Kirk Cousins tops 500 passing yards, leads Falcons past Bucs

ATLANTA — The Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers established early that Thursday night’s game would be an offensive slugfest with both teams scoring touchdowns on their first possessions, so it seemed fitting the NFC South showdown would be decided by a long TD pass.

Kirk Cousins threw his fourth touchdown of the game, a 45-yard score to KhaDarel Hodge, who had entered the contest after an injury to Drake London, to give the Falcons a 36-30 overtime victory.

Younghoe Koo‘s 52-yard field goal as time expired in regulation forced overtime, and Cousins took care of the rest as he set a career passing mark with 509 yards to lift Atlanta (3-2) into a tie atop the division.

Atlanta Falcons

The difference between making the playoffs and not, of winning a division and not, are in games like Thursday.

At 3-2, with dramatic back-to-back wins over New Orleans and Tampa Bay, Atlanta has an early lead in the NFC South thanks to tiebreakers over the Saints and Buccaneers. That could prove pivotal in December and January in what appears to be a tight division.

QB breakdown: Cousins looked healthy and back to the quarterback the Falcons gave a $180 million contract to in the offseason. He completed 42 of 58 passes for 509 yards, 4 touchdowns and 1 interception.

It’s the sixth time he’s thrown for 350 yards and three touchdowns in a prime-time game, tying Patrick Mahomes and Peyton Manning, according to ESPN Research.

Eye-popping stat: Drake London continues to be dominant when he faces Tampa Bay — three of his four career 100-yard games have come against the Buccaneers, including Thursday’s 12-catch, 154-yard performance. He also picked up his first-ever touchdown against Tampa Bay in the first quarter.

Promising trend: Darnell Mooney continues to look more like the receiver he was in Chicago in 2021 than his final two seasons with the Bears. He had his first game with multiple touchdown catches — in 2021 he had a game with a rushing and receiving touchdown — and his 9 catches for 105 yards are both among career-highs for him. He did have two drops, however, including one that could have proven costly.

Most surprising performance: A week after not catching a pass against New Orleans, tight end Kyle Pitts put in his best statistical game in almost a year, grabbing 7 catches for 88 yards, once again emerging as part of Atlanta’s offense. His catches and yards are the most since Oct. 8, 2023 against Houston, when Pitts had seven catches for 87 yards on a career-high 11 targets. — Michael Rothstein

Next game: at Carolina Panthers (4:25 p.m. ET, Sunday, Oct. 13.)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

All summer long, the Bucs heard the Falcons were the team to beat in the NFC South, despite Tampa winning the division the last three years. That rang true Thursday night, with it now being a three-team race with the Bucs at New Orleans next.

Tampa Bay has a lot of players it needs to get healthy, and it has nine days to do it.

QB breakdown: Baker Mayfield completed 13 of 16 passes for 129 passing yards, three touchdowns — two to wide receiver Mike Evans — and no interceptions in the first half. He was blitzed on seven of 15 drop-backs (47%) in the first half, with all three touchdowns coming against the blitz. Mayfield’s 11 touchdowns through the first five games are a career best.

Biggest hole in the game plan: With Tampa linebacker SirVocea Dennis on injured reserve with a shoulder injury, the Falcons routinely exploited K.J. Britt in coverage. He surrendered an 18-yard touchdown to wide receiver Drake London on the opening drive.

Surprising performance: The Bucs’ defense surrendering 550 yards of total offense. They took a step forward last week against the Eagles in terms of missed tackles, but struggled against the Falcons in this department, surrendering 87 total yards after contact — 34 on rushes and 53 on receptions – per ESPN Research. — Jenna Laine

Next game: at New Orleans Saints (1 p.m. ET, Sunday, Oct. 13.)