ATLANTA – The Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers established early that Thursday night’s game would be an offensive slugfest with both teams scoring touchdowns on their first possessions. So it seemed fitting that the NFC South showdown would be decided by a long TD pass.

Kirk Cousins ​​threw his fourth touchdown of the game, a 45-yard score to KhaDarel Hodge, who entered the contest after an injury to Drake London, giving the Falcons a 36–30 overtime win.

Younghoe Koo’s 52-yard field goal as regulation time expired forced overtime, and Cousins ​​took care of the rest, setting a career passing record with 509 yards to put Atlanta (3-2) at the top of the Division brought.

Atlanta Falcons

The difference between making the playoffs or not, winning a division or not, is in games like Thursday.

At 3-2 and with dramatic consecutive wins over New Orleans and Tampa Bay, Atlanta has an early lead in the NFC South thanks to tiebreakers over the Saints and Buccaneers. That could prove crucial in December and January in what appears to be a narrow split.

QB collapse: Cousins ​​looked healthy and back to being the quarterback the Falcons gave him a $180 million contract in the offseason. He completed 42 of 58 passes for 509 yards, 4 touchdowns and 1 interception.

According to ESPN Research, it is the sixth time he has rushed for 350 yards and three touchdowns in a prime-time game, tied with Patrick Mahomes and Peyton Manning.

Stunning statistics: Drake London continues to be dominant when facing Tampa Bay – three of his four career 100-yard games came against the Buccaneers, including Thursday’s 12-catch, 154-yard performance. He also scored his first touchdown against Tampa Bay in the first quarter.

Promising trend: Darnell Mooney continues to look more like the receiver he was in Chicago in 2021 than he did in his last two seasons with the Bears. He had his first game with multiple touchdown catches – in 2021 he had a game with a rushing and receiving touchdown – and his 9 catches for 105 yards are among his career highs. However, he had two drops, including one that could have proved costly.

Most surprising performance: A week after failing to catch a pass against New Orleans, tight end Kyle Pitts delivered his best statistical game in nearly a year, recording 7 catches for 88 yards, once again proving to be a part of Atlanta’s offense. His catches and yards are the most since Oct. 8, 2023 against Houston, when Pitts had seven catches for 87 yards on a career-high 11 targets. – Michael Rothstein

Next game: at the Carolina Panthers (4:25 p.m. ET, Sunday, October 13)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

All summer, the Bucs heard that the Falcons were the team to beat in the NFC South, even though Tampa won the division the last three years. That proved true on Thursday night, as there is now a three-team race with the Bucs next in New Orleans.

Tampa Bay has a lot of players that need to get healthy and they have nine days to do that.

QB breakdown: Baker Mayfield completed 13 of 16 passes for 129 yards, three touchdowns – two to wide receiver Mike Evans – and no interceptions in the first half. He was blitzed on seven of 15 dropbacks (47%) in the first half, with all three touchdowns coming against the blitz. Mayfield’s 11 touchdowns in the first five games are a career high.

Biggest gap in the game plan: With Tampa linebacker SirVocea Dennis on injured reserve due to a shoulder injury, the Falcons regularly utilized KJ Britt in coverage. On the first drive, he passed an 18-yard touchdown to wide receiver Drake London.

Surprising performance: The Bucs defense gave up a total of 550 yards of offense. They took a step forward in missed tackles against the Eagles last week, but struggled in that regard against the Falcons, giving up a total of 87 yards after contact – 34 on rushes and 53 on receptions – according to ESPN Research . – Jenna Laine

Next game: at the New Orleans Saints (1 p.m. ET, Sunday, October 13)