What we learned from the Falcons' win over the Buccaneers on Thursday night

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1. Cousins ​​throws for 509 yards, leading to a thrilling comeback. For those wondering when the Falcons offense would show its true potential, the answer is Thursday. Kirk Cousins was outstanding in the win, overcoming a late interception, rushing for a career-high 509 yards and leading the Falcons to a huge overtime victory. Things were looking bleak when Cousins ​​forced a pass into double coverage for a pick with 1:52 left in the game and trailing 30-27. According to Next Gen Stats, Atlanta only had a 5% chance of winning the game at that point. But the defense was able to make a stop and a penalty took the Bucs out of field goal range. Cousins ​​gave them the lead with a game-winning field goal drive, which his teammates didn't exactly make easy for him. But overtime was just as crisp as the game's opening drive, cutting through the Bucs' second period. That didn't matter at all Drake London was injured in overtime; his successor, KhaDarel Hodgecaught a 45-yard walk-off TD and won it on the next play. Despite stepping on a few landmines along the way, the Falcons' offense took off Thursday — and Cousins ​​was the key to their success.
2. Mayfield has a strong game, but offensive mistakes cost them late. Cousins' counterpart, Baker Mayfieldwasn't a jerk at all. After a somewhat rocky showing in Week 3, Mayfield appeared to be back at full strength on Thursday with a strong performance on Sunday and three touchdowns in the first half. He seemed to be in complete control of the offense (aside from an early dropped pick), and when things slowed down after a hot first half, Mayfield grabbed some key first downs late with his legs, even after taking a tough sack at the end had to of the third quarter. But Tampa could only muster six points in the second half, and Bucky Irving coughed up the ball late, which turned into a game-winning drive. A missed facemask call against Irving also hurt the Bucs. That left the door open for the Falcons to tie the score in regulation – and then win it in the extra game. On a night where the Bucs defense had its hands full, the offense couldn't finish the game.
3. Hawks spread wealth by attacking. The Falcons were far from perfect offensively on Thursday, hurting themselves with positive-field penalties and a major pass loss Darnell Mooney. The running game wasn't its typically productive self either. But they were productive throughout the game. Receive Kyle Pitts more involved? Check. He had seven big catches for 88 yards. Mooney's drop midway through the fourth quarter hurt, but he had two touchdown catches. London was also a monster all game, with 12 catches for 154 yards and a touchdown. London's 14-yard catch in the final seconds of regulation Younghoe Koo's game-winning field goal and his recoveries of 6 and 18 yards in overtime led to Hodge's game-winning victory. Thursday night was a snapshot of the Falcons offense at its most productive. Imagine what they can do without the self-inflicted mistakes.
4. Bucs' undermanned defense is faltering. Even with a quick turnaround for an away game, it's difficult to come full circle to what we've seen from the Buccaneers' defense in the last two games. This unit was dismissed on Sunday Jalen hurts six times and held the Eagles to 227 yards. On Thursday night, Kirk Cousins ​​had 253 passing yards at halftime. The Falcons totaled 550 yards despite the Bucs playing good run defense all night long, outside of the 28-yard range Bijan Robinson run. The secondary was picked apart and the middle of the field was wide open most of the night. Without it, the Bucs were always going to have a hard time Antoine Winfield Jr. play a third game in a row and Jordan Whitehead was injured Thursday and left Tampa Bay without its two starting safeties. Tykee Smith struggled all game and missed a tackle on Darnell Mooney's second touchdown. Zyon McCollum made some good plays, but also allowed two touchdowns, according to Next Gen Stats. But it wasn't just the secondary. Lavonte David Cousins ​​intercepted late in what could have been a game-changer, but struggled in coverage all game. It did that too KJ Brittwho was also reported for a bad unnecessary roughness punishment. This was just a different unit than the one we saw four days ago.
5. Big win for Raheem Morris, Falcons, but mistakes almost cost them. When Morris faced the Buccaneers for the first time as head coach, he definitely had to be happy about Thursday's win against the team he coached years ago. It was also a huge win for his team, who without the late comeback were on the verge of a 3-1 home defeat and a 3-2 aggregate defeat. The Falcons made all sorts of special teams mistakes, from two missed Koo field goals, one of which was blocked in the fourth quarter; allowed kick returns of 53 and 39 yards; and a delay of game before Koo managed to get into overtime. In defense, AJ Terrell He dropped a pick on the first drive, which led to a Bucs touchdown. The secondary school had no answers Mike Evans early, looked altogether lost a few times. Antonio Hamilton gave up two TD passes and was lucky not to give the Bucs a first down early in the third quarter by hitting Mayfield just as he was going out of bounds. Then there were the offensive penalties, six of which came in Bucs territory. There's no need to put too much pressure on a dramatic win, but the Falcons and Morris need to know they were lucky to make it out alive on Thursday night.

Next-Gen Statistics Insights for the Buccaneers-Falcons (via NFL Pro): Falcons WR KhaDarel Hodge reached a top speed of 19.70 mph on his game-winning touchdown reception in overtime against the Buccaneers, his second-fastest speed as a ball carrier in his career. Hodge was expected to gain just 0.4 yards after the catch, but he posted +39.6 YAC above expectations on the way to the end zone. Hodge's touchdown was the sixth least likely touchdown reception of the season (0.03% probability).

NFL Research: Falcons QB Kirk Cousins ​​became the 13th player in NFL history with 500 or more passing yards and four or more touchdown passes in a single game.