PHILADELPHIA – Wide receiver Drake London was the forgotten man in the Falcons’ season-opening loss.
However, he stayed on task and came up with the game-winning touchdown catch in the Falcons’ 22-21 win over the Eagles on Monday night at Lincoln Financial field.
London set up veteran Eagles cornerback Darius Slay, who thought he was going inside on a slant route. London created some space by running outside and Kirk Cousins delivered the 5-yard touchdown pass.
“This is my first Monday Night Football (game),” London said. “I can’t remember like a comeback win like this in a minute and to be a part of it like that was something special. It was really cool.”
London was called for a unsportsmanlike penalty after the score and that made the extra point 15 yards longer.
“My reaction was that I did a dumb thing with the unsportsmanlike penalty,” London said. “Thank god that (Younghoe) Koo is an amazing kicker. He sealed the deal. But that’s what I was thinking about after the flag was thrown. I can’t let my self flash out like that.”
London was the team’s top targeted player with seven. He caught six of his passes for 54 yards, including a long of 19 yards.
London, who was the Falcons’ leading receiver over the past two season, caught just two passes for 15 yards in the season-opening 18-10 loss to the Steelers.
London was not flustered. He figured that the ball would fide him and others in the new offense.
“It says a lot,” London said of Cousins leading the game-winning drive. “Again, I’ve always have had praise for him. He just does the things right. To have a quarterback out there who does the right things and has that confidence instilled in us, that’s huge.”
It was also a breakout game for wide receiver Darnell Mooney, whom the Falcons signed in free agency. Mooney caught three passes for 88 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown.
“Not just Kirk, everybody in the offense was like, let’s go,” London said of the game-winning drive in the final minutes. “Once Saquon (Barkley) dropped that ball and gave us an opportunity, that’s all we needed.”
The Falcons are trying to stop a string of six consecutive losing seasons. This could turn out to be breakthrough win for the franchise, which had not won a regular-season game in Philadelphia since 2012.
“That we could go out here and play,” London said about the win being a statement game. “There are a lot of doubters and naysayers. I don’t want to say that we shut them down because we’ve got a lot of work to do. At the end of the day, we got a win and we’re going to build on it.
London heard all the whispers after the Falcons only scored a touchdown and field goal against the Steelers and were shut out in the second half.
“It definitely was a better representation of what this offense can be,” London said. “I still don’t think we have gotten in our bag, as some would say. I just think at the end of the day we went out there executed the game plan.”
Head coach Raheem Morris was pleased with London’s play.
“He provided us with a bunch of catches,” Morris said. “He provided us with a great ability to go out there and block. He provided us with great energy. He provided us with great physical presence, all the things that he does. Drake’s just a great man, and we’re glad he’s on our football team.”
Morris wanted to spread some of the praise around.
“You know, it’s not just Drake,” Morris said. “We didn’t play well on offense last week. I was very clear about that. We played a lot better today. Obviously, we go look at the tape, and Drake played a big part of that, and so did a bunch of other people, whether it be (running back) Bijan (Robinson), whether it be (running back) Tyler Allgeier, whether it be all the guys, the (offensive) line.”
The Falcons were 2 of 9 on third downs (22.2%) and will need to improve in that area moving forward.
“It’s not good enough,” Cousins said. “We have to be better. I don’t have a great answer for you as to why. I have to go back and look at it. Some of it was third down in the low red zone, which I would say probably more is a red zone issue than a third down issue.”
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