ATLANTA — Talk about two teams heading in opposite directions.
After a sluggish beginning to the Kirk Cousins era, the Atlanta Falcons (4-2) and the veteran quarterback they signed in the offseason have ripped off three straight victories to bolster hopes of the franchise’s first winning record and playoff appearance since the 2017 season.
Now they host the Seattle Seahawks (3-3) on Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, looking to take advantage of a slumping team that has dropped three straight after a promising start.
The Falcons, who sit atop the NFC South Division standings alongside the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, haven’t had a four-game winning streak since 2019.
“In this league, it’s so important that you stack performances because they’re each their own entity and they really don’t carry over,” said the 36-year-old Cousins, a four-time Pro Bowl selection who spent the past six seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and led them to playoff appearances in 2019 and 2022.
“When things are going well, you feel like you’ve got to go back out and earn it again and not get bored or get complacent with the process that it takes to win.”
After signing a four-year, $180 million deal in free agency, Cousins has provided the Falcons with the type of quarterback play they haven’t had since Matt Ryan — the 2016 NFL MVP who led Atlanta to the Super Bowl that season — was in his prime.
The highlight of this season so far for Cousins was his career-best, franchise-record 509 passing yards against Tampa Bay in a thrilling overtime win in the fifth week.
Even when Cousins turned in much more modest numbers in last Sunday’s road win against the struggling Carolina Panthers (19-of-30 for 225 yards and one touchdown), he gave the offense the sort of confidence it sorely lacked the past two seasons while trying to settle on Ryan’s successor.
Cousins has plenty of weapons to work with in the passing game. Drake London and Darnell Mooney give him a pair of deep threats, and tight end Kyle Pitts has taken on a bigger role the past two games.
“We’re kind of spoiled,” first-year Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said. “We have five legitimate people, maybe more, that you want to get the ball to.”
Atlanta has a dynamic duo in the backfield with Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier.
In the 38-20 win at Carolina, which pushed the team’s division record to 3-0, Robinson rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 6.3 yards per carry. Allgeier added 105 yards and a score, rumbling for an average of 5.8 yards each time he time he got the ball.
“I love the combination of those two guys and how they work together, how they cheer for each other and how they feed off each other,” Morris said. “It’s just absolutely outstanding. It’s the definition of great teammates, those two people.”
Then there’s the veteran offensive line, which opened up plenty of holes and received the game ball from Morris after the win over the Panthers.
“We came in with that type of mentality right from the beginning for those guys to be efficient in the run game and create explosives,” Morris said. “Those guys took it upon themselves to be able to go do that.”
Meanwhile, Seattle looked like one of the league’s better teams, too — at least through the third week of the season.
Then things suddenly went south under first-year head coach Mike Macdonald, whose team has given up an average of nearly 36 points a game during its skid but is also atop its division, sharing first place with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West.
“It’s all in front of us,” Macdonald said. “Hey, there’s an opportunity for us to become a really great team. Now we’ve got to go do it.”
For now, they’ll have to do it with a defense that has been decimated by injuries and has given little indication it can stop the run.
The Seahawks were gashed for a season-high 228 yards on the ground in their last game, a 36-24 home loss to San Francisco, and they ranked 27th in the league against the run by allowing an average of 144.7 rushing yards per game.
Seattle cornerback Artie Burns and safety Rayshawn Jenkins both went on injured reserve this past week, joining outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu.
“Look, we’ve got to stick to our process,” said Macdonald, the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens the past two seasons. “Keep making improvements, keep attacking, keep playing, keep believing.”
The Seahawks hope the acquisition of tackle Roy Robertson-Harris will give their beleaguered unit a boost. Shortly after playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars in a loss to the Chicago Bears last Sunday in London, Robertson-Harris was dealt to Seattle for a sixth-round draft pick in 2026.
The 31-year-old tackle brings plenty of size — he’s 6-foot-5, 290 pounds — and veteran presence to a defense that could use it.
“He’s big, he’s tough, he’s rugged,” Macdonald said, adding that Robertson-Harris “can play really all three gaps up front, so he gives us a great opportunity to have a pretty deep front.”
Seattle is also counting on rookie tackle Byron Murphy II, the No. 16 overall draft pick in April, returning from a hamstring injury that kept him out of the past three games.
As for Atlanta’s defense, the Falcons have perennially been near the bottom of the NFL in sacks.
Despite the winning streak, it’s been more of the same this season. Atlanta’s five sacks are fewer than any team in the league through the first six weeks.
“We had a couple of prime situations and some sack opportunities to rush the passer in known passing downs, and we missed some of those layups,” said Morris, the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams the past three seasons. “You’ve got to make those layups.”