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Marc Raimondi, ESPN Staff WriterOct 10, 2024, 06:01 AM ET
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Kirk Cousins was in desperate need of a big play.
The Atlanta Falcons quarterback had his team on its own 30-yard line with 29 seconds left against the New Orleans Saints in Week 4. The Falcons were down a point against their heated NFC South rivals.
Cousins saw wide receiver Darnell Mooney one-on-one on a vertical route down the right sideline and put the ball up. The pass fell incomplete, but Mooney induced a defensive pass interference call against cornerback Paulson Adebo.
The Falcons gained 30 yards on the penalty and Younghoe Koo kicked a 58-yard field goal with two seconds left to give the Falcons the victory. It wouldn’t have been possible without Mooney, who admitted that he baited Adebo into reacting before the ball arrived. Mooney threw his hands up early, and since Adebo’s back was to the ball, he reacted.
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“Not surprised that he would have an awareness of just, ‘Hey, the ball is underthrown, we’ve got a chance [of a pass interference] here,” Cousins said. “That’s the kind of player he is, to just be very aware.”
Cousins, who signed with the Falcons in the offseason, was an advocate for Atlanta signing Mooney. The two played in the NFC North for four years — Cousins with the Minnesota Vikings and Mooney with the Chicago Bears.
In Atlanta, Cousins and Mooney have their lockers next to each other and have found a common bond, at least when it comes to preparation and football acumen.
“I’ll ask a question, and when I hear his answer, I think, ‘Whoa,'” Cousins said. “Like, the way you’re taking care of your body, the way you’re thinking through situations like a quarterback, like, ‘Whoa.’
Darnell Mooney and Kirk Cousins hooked up for two touchdowns in a Week 5 win over the Bucs. Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
“At times he kind of keeps me on my toes, because I think, ‘Man, if I don’t know my stuff, Mooney is gonna expose me here.’ Because he does.”
The budding relationship has produced big numbers. Mooney caught nine passes for 105 yards and two touchdowns in the Week 5 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He’s second on the team in targets, four behind Drake London‘s 44.
“If I’m messing up, I mean, I want that same energy — get onto me, I get onto you,” Mooney said. “And it’s just a part of the dynamic of the relationship.
“And once you understand the relationship you have with a person you can push some errors and understand, like, it’s nothing but love. Like at the end of the day, we want to win the game and have fun doing it.”
Cousins isn’t the only one Mooney will needle if needed. Offensive coordinator Zac Robinson said if a meeting is boring, Mooney will let him know.
“He’ll speak his mind,” Robinson said with a laugh.
Mooney, 26, is on pace for a career year. He has 24 catches for 330 yards and three touchdowns, which equals the total of TDs he had the last two years combined.
On vertical routes, Mooney has eight receptions, second in the league only behind Houston Texans star receiver Nico Collins (13). Mooney’s career-high for such catches was 10 in 2021, his only time going for over 1,000 yards receiving (1,055).
Against the Bucs, Cousins was 42-of-58 for a franchise-record 509 yards with four touchdowns and one interception. The performance earned him NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Falcons coach Raheem Morris said he didn’t want to make comparisons, but the Cousins-Mooney connection reminded him a bit of the connection between Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp with the Los Angeles Rams. That combination helped the Rams, with Morris on staff as defensive coordinator, to win Super Bowl LVI. The Falcons are 3-2, including a 2-0 NFC South mark, going into Week 6 against another division opponent, the Carolina Panthers, on Sunday (4:25 p.m., ET, Fox).
“I’m liking all the things that we thought we could get [with Mooney]: the separator, the man-to-man winner,” Morris said. “The route-runner, the intelligence, the smart human, the cerebral kind of leader in that [wide receiver] room. If you say Drake is the emotional leader, I would say Mooney is the cerebral leader within that room. Just how he thinks about the game.”
Mooney said in the first conversation he had with Cousins, during OTAs last spring, the quarterback brought up that both were fifth-round draft picks. Cousins, Mooney said, wanted him to keep that “edge” to his game, that chip on his shoulder.
“We’ve done a good job of understanding that we are behind the curve of everybody that has been together,” Mooney said of he and Cousins. “And we’ve been doing a very good job of having communication — healthy communication — and when there’s like negative things going on, we have good communication, so everything’s been good on that end.”
Cousins said he prides himself on being “an open book or safe space” for teammates to have “candid” conversations, and Mooney has taken advantage of that, especially since the two are neighbors in the locker room.
After the win over the Saints, Cousins said Mooney texted him the line, “Let me hear it big dawg,” as if to ask what Cousins thought of the game. Cousins responded with one of his patented long voice memos.
“You feel like the details matter to him,” Cousins said. “And the details matter to me.
“And so I think that helps him be successful, and helps me trust him.”
