Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins isn’t finished after all

NEW ORLEANS — Kirk Cousins couldn’t make the Falcons winners again. At least he didn’t let them lose to the worst Saints team in decades. If you think that doesn’t matter, then you should have seen all the Falcons fans in the French Quarter on Saturday night.

The next day those people got to see what might have been with Cousins. This wasn’t the Cousins of early 2024, when he was so immobile that he couldn’t run the entire playbook from the “pistol” formation. It wasn’t the Cousins from late last season, when he was so beat up from shoulder and elbow injuries that he could hardly deliver accurate passes.

The Falcons got the new-and-improved Cousins against the Saints. He operated from under center and smoothy dropped back after run fakes to throw on-time passes to multiple targets. Cousins got another shot to start when Michael Penix Jr. suffered a season-ending knee injury last week, and he helped the Falcons end their losing streak at five games with the 24-10 victory at the Caesars Superdome.

Cousins didn’t need to be great to beat the bumbling Saints. An efficient 199 yards on 23 attempts with two touchdowns was good enough. Cousins put the Saints away with a 49-yard TD pass to Darnell Mooney in the fourth quarter.

It was his best performance since Week 8 of 2024 against Dallas. In the days before the Saints game, Cousins said that knowing he would be the starter throughout the week could make a difference with his preparation. That’s how it played out.

“I think we had a sharp week of practice,” Cousins said. “I think being able to get those reps helps. But the week is a process and you just kind of try to build that process all the way to Sunday and then let the product on Sunday show.

“Sometimes the practice doesn’t mimic the game. Sometimes you have a great week and the game isn’t as good. But today, I felt like it kind of built all week and it was able to come to fruition today.”

It was reminiscent of Cousins’ run of good play during the middle part of the 2024 season. That didn’t last. If Cousins can keep it up this year, it still won’t be enough for the Falcons (4-7) to make the playoffs.

But they at least can hope for competent quarterback play over the season’s final six games after Cousins looked good against the Saints. There was doubt about that after Penix went on injured reserve. Cousins didn’t play well in a spot start against the Dolphins in Week 8 or in relief of Penix against the Panthers.

The Falcons can win if Cousins plays like he did against the Saints.

“Kirk has been around a long time,” Falcons wide receiver David Sills said. “When he’s out there, we know what we are going to get from him. He’s been in a lot of situations, pretty much every situation you can think of. He knows how to go in there and play the position and do really well at it.

“Obviously, you want to have Mike out there. Injuries are part of the game. It sucks that it’s come to this, but we’ve got to move forward as an offense.”

The Falcons led 10-0 after Sills caught a 10-yard TD pass from Cousins in the second quarter. Cousins made his one big mistake during Atlanta’s next possession. Justin Reid returned an interception 49 yards for a touchdown, but the Saints needed help from officials to make it happen: Kool-Aid McKinstry appeared to grab Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts Jr. before the ball arrived.

Cousins more than made up for that miscue with lots of good decisions and throws. The best of the bunch was the touchdown pass to Mooney that put the Falcons ahead by two scores with 11:04 to play.

Cousins let the ball fly just as Mooney started his break to the middle of the field. It was the kind of powerful and accurate deep ball that Cousins hasn’t delivered often during his time with the Falcons.

“The key for me was knowing how Mooney can really run,” Cousins said. “So, when you feel like he’s getting even with somebody, I say ‘If you’re even, you’re leaving.’ By the time the ball gets there, he’s going to hopefully blow by him.

“Kind of threw that with a lot of trust that if Mooney can get through there, he’s going to make me right when the ball arrives, and he did.”

The pass to Mooney tied for the longest scoring throw by Cousins during his Falcons tenure. He also threw a 49-yard score to Pitts during the victory at Tampa Bay last season. Mooney’s TD was the second-longest scoring play of the season for the Falcons behind Bijan Robinson’s 50-yard catch-and-run from Penix against the Buccaneers.

Cousins was animated after the TD pass to Mooney.

“It was kind of a combination of hitting a big throw and what that meant in the flow of the game,” Cousins said. “Explosive plays are always exciting. We were going for two, and you couldn’t celebrate for too long. The offensive linemen were having party in the end zone and I’m telling them, ‘Get back to the huddle, we’ve got another play to run.’

Robinson converted the two-point try with a run for a 24-10 Falcons lead. No way the Saints were going to overcome that deficit. They had already blown scoring chances with two missed field goals, a turnover on downs at Atlanta’s one-yard line and an intentional grounding penalty on third down one yard away from the end zone.

Saints fans grew increasingly frustrated by the ineptitude. They watched their team constantly misfire on offense and fail to stop Cousins. He even made a play running the ball by powering through Reid and linebacker Demario Davis to gain the necessary yardage for a first down in the second quarter.