At long last, Kirk Cousins threw a touchdown and the Atlanta Falcons snapped their losing streak.
Still, the narrative surrounding Cousins' struggles remained despite the end result of Atlanta hanging on for a precarious 15-9 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
With Atlanta leaning heavily on a running game that produced 168 yards, the Falcons wriggled loose of a four-game losing skid with Cousins throwing for a paltry 112 yards, a TD and an interception on 11-of-17 passing.
"Glad to find a way to win," said Cousins after the Falcons improved to 7-7 to stay within a game of the first-place Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC South. "It's never easy going on the road and winning in this league. Was great to find a way, certainly a lot of plays that you look at and you say, hey, we could be better, I could be better. So those conversations will happen, certainly, but great to find a way."
Cousins found Drake London for a 30-yard touchdown pass to open the game's scoring on Monday night, but the Falcons finished short of the end zone for the remaining 45 minutes and 14 seconds of game time. It ended a drought of 17 quarters without a TD strike for Cousins, marking the first time in his career he'd gone four games without a scoring toss.
During the Falcons' four-game skid in which Cousins threw zero touchdowns and eight interceptions, head coach Raheem Morris was steadfast in his support of the veteran free-agent acquisition despite a clamoring for first-round rookie Michael Penix Jr. to get a shot.
Morris' tune was a bit different after Monday's victory, though, underscoring that there needed to be improved play at the QB position.
"He's got to play better," Morris said. "And you know obviously you've got to go back and look at everything, but he wants to play better, he's got to play better, we've got to find a way to get him to play better, and obviously we'll get to work tomorrow, that's part of our process, right?
"You go, you look at the tape, you review it with the people that it needs to be reviewed with. We'll get all of the coordinators in the room, we'll talk with everybody, and we got to play better at the quarterback position."
Speaking to reporters at the podium quite a bit of time after his head coach, Cousins didn't flinch when asked about Morris' comments. It's hardly a conundrum, he knows he needs to up his game.
"Yeah, I think I do need to play better, I don't think that's a mystery," Cousins said. "I think the last few weeks I would say I need to play better. Raheem says it, but it's stating the obvious, and every week you kind of go through your process and you plan to go out there and play the very best you can, and so this week will be no different."
Asked just where he believes he must improve, Cousins once again fielded a no-brainer not too long after throwing his league-leading 16th interception of the season -- which is already a career high with three games left to play.
"I think it's always just decision-making so that you're not putting the ball in harm's way," he said. "And not trying to be too aggressive, and I think that's really the key, protecting the football."
With the London touchdown getting Atlanta out to a 7-0 lead with 14 seconds left to play in the first quarter, Atlanta eventually built a 15-3 lead early in the fourth quarter. Still, the Falcons being forced to settle for a pair of Younghoe Koo field goals as their only other offense (the defense recorded a safety) allowed Las Vegas to hang around. Fortunately, Atlanta held on, but it wasn't because of any heroics from Cousins.
Thus, when pressed about being prepared to replace Cousins with Penix, Morris was somewhat diplomatic but gave room for interpretation.
"You know we've got everybody on our roster for a reason," Morris said. "We've got so much to get better at, and those things will always be discussed, that's just the nature of the beast in football. It's just so heavily talked about at the quarterback position because there's only one guy out there. So for us, man, our mentality is to find a way to win the next game. That's just the mentality that we're going to have."
Cousins has now thrown for 3,508 yards, 18 touchdowns, those eye-popping 16 picks and quarterbacked the Falcons to a .500 record 14 games into the first season of a lucrative free-agent contract.
Atlanta got back to winning and Cousins found the end zone following a painful and lengthy absence.
Much still must be bettered going forward, however, as the Falcons prepare for games against the New York Giants, Washington Commanders and Carolina Panthers with an uphill climb into the postseason.
"I think the interception at the start of the second half was poor, that's the part you don't want to have at all," Cousins said when asked if he thought Monday was a step forward or back. "Defense did a great job standing up there, and then the special teams showed up such that it didn't end up hurting us, but you know it still happened. I think there was just those third downs where we'd love to be able to convert, stay on the field and that's really where the body of work would have been in the pass game, and just weren't able to do tonight."
