Here’s what Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins had to say after throwing for a franchise record 509 yards in the 36-30 overtime win over the Bucs on Thursday:
Opening statement: “What a night. I’m exhausted. Proud of the way our team fought. Proud of the resiliency we showed to just keep going, keep playing, play through things. Proud of the grit. That’s what this league takes. We were gritty tonight. We’re please to come away with a win. Win or loss, I would’ve been pleased with the steps we took as an offense tonight, but it’s a lot of fun to win and have that moment on the field with your teammates and your home fans. Loved the environment tonight. Great energy. Tampa is a good football team. I thought they played well all game long. Zac (Robinson) kind of put the ball in the pass game’s hands tonight and let us spread it around. Players made plays. Grateful for the progress we’ve made as an offense in the last four days. Moving forward, as a group, we’ve kind of been better each week. I felt like we took another step tonight. I’ll take any questions you have.”
On having 509 passing yards tonight and what that means to both him and the organization: “I think the key is we got more at-bats. We had 81 plays. We had some games this season that we’ve had 50-some plays, so 30 more plays. That’s like another third of a game. It just gives you more chances to spread it around, get guys involved, be productive. We talked about, we’ve got to be on the field to have offensive production. To be on the field we need to be avoiding penalties, converting third downs. We still fought against penalties all game long, but I felt like we were able to be on the field more which made a difference.”
On what was working in the passing game as things came down to the wire: “I think we spread it around. I think that’s kind of how we’re built, is to get a lot of people involved. We have a lot of trust in several skill-position players. It was pretty heavy drop back, spread it around, and I was proud of the way guys fought, made plays, got open, caught difficult catches. We took another step tonight.”
On how he feels going into the weekend 3-2: “I’m pleased with 3-2. It makes the weekend a little more enjoyable. We’ve got so much football left, so we’ve given ourselves a little bit of a wind at our back, given ourselves a step in the right direction. Now we’ve got to build on that. But so much football ahead. You’re going to enjoy these two, three days, and then get right back to work and keep your foot on the gas, because when you let up, it can hurt you. Looking forward to that challenge ahead.”
On Kyle Pitts getting more involved: “Same answer when we didn’t find him. I go where my reads take me. I never drop back and say, where is Kyle? Let me throw to him. When you have 81 plays, 58 attempts, it gives you that opportunity. He did such a good job after the catch turning five, six, seven-yard catches into much bigger gains.”
On what a win like this does for the team’s confidence: “Well, you hope it pushes us forward, builds confidence. But remains to be seen. You know, the other side of it is does anybody get complacent and start to think we can just go out there do that, which you can’t. The important thing is to come back when we get back together Monday and really stay on it, have the same sense of urgency, the same fight that we had tonight every day moving forward.”
On the game-winning touchdown to KhaDarel Hodge: “I can. I will discuss it. I’ve played a lot of football. That one is going go down as a memorable one. Man coverage, not an ideal route for man coverage, so I was expecting to progress back side. But the corner didn’t attach as fast as I thought he would. I thought, you know what? I’ll just drill it on him, avoid a sack, get out of dodge, and move to second or third and four. Put the ball in his outside half because I felt the corner drive it on his inside half. He pulls out of it, and was I just kind of standing back there. We call him Red. I said go Red, go. Man coverage he’s able to split the defense. At that point there is a reason we have him on our football team. He can pull away from people. What an unbelievable play. When we won the toss, when we kicked the field goal to go to overtime the narrative was on the sideline, we score a touchdown, game over. I thought, well, yeah, but you guys are acting like it’s easy to go down and score a touchdown. With the way Red did it, I guess they were right. That was fun.”
On Swag Surfin and the intensity of the crowd: “I love it.”
On whether anyone taught him how to Swag Surf and how good it felt to celebrate that win: “It’s so fun. That’s why you play. That’s why you play. I was taught this week by Taylor Rooks with Amazon. I did a sit-down with her. She’s from Atlanta and she taught me how to do it. The key is when the beat drops. Initially it gets going, gets everybody in the stadium aware of it, but when the beat drops, that’s when it really gets going. It’s good energy. There’s a lot of good songs they played throughout the game. Good environment. But that one does it for me.”
On whether he feels 100 percent or more like he’s 26 rather than 36: “That’s a good question. I think I feel somewhere in between there. I feel good. I think being a pocket passer, and I’ve talked to some retired quarterbacks and asked them, do I need to be a scrambler to maintain production in this league, because there are so many talented running quarterbacks? The feedback I got was, no. You’re always going to have to do it from the pocket. Be accurate. That’s the key So that’s kind of the way I’ve always played. I think it sets me up well as I get older to be able to still do it even if my body isn’t at its best, because standing back there from the pocket, you know, you don’t have to be quite the same athlete. No, I feel good.”
On whether he feels like he is fully recovered from his injury: “I do, yeah. Yeah, I do. And then there’s always the bumps and bruises that come from playing. My thumb hurts right now. My left knee. You’re always going to have stuff. Just play through it.”
On when he felt like the offense was going to take a step forward and whether tonight felt like how he normally plays or that he was particularly sharp: “It was a drive in the second quarter when I threw a couple passes where I was basically anticipating where Kyle [Pitts] was going to be or where Drake [London] was going to be. I was ahead of it a little bit in a good way and threw it decisively. I just haven’t been that decisive the first few weeks. I’ve been trying to ensure that’s where they’re going and ensure that’s what I’m seeing before I let it rip. Felt tonight there was a little bit more, now after four games, no, I know where they’re going, I know where they’re going to be. I’m going to let that rip early. I think that helped me. So the anticipation took another step tonight, and that’s what I was used to kind of having when you play with guys for three, four, five, six years. I can feel it starting to come.”
On overcoming penalties on drives: “I said in the fourth quarter, I said I’m sick and tired of first and 20. We were having a hard time. You shouldn’t be able to overcome it really. I’m glad we did a few times. That’s not the recipe for success. We’ve got to avoid these penalties, and some of them are hard to know what exactly took place. But, you know, even a five-yard penalty is a lot more manageable than these 10 yarders or fifteen yarders. Boy, [we] made life tough for ourselves at times with these penalties.”
On whether tonight was an indicator of what the offense is capable of: “It’s a step in the right direction. It’s such a week-to-week league where it can be all over the map. You just never know what the next game will bring and what the next game will call for. But when you have 81 snaps and 58 pass attempts, you certainly get some opportunities to spread it around, and we were able to do that tonight.”
On where this game ranks for him among some of the crazy ones he has played in: “This is up there. I’ve played some crazy games that I have been on the losing end, and so to come out with one like this in overtime, walk off at home, on a Thursday night, against a good football team in the division, it was a great, great performance. It showed a lot of character, resilience. We had to claw our way back into the game late. You know, gratefully, won the coin toss. You know, it was a big night. One I’ll remember, yeah.”
On whether he thought the game was over after Lavonte David’s interception: “I kind of did, Jaret. I kind of felt like, you know, fourth and 15, I was thinking I needed to go up to Drake and throw a high ball to Drake. I don’t know, I saw a window to Mooney and I didn’t get to put as much on the ball as I wanted and Tae made a great play. I walked off the field thinking, there it is. Weren’t able to do it. But defense stood up, forced them to punt, which is a big deal, and then found a way and played with fire a little bit by trying to rip that slant in there and get a silent clock and one second left. But we did it and (Younghoe) Koo made the kick.”
On what it does for the psyche of the team to win these close games late: “It may remain to be seen a little bit. We’ve got to go prove that we’re building character and we can build on it. That’s still out in front of us. We also found a way to lose one of those games against the Chiefs. It goes both ways. That’s pro football. But we got a lot of young players who have -- I mean, I sat with a guy pre-game in the hotel, eating the pre-game meal and he said, I’ve never played a Thursday game. I looked him like, I’ve played like 12, what do you mean you never played one? I’ve been in the league two years and never had one. I was like, oh, my goodness. Sometimes I’m reminded how young some of these guys are. So to put these experiences on the wall I think helps us build in the right direction.”
On whether it meant anything to him that he broke Matt Ryan’s franchise record for single game passing yards on the night that Ryan went into the Ring of Honor: “No. I just wanted Matt to be able to have a special night and be able to kind of enjoy all that he’s earned and worked for. You know, he was just so consistent for so long. Probably above all, I know how hard it is to keep showing up week in and week out, year in and year out, stay healthy and be productive and consistent. That’s who Matt was. You talk about character, grit, resolve. He had all that in spades. You know, I remember being a rookie and watching him play. I was just a backup and just trying to almost study him from the sideline. I admired his game and wanted my game to look like his. So I saw him -- he was walking out as I was walking in at halftime. I said, hey, Matt, I got his attention, I said congrats. It’s something that is pretty special. I don’t know that I’ll have an opportunity to be in a Ring of Honor, so it’s just a special deal for him to be able to do that.”
On throwing for 500 yards: “(Ryan Fitzpatrick) asked me on the field. He said you hit 500 in Pop Warner? I said, no, I didn’t hit 400 until the NFL, and then this is the first time doing that. Honestly, I mean, needed an extra quarter to get there with overtime. Zac kept putting the ball in my hand. Gave me a lot of at-bats; 58 attempts, 81 plays. It’s amazing what you can do when you’re out there on the field and get more chances.”
On what he said to KhaDarel Hodge after his touchdown and what it means to a player like him: “He only substituted in because Drake was down for a second. You know, Red, we call him Red, he just has made plays all through camp. He shows up on special teams all the time. You’re coming from Prairie View; to get noticed out of college, you’ve got to have some serious tape and put stuff like he did tonight on tape to get noticed. So doesn’t necessarily surprise me. Once he pulled out of that catch, that he ran away from everybody I thought, that’s probably how he got in this league and that’s probably how he stayed in this league, because he can do stuff like that. So grateful we didn’t have to trot our red-zone offense out there on the three yard line. He just ended it. What a great play by him.”
On whether they went away from their game plan tonight by throwing it so many times: “I think Zac was planning to sling it around. I don’t know. He could probably tell you. I think Zac felt -- as we got going, he felt like that was our best chance tonight. When you do that, you open yourself up a little bit to some sacks and some challenges that come with throwing the football. But [we] tried to stay in positive down and distances to keep giving us that chance. You ask a lot of the O-line when you have 58 pass attempts, so those guys really handled that and just did a great job protecting all night.”
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