Kirk Cousins shared an enlightening comment about football during a Week Five pre-game interview. It was probably recorded a day or two before he ripped the hearts out of Tampa Bay fans, just as he’d done to the Saints the week before. For this Buccaneers fan, the philosophy Cousins shared about NFL wins and losses was prescient, introspective, and easier to digest than the post-game celebration he rallied the Atlanta crowd with shortly after his overtime victory.
“I’ve learned in this league, it’s different than college football, that just about every game, you’re gonna walk off the field feeling, if you won that you could have lost, and if you lost, that you could have won. That’s the way this league is.”
Most of us have come to appreciate the wily veteran, from his early days in Washington, to his aerial assault in Minnesota, to his new lease on life in Atlanta. We came to know him firsthand on Netflix’s Quarterback, a personable, likeable fellow, just so long as your team isn’t playing against him. Viewers of the show saw Cousins in a different light, an unassuming, God-fearing family man who quietly ranks 22nd in all-time career passing yards and third among active quarterbacks behind only Aaron Rodgers and Rusell Wilson. Those other two have Super Bowl rings. Cousins awaits his own.
After watching the Bucs lose a game they should have won, Cousins words rang truer than ever. His Falcons had just won a game they should have lost. It was a hard pill for Buccaneers fans, and players, to swallow.
With the clock winding down, about to score and go up by two possessions, Bucs rookie running back Bucky Irving fumbled the football which was recovered by Atlanta. Tampa’s defense held strong after the Irving mistake, forcing Kirk Cousins into an ill-advised, fourth down turnover. The Bucs would get the ball back with less than two minutes to play. The game was most assuredly over, until it wasn’t.
The Buccaneers, once again in field goal range, snatched defeat, well, you know the rest. Penalties and a stalled drive pushed the Bucs OUT of field goal range, forcing them to punt and give the ever-dangerous Kirk Cousins another chance to drive downfield and allow normally steady Falcons’ kicker Younghoe Koo a chance to do his thing, which he did. Uprights split.
Every Buccaneers fan knew what was coming next. Games lost we should have won. Cue the Cousins soundbite, the interview was coming into fruition. It was as if he’d read the script. The Falcons forced overtime, something seemingly impossible only minutes beforehand, then scored on their first possession to send a stunned Buccaneers team into the locker room to prepare for a long trip back to Tampa Bay.
I bet none of Bucs players had watched Cousins’ pre-game interview but if they hadn’t already embraced his veteran philosophy about wins and losses by then, they sure did once the Falcons sent them packing.
Wins are precious and hard to come by, even when you’re winning with the clock winding down and victory seemingly in hand. That grasp is slippery until the clock strikes zero.
Just ask the Steelers last Sunday against the Cowboys, or the Ravens in Las Vegas, the Bengals in any game they’ve played this year, or any veteran team that’s experienced their fair share of NFL games.
Fortunately, for Buccaneers and their fans, this story has a happy ending. With their hometown suffering from back-to-back natural disasters, the team rallied the following week. They had time to think about not only the loss that should have been a win, but about their community and how close many came to losing it all.
They learned Cousins’ lesson, that the difference between winning and losing is razor thin and put that into practice against the New Orleans Saints, to the tune of 51 points, and another win that could have been a loss had they not maintained their composure.
Cousins is a smart man. At 36, he’s still learning his craft. It’s hard not to be a fan of the guy unless, of course, he’s playing against you.
Do you feel better now that the Bucs destroyed New Orleans?
Oh, there’s a Part Two of this post coming up, Dubs.
But in a word, yes. That was a glorious watch.
Haven’t we been feeling better ever since that Sunday in the year 2001? The Buccaneers’ blowout victory against New Orleans was the definition of being destroyed. Don’t start telling me that we are going through deja vu again. To say that it will be so easy to win the division every year, because Carolina Panthers won’t have any players named Julius Peppers next year, and New Orleans Saints will never have a quarterback named Drew Brees.
So far, I like what I see, Greg.
You’ll like my upcoming post on Todd Bowles.
Brutal upcoming stretch for the Bucs in which we play Baltimore, KC and San Fran.
We’re about to see what this team is truly made of.