The Kirk Cousins’ era with the Atlanta Falcons appeared to be on the brink Monday night in Philadelphia.
Atlanta trailed, 18-15, with 1:51 seconds left, and the Eagles possessed the football facing a third-and-3 on the Falcons 10-yard line. If they got the first down, the game would be over. If they failed to do so by running the ball, then they’d kick the field goal to go up six points with just over one minute to play.
However, Eagles new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore got galaxy-brained, and he decided to call a play-action pass to Pro Bowl running back Saquon Barkley. Philadelphia’s newest offensive weapon got open and the ball hit him in the hands, but he dropped the pass. That incompletion stopped the clock with 1:46 left to play, and the Eagles settled for a 28-yard field goal to extend their lead to six with 1:42 left to go.
That gave Cousins, who admitted to ESPN’s Troy Aikman that he is “not 100%,” one last chance. He made the most of it, leading Atlanta on a six-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that concluded with a seven-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Drake London in 1:05 without any timeouts. Cousins’ game-winning drive resulted in a 22-21 Atlanta win and the NFL’s Next Gen Stats’ seventh-most improbable comeback since they began tracking win probability in 2016. The Falcons had less than a 1% chance of victory (0.7% to be exact) after the two-minute warning.
One of the most important offensive plays of the night for Atlanta was Cousins’ first throw of the drive, a pass over the middle to tight end Kyle Pitts for a gain of 11 yards and a first down. That play kickstarted a string of 63 yards of offense, including that completion to Pitts, over the drive’s first four plays, which spanned just 51 seconds. Those plays featured consecutive deep throws to free agent addition Darnell Mooney for a combined 33 yards and then the first of two completions on the…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/inside-the-eagles-epic-collapse-how-the-falcons-completed-a-near-impossible-comeback-to-shock-philadelphia/
Author : Garrett Podell
Publish date : 2024-09-17 04:48:33
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