PHILADELPHIA — From the tunnels of Lincoln Financial Field at the end of Monday night, the Falcons' cheers echoed down an otherwise quiet corridor. For as loud as the Philadelphia fans in the stands got, that's how much the pendulum swung back the other way when the Falcons offense put together a masterclass of a two-minute drill to drive down and defeat the Eagles 22-21 on Monday Night Football.
When the Falcons took over with 1:39 left on the clock on their own 30-yard line down 21-15, they had a 0.7% chance to win the game, according to Next Gen Stats. That less than 1% chance turned into nearly 100% six plays later, when Kirk Cousins found Drake London in the front corner of the endzone for a touchdown.
After a Jessie Bates III interception put the game on ice in the final seconds, the probability turned to 100%. The comeback is the 7th-most improbable win in the NGS era (since 2016).
When the echoes in the tunnel subsided after the win, head coach Raheem Morris walked into the press conference room with the game ball in hand. The team collectively gave Morris the ball. And of all the game balls he's received over his career, his first as the Falcons' head coach following a comeback win on prime-time television was something he knows is different.
"That team is special," Morris said. "That team means a lot to me."
This was a moment an offseason in the making. The reason you pay Cousins the money you do to be your starting quarterback is for moments like this. Talking to players in the locker room after the game, many said Cousins was as even-keeled in the final minute of the game as he was at any other moment throughout the night. A mark of a true veteran, some would say.
"He didn't blink," Falcons offensive tackle Jake Matthews said. "It was similar to how we are in practice. You can tell he's been there before. He just did a great job."
Bijan Robinson, a second-year running back who played in his first prime-time game Monday night, said Cousins was exactly what the team needed at that moment.
"Having a vet quarterback like that, there's really nothing to worry about," Robinson said. "But then having him just so locked in and making sure that everything is where it needs to be and where everybody should be, having him just so locked in like that was huge for us."
That winning six-play drive saw Cousins hit Darnell Mooney for two plays of 20-plus yards. Cousins was 5-for-6 in the drive that was ultimately capped off with a London touchdown. From Cousins' perspective, he said London's separation on the route "made it easy" for him to find London in the end zone.
Both Mooney and Robinson made the comment postgame in the locker room that this drive — specifically — matches what they believe their offense to be.
"That's how our offense is," Robinson said. "That's the real offense right there."
Mooney: "This is the expectation that we all see with our offense."
Watching from the sideline, Bates said the composure and play-making ability from Cousins in the clutch was "pretty damn good."
"Might have been the best I've ever seen," Bates said.
The Falcons may have had a less than 1% chance to win that game when the two-minute warning came and went. But there was a still a chance, a chance the Falcons were able to capitalize on.
"Proud of the way we found a way to win," Cousins said. "We can build on that."
