Once derided for his play under the bright lights, Kirk Cousins has ascended into a prime-time star.
Facing long odds and a long field once more on Thursday night, Cousins delivered a finish -- and an overall performance -- for the ages.
On an evening in which he threw for a career-high 509 yards and four touchdowns, he lifted the Atlanta Falcons to a 36-30 overtime triumph over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"What a night," he said to open his postgame news conference. "I am exhausted."
He had reason to be.
Cousins and the Falcons ran 81 offensive plays, exhausting a beleaguered Bucs defense and setting the stage for a sensational rally. Their final play was a Cousins-to-KhaDarel Hodge 45-yard walk-off touchdown in overtime.
Cousins' touchdown to Hodge concluded an outstanding night statistically in which his 509 yards stand as a Falcons franchise record, an NFL high this season and the most by a player 36 or older in league history, per NFL Research.
"I think the key is we got more at-bats," Cousins said. "We had 81 plays. So, we had some games this season with 50 something plays. So, you have 30 more plays. That's like another third of a game. It just gives you more chances to spread it around and get guys involved to be productive."
The game-winning OT drive, in which Cousins was 3 for 3 for 69 yards, came just moments after he had driven the Falcons 46 yards in 1:14 for a Younghoe Koo 52-yard game-tying field goal.
Those back-to-back, clutch-defining drives of Cousins prime-time magic came just two weeks removed from orchestrating a 70-yard, game-winning march against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night of Week 2.
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris predicts there's only more to come.
"We are just scratching the surface with him," Morris said. "We are fired up."
At one point in his career, Cousins was 0-4 in prime time. He was memorably 0-9 in Monday night games. Now, Cousins has won three of his last five prime-time games and both that he's played as an Atlanta Falcon.
His performance on Thursday is of the all-time variety, though.
He started hot, leading a 70-yard opening drive that was wrapped up with an 18-yard scoring strike to Drake London. Then he tossed a pair of TDs to Darnell Mooney, the last coming with 13:18 remaining in regulation and leading to a tie ballgame.
After the Bucs forged back ahead, 30-27, the Falcons had a pair of chances to tie or go ahead but appeared to squander any chance of victory. First, Mooney dropped a ball in the breadbasket on third-and-6 that might well have been a go-ahead score had he hauled it in. A play later, a Koo field goal was blocked.
A Jessie Bates forced fumble gave Atlanta another shot, but Cousins was soon thereafter picked off by Lavonte David.
For all intents and purposes, that was going to turn the lights off on any Falcons comeback aspirations. The Atlanta defense stood strong once again, though, and gave Cousins one more shot to be Comeback Kirk.
Cousins took it, engineering consecutive clutch drives that have propelled the Falcons to three straight wins and into first place in the NFC South.
Just how impressive and historic was Cousins' performance? He joined Tom Brady, back in 2011 with the New England Patriots, as the only players to ever produce 500-plus passing yards and four or more TD passes in a prime-time game, according to NFL Research.
After an 0-1 start, Cousins' rally against the Eagles provided evidence of just why the Falcons signed him to a blockbuster free-agent deal. Following a win over the New Orleans Saints in which the offense went TD-less, Cousins, who seems all the way back from his 2023 season-ending Achilles tear, reaffirmed just how stellar this offense can be on Thursday night.
"His game is all about confidence," Morris said. "His game is about going out there and getting better every single week. That's what he's been doing since he's been back. He's coming off a significant injury and I've watched him get better every single week."
For so long, the Cousins narrative was that he wasn't ready for prime time.
He's most certainly ready, willing and leading the Falcons to some memorable moments under the lights.
"I'm proud of the way our team fought," Cousins said. "I'm proud of the resiliency we showed to just keep going and keep playing through things. I'm just proud of the grit. That's what this league takes, and we were gritty tonight so pleased to come away with a win. Win or lose, I would have been pleased with the steps we took on offense tonight, but it's a lot of fun to win and have that moment on the field with your teammates and home fans."
