Atlanta Falcons haven’t had the
season they thought they would’ve had coming into the season. Many pegged Atlanta as a possible quick fix
for the first-year head coach Raheem Morris.
Their roster was ably built with a savvy mixture of veterans plus a lot of
young talent to complement them. They
had moved on from their previous QB Desmond Ridder after more than a season of
failed gameplay. Then they signed the Minnesota Vikings' previous
QB of the past six seasons Kirk Cousins.
Atlanta started the season with a 6-3 record and Cousins was playing
very sound football. Throughout the
first nine weeks of the season, Cousins had thrown for 2,328 yards with a 17-7
TD: INT ratio. During that span, Kirk helped
the Falcons achieve a 4-1 divisional record in the NFC South, holding a two-game
lead from the rest of the division. From
that point onward, the Falcons started to stumble. The focal point of their descent was the quarterback
play of Cousins. During the four-game
losing streak, he tallied 1,068 yards passing, 8 interceptions, and hadn’t
thrown a single touchdown. This past
Monday night in week 15 the Falcons played the Las Vegas Raiders. While just barely beating them, the veteran
QB finally threw a touchdown. However,
his stat line was that of a problematic passer.
Kirk was 11/17, completing 64.7% of his passes, throwing 1 TD and 1
interception with a total of 112 yards.
This was indubitably the straw that broke the camel's back.
Raheem Morris and the Atlanta
Falcons may have won on Monday night, but a 15-9 win over the lousy Raiders was
a cry for help. After just about 24
hours removed from that horrific offensive performance, the team decided
something drastic had to be done. What
they came up with to fix the struggles was not necessarily a surprise by any means. ESPN announced earlier today that the Falcons
will be starting rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr. next week in a home game
against the New York Giants. Penix Jr.
was drafted out of Washington 8th overall in the first round of the
draft. He played for the Huskies,
starting 28 games as a second-year junior and senior. Viewed as a top prospect in the nation he
passed for 9,544 total yards, completing 65.4% of his passes, tossing 67
touchdowns opposed to just 19 interceptions. Penix was a transfer from Indiana after his
first four years, playing for the Hoosiers in only 20 games. In his time there he accumulated 4,197 yards,
29 TDs, and 15 INTs. With 48 career
games under his belt, you can only imagine the Falcons offensive attack will strive
to become a much better team very soon with Penix under center. His senior year, the Huskies made a National Championship
appearance for only the third time in program history but ultimately lost to Jim
Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines. I don’t
know if Penix will be able to rattle off three wins in a row to push Atlanta into
the playoffs, nor is it expected. Even
if they did win out Atlanta would still need Tampa Bay to lose a game to end
the season at least tied with them to win the South. Kirk Cousins's fate isn’t entirely entrenched
as their backup for good, though if the rookie has an incredible outing in his
first start it will start to look gloomy real fast for the vet.
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