atlanta ultimately won because of Koo's leg, but the game-winning drive was aided by a 30-yard defensive pass interference penalty on Saints cornerback Paulson Adebo. Apart from that, the Falcons' offense lost five yards due to a false start on Neuzil.

Cousins said the Falcons' final possession wasn't good enough -- by both himself and the entire offense -- but he again reiterated the most important numbers from Sunday: Atlanta 26, New Orleans 24.

"I'll be pretty critical as I think through it," Cousins said. "Just grateful to be able to have the critical evaluation after a win. So you're grateful for the win, the outcome. It's such an outcome-driven league. To have a win is a big deal."

The Falcons can't rely on four field goals, defensive and special teams touchdowns and timely penalties by opponents each week. It's an unsustainable winning method.

Still, winning Sunday is the biggest takeaway -- and it's especially big considering how difficult it is to find wins in the NFL, which seventh-year cornerback Mike Hughes noted postgame. In the case of fourth-year safety Richie Grant, the Falcons were just 2-4 against the Saints in his tenure.

Grant, who made the game-ending tackle on special teams, sported a big smile in Atlanta's postgame locker room when asked about his emotions.

"Hella good," Grant said. "And we at home, protecting home. We got a jump start to the South, so that's exactly what we wanted."

Wins like Sunday's can carry teams a long way. In addition to the emotional lift, the Falcons were looking down the barrel at a 1-3 start. They're now 2-2 with a home game looming against the division-leading Buccaneers.

Atlanta began its preparation for Tampa Bay immediately after beating New Orleans, focusing on rehab and recovery. Grant said he wasn't sure how much film the Falcons were planning on watching from the Saints triumph due to time constraints in the game planning process.

The Falcons will enter Thursday night with a chance to effectively erase their 1-2 start. With a win, they'd be tied atop the NFC South through five weeks, another step closer to running the division as Morris has long intended.

Yet now that his vision is unfolding, Morris doesn't believe the Falcons are a team of destiny -- instead, they're a team of veteran poise and an unwavering will to fight until the clock hits zero.

"I don't feel like Cinderella," Morris said. "I feel like you got to go out there and play every single game, and you’ve got to try to go out there and win. And the more poised team usually wins. I'm trying to show my team poise -- what it looks and feels like, what it feels like to be resilient.

"They're showing us, and they’re showing our city."

The Falcons will try to do it again at 8:15 p.m. Thursday against the Buccaneers inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium -- but will need a much better offensive performance to do so.