The Atlanta Falcons will play a “Monday Night Football” game today for the first time since 2020. That means we have to talk about Kirk Cousins’ record in the NFL’s premier time slot.

Atlanta’s quarterback has started 13 “Monday Night Football” games in his career. He is 3-10 in those games.

“I mean, I’d love to be undefeated on Monday night, but I feel like I’ve always played pretty consistent whether we won or lost,” Cousins said last week. “When I look at it, I think I’m not really playing any different. I’m still the same quarterback.”

The statistics back up Cousins’ film review … to a point. While none of his numbers is dramatically different on Monday night versus any other day of the week, most are slightly worse, including yards per game (263.6 to 250.2), yards per attempt (7.7 to 6.9), completion percentage (67.1 to 64.6), touchdowns (1.8 per game to 1.5) and passer rating (99 to 87.3). And one of them is much worse. His overall efficiency number (measured in EPA per attempt) is .06 on Monday nights and .21 the rest of the week, according to TruMedia.

“You’re playing good football teams on Monday night, and you have to face those challenges,” Cousins said.

If Cousins bucks his trend and has a huge game against the Philadelphia Eagles, he could set a significant milestone. He needs 374 passing yards to tie Drew Brees as the third-fastest player to reach 40,000 passing yards (152 games). Matthew Stafford (147) and Matt Ryan (151) were the fastest to 40,000.