Kirk Cousins, Falcons beat Bucs in overtime

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 that 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 entered the contest after an injury to Drake London, giving the Falcons a 36–30 overtime win.

Younghoe Koo's 52-yard field goal late in regulation forced overtime, and Cousins ​​took care of the rest, setting a franchise record with 509 passing yards and putting Atlanta (3-2) on top brought to the division.

Atlanta Falcons

The difference between making the playoffs or not, winning a division or not, is games like this, and Atlanta has seen some of that.

The Falcons have trailed within the final minute of the fourth quarter in all three of their wins this season. They became the first team in NFL history to win three of the first five games of a season in which they trailed in the final minute of the fourth quarter.

At 3-2 and with dramatic consecutive 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 crucial in December and January in what appears to be a narrow split.

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

According to ESPN Research, it's the sixth time he's thrown for 350 yards and three touchdowns in a prime-time game, tied with Patrick Mahomes and Peyton Manning.

Stunning statistics: Drake London continues to be dominant when facing Tampa Bay – three of his four career 100-yard games came against the Buccaneers, including Thursday's 12-catch, 154-yard performance. He also scored his first 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 he did in his last 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 among his career highs. However, he had two drops, including one that could have proved costly.

Most surprising performance: A week after failing to catch a pass against New Orleans, tight end Kyle Pitts had his best statistical game in nearly a year, recording 7 catches for 88 yards and once again emerging as a part of Atlanta's offense. His catches and yards are the most since October 8, 2023 against Houston, when Pitts had 7 catches for 87 yards on a career-high 11 targets. – Michael Rothstein

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

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

All summer, the Bucs heard that the Falcons were the team to beat in the NFC South, even though Tampa had won the division the previous three years. That proved true on Thursday night, as there is now a three-team race with the Bucs next in New Orleans.

Tampa Bay has a lot of players that need to get healthy and they have nine days to do that. However, the Bucs must learn to finish as the offense was completely stymied in the second half and the defense made weak tackles.

QB collapse: Baker Mayfield completed 13 of 16 passes for 129 yards, three touchdowns – two to wide receiver Mike Evans – and no interceptions in the first half. He was blitzed on 7 of 15 dropbacks (47%) in the first half, with all three touchdowns coming against the blitz. Mayfield's 11 touchdowns in the first five games are a career high.

Biggest hole in the game plan: With Tampa linebacker SirVocea Dennis on injured reserve due to a shoulder injury, the Falcons regularly utilized KJ Britt in coverage. On the first drive, he passed an 18-yard touchdown to wide receiver Drake London.

Surprising performance: The Bucs defense gave up 550 total yards of offense. They took a step forward in missed tackles against the Eagles last week, but struggled in that regard against the Falcons. The Falcons gained 235 yards after the catch, the most in a game since Week 8 2019 against Seattle (236). – Jenna Laine

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