Week five of the 2024 National Football League regular season began on Thursday with quite possibly the most exciting game of the regular season. The Atlanta Falcons needed overtime before beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 36-30.
This game will forever be remembered at how Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins of Barrington, Illinois dominated the Buccaneers secondary and had zero problems whatsoever in finding his receivers. Cousins set the Falcons record for most passing yards in a game with 509.
Cousins completed 42 of 58 passes, with four touchdowns and one interception. His longest pass of the game just so happened to be the game-winning touchdown. It was a 45-yard bomb to Falcons wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge of D’Lo, Mississippi with one minute and 15 seconds into the extra period to break a 30-30 deadlock. For Hodge, it was his second career NFL touchdown.
Cousins threw completions to seven different players. Drake London of Moorpark, California had 12 catches for 154 receiving yards and one touchdown, which was for 18 yards to open the scoring. Meanwhile, Darnell Mooney of Gadsden, Alabama had nine catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns (for 12 yards and 24 yards), tight end Kyle Pitts of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had seven catches for 88 yards, Ray-Ray McLeod of Tampa, Florida had six catches for 66 yards, Hodge had two catches for 67 yards, and running backs Bijan Robinson of Tucson, Arizona and Tyler Allgeier of Youngstown, Ohio had 16 and 13 yards receiving respectively.
The old record belonged to Matt Ryan of Exton, Pennsylvania, who had 503 yards passing in a 48-33 Falcons win over the Carolina Panthers on October 2, 2016. With the win on Thursday over Tampa Bay, the Falcons move into first place in the AFC South with a record of three wins and two losses.
