Kirk Cousins broke his touchdown drought, but his performance didn’t instill any confidence going forward with the Atlanta Falcons (7-7) pass offense.
The Falcons were able to hold on to defeat a listless Las Vegas Raiders club, 15-9, on Monday night and end their four-game losing streak. Yet, the victory came with yet another lethargic performance from Atlanta’s passing game.
Cousin was inaccurate at times and late on multiple throws. The veteran quarterback went 11-of-17 passing for a season-low 112 yards, to go along with one touchdown and one interception. The Falcons had 84 passing yards in the first half and only 28 passing yards in the second half. Luckily for the Falcons, running back Bijan Robinson and the team’s offensive line controlled most of the contest on the ground. Robinson gained 125 of the team’s 168 rushing yards.
Atlanta’s rushing attack combined with the Raiders’ ineptitude masked Atlanta’s deficiencies in the pass game.
“He’s got to play better. Obviously, you have to go back and look at everything. He wants to play better. He’s got to play better. We got to find a way to get him to play better,” Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said postgame of Cousins. “We’ll get to work (Tuesday) and that’s part of our process. You go and you look at the tape and review it with the people that it needs to be reviewed with. We’ll get all the coordinators in the room. We’ll talk with everybody. We got to play better at the quarterback position.”
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Cousins did toss his first touchdown pass since Week 9. The 36-year-old quarterback had zero touchdowns and eight interceptions in the previous four games. Yet, Cousins’ 112 passing yards was his lowest total since Week 11 of last season when he was the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings.
“I think I do need to play better. I don’t think that’s a mystery. I think the last few weeks I would say I need to play better. Raheem says it, but it’s stating the obvious,” Cousins said to reporters. “Every week you kind of go through your process and you plan to go out there and play the very best you can.”
Through 14 games, Cousins hasn’t lived up to the four-year, $180 million contract the Falcons signed him to over the offseason. Cousins’ 16 interceptions are an NFL-high and he currently has his lowest passer rating in a season in which he’s started at least eight games. His play has justifiably sparked questions whether the Falcons should start rookie Michael Penix Jr.
Perhaps now Cousins is looking over his shoulder at Penix, who the Falcons drafted No. 8 overall less than 50 days after signing the veteran QB in free agency.
The Falcons are one game in the loss column behind the NFC South-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-6) and two games away from the Washington Commanders for the seventh and final wild-card spot in the NFC.
Penix is the quarterback of the future in Atlanta. But it might be time for Penix to be the quarterback of the present and have Cousins be a very expensive backup.
