Kirk Cousins’ rough start eliminates the Falcons’ benefit of the doubt for 2024

ATLANTA — There are franchises that have earned the benefit of the doubt, franchises whose past success gives them the latitude to take big swings, try new strategies, attempt bold new directions.

And then there are the Atlanta Falcons, where fan loyalties these days are only as durable as the Falcons’ last series.

Atlanta took the biggest swing of any team in the NFL this past offseason, signing marquee free-agent quarterback Kirk Cousins, then spending a first-round draft pick on another quarterback, and undergoing a complete philosophical makeover under the administration of new head coach Raheem Morris. Confidence ran high, particularly after a harmonious training camp.

And then the regular season began.

Atlanta lost its season opener Sunday to Pittsburgh 18-10, lost it in the way that makes fans throw their hands up in resignation yet again. Cousins threw two ugly interceptions, struggled to move the football, and effectively vapor-locked in the second half of what was, until the final minutes, an eminently winnable game.

“I was disappointed, certainly disappointed,” Cousins said after the game as Falcons owner Arthur Blank looked on. “You always go out there with an expectation that you're going to play at a high level and we didn't play up to our standard today.”

After a training camp where Cousins happily embraced the role of team dad, the Pittsburgh game left Cousins looking like a dad at the end of a catastrophic family vacation — overwhelmed, stretched to his limit, making the wrong choices over and over again. Cousins finished the day with a mere 155 yards passing and 16 completions, two interceptions against one touchdown. And like the dad at the end of that vacation, there’s no respite ahead, only a return to work.

“We have to flush it and understand that it's a loss,” Cousins said. “You have to move forward and treat every game as its own entity. That's where you go really after a win or a loss. That's where your mind has to go.”

“We know he has to play better, there's no doubt about that,” Morris said after the game. “He's played in the league for a long time, and I look forward to [him] bouncing back from a rough game and a rough outing. I'm not overly concerned with that.”

For Cousins and the Falcons, the frustrating aspect about a game like Sunday is that there’s no easily correctable error or flaw. The game plan was solid enough; the Falcons’ lone touchdown drive — where Cousins was 7-of-7 for 82 yards passing — was proof of that. But outside of that drive, the execution was lacking, and that’s something that can be corrected only at game speed, in game situations, with game intensity — not on the practice field.

“You've got to avoid critical errors,” Cousins said. “We always say that but we've got to do it. I think if we do that and we keep ourselves manageable down-and-distances, I think today showed we can be a productive offense. But when we hurt ourselves, it's tough to overcome.”

Pittsburgh wasn’t necessarily a guaranteed W; the pregame line was only a field goal. But it was a humiliating L, both because Cousins didn’t deliver like he should, and because the thousands of towel-waving Steelers fans in attendance turned Mercedes-Benz Stadium into Pittsburgh South. Losing is bad enough; losing when T.J. Watt is imploring his fans to rise up in your building? Yeah, that’s no good at all.

“I've seen so much and been around so much where you don't have good days, but you better take them all as learning experiences and be able to go out there and learn from them,” Morris said. “And we've got to go out there and figure out a way to fix that quickly and, you know, urgently.”

That urgency comes from the fact that this was the “easy” game of the season’s opening trio. Next week, Atlanta heads to Philadelphia for Monday Night Football, and there we’ll see if two negatives combine to make a positive. Atlanta is 15-28 on Monday nights; Cousins is 3-10. They’ll either cancel each other out, or the Falcons will somehow lose twice in one night.

After that, the Kansas City Chiefs come to Atlanta, and that could be the second straight home game where Atlanta’s fans are out-shouted by the opposition — in this case, Chiefs bandwagoners and local Swifties.

The margin for error was already narrow for Atlanta. Now, it’s already gone. An 0-3 start, and the calls for change — like bringing in rookie Michael Penix Jr. for a look — will start resounding.

The truth is, it’s a long season, and the Falcons play in the NFC South, where the Panthers have somehow already managed to nearly eliminate themselves. But it’s also a season where “decent” won’t be anywhere near good enough. When you’re attempting to reshape your entire franchise, you’d better start by ditching your old can’t-get-it-done image.