• Kirk Cousins lights up the scoreboard for Atlanta’s second win: The Falcons’ starting quarterback generated 0.52 expected points added per non-interception target in his team’s 36-30 win.
• Kyle Pitts finally joins the passing party: After not catching a pass in Week 4, Pitts was part of a lethal Falcons passing attack in this game.
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The Atlanta Falcons snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, coming back to win 36-30 in overtime against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football in Week 5.
According to PFF’s noise-canceled score metric, the game was close going into overtime, but the Falcons were certainly not an undeserved winner. They moved the ball slightly better and might have won in regulation if not for missing two field goals in a row.
Kirk Cousins and the Falcons’ offense had a huge breakout game after struggling for a large part of the early season. They gave up some sacks in crucial moments, but overall, they couldn’t be stopped and Cousins found wide-open and tightly covered receivers downfield.
The Buccaneers’ passing offense was also efficient, but it’s a point of concern that the offensive line kept Baker Mayfield clean for a large part of the game yet Mayfield took a sack or scrambled on one-fifth of his dropbacks. He was able to get enough scramble value to offset sack value this time around, but Mayfield, while certainly not a statue in the pocket, is still the type of quarterback for whom the sacks will typically outweigh the good scrambles.
The glass-half-full reaction to Kyle Pitts’ game is that he notched almost 100 receiving yards. The glass-half-empty reaction to his game is that he got a small piece of a huge cake, with all three Falcons starting wide receivers out-targeting him.
