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Marc Raimondi, ESPN Staff WriterSep 8, 2024, 05:39 PM ET
The debut of quarterback Kirk Cousins with the new-look Atlanta Falcons did not go the way they had hoped.
The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Falcons 18-10 on Sunday in Atlanta’s Week 1 home opener and made what some expected to be a high-powered offense look pretty pedestrian.
Cousins was 16-of-26 for 155 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. The last interception killed a fourth-quarter drive in a one-score game. Cousins had just 19 yards passing in the second half, the lowest total of his 13-year career.
“I was disappointed,” Cousins said. “Certainly disappointed. 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.”
The team’s defense allowed just 18 points, but its offense looked out of sorts throughout. A bad-snap fumble hit tight end Ross Dwelley while he was in motion. Penalties killed promising drives. It looks like there will be an adjustment period with first-year offensive coordinator Zac Robinson’s system.
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“Needed to play better,” Cousins said. “That’s the bottom line. I thought our defense played very well; I thought our special teams played very well. We didn’t complement that enough on offense.”
The Falcons signed Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract in the offseason with the hopes of ending their recent quarterback woes. Cousins has been productive in the NFL for more than a decade and led the league in touchdown passes (18) before going down with a season-ending Achilles tear in Week 8 last year.
With the addition of Cousins, there was excitement for what the Atlanta offense could be. The Falcons had already added running back Bijan Robinson, wide receiver Drake London and tight end Kyle Pitts — all extremely talented playmakers — with top-10 picks in the prior three drafts. Atlanta sold out its season-ticket packages before training camp for the first time in 20 years.
On Sunday, Pitts had a 12-yard touchdown catch, but he and London combined for only five receptions and 41 yards. Robinson was featured on offense but had just 3.8 yards per carry (18 rushes for 68 yards). Robinson also had five catches for 43 yards.
“Kyle was able to get the touchdown,” new Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said. “We didn’t get the ball to Drake enough, but hey, you want to get the ball to Bijan Robinson, you want to be able to run a football a lot, you’ve got to maintain possessions, you’ve got to keep some possessions, you can’t turn the football over, and when you do that you limit a chance to get your playmakers the ball and all those things hurt you.”
Cousins said he’ll need to look at the game film to break down exactly what went wrong for the Falcons. He said he’d start right away and send voice notes to coaches over the next few hours.
Atlanta has another tough game slated in Week 2, a “Monday Night Football” clash at the Philadelphia Eagles.
