PHILADELPHIA — As the heavy metal doors to the Philadelphia visitors’ locker room closed, nothing and no one was safe.

Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank’s checked gray suit and dark pocket square were not untouchable as his players cheered as they sprayed water over the Philadelphia Eagles to celebrate their 22-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Head coach Raheem Morris was so wet with ink that he could no longer read the ink on the scoreboard he had been given moments earlier.

Rookie first-round quarterback Michael Penix Jr. tried to stay out of the spray zone, but “there was a lot of water being thrown,” he told Yahoo Sports. “Everyone was just excited for the first win of the season.”

They had every reason to do so.

After the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Falcons 18-12 in Atlanta, the Falcons team that had already received an exceptional amount of criticism in the off-season now also had to deal with criticism for its performance on the field.

A franchise that was questioned for committing a guaranteed $100 million to a quarterback just before drafting another quarterback in the first round has faced outside criticism all week over how that $100 million acquisition performed in an inefficient losing effort.

After the Falcons offense scored a game-winning touchdown with 34 seconds left on the clock on Monday and the Falcons defense made the game-winning interception two plays later, Atlanta wasn’t ready to declare itself champion or overstate the importance of this victory.

But the first win of the Kirk Cousins-Raheem Morris era gave a locker room full of players who preceded that duo more optimism than they’d felt in a while. For Morris, who won a Super Bowl as the Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator, and Cousins, who has started in five playoff games, a Week 2 nail-biter is no nirvana.

But a franchise that has suffered through six consecutive losing seasons has to start its turnaround somewhere. Amid wet box scores and stained suits in the club’s first Monday Night Football appearance in three years and 11 months, they did.

“I don’t remember a comeback win like this, and to be a part of it like that was something special,” Falcons 2022 first-round pick Drake London said after catching the game-winning touchdown. “There’s a lot of doubters and a lot of naysayers. And I don’t want to say we’re going to shut them down, because we’ve got a lot of work to do.

“But at the end of the day, we won. And we’re going to build on that.”

Starting with Cousins.

How the Falcons Recovered from a 99.3% Losing Chance

When Eagles running back Saquon Barkley missed a pass from Jalen Hurts with 1:46 left, London saw the danger.

The Eagles settled for a field goal to extend their lead to six, with the Falcons getting the ball while trailing by one possession.

“Everybody on offense said, ‘Let’s go,'” London said. “Give us the chance, that’s all we need.”

Atlanta had been running the ball downfield for much of the night. Their third-down attempts had failed, but when they were able to extend the plays, they gained at least 50 yards on four different drives in the second and third quarters.

Cousins ​​saw the Eagles defense playing softer outside the red zone and thought to himself, “They’re clearly willing to give up some yards.”

Philadelphia seemed willing to allow short and some intermediate passes “as long as we didn’t go over their heads,” Cousins ​​said. The question was whether Atlanta could finally score in the red zone after settling for field goals the rest of the night.

So Cousins ​​activated his eat-eat-all mode and found tight end Kyle Pitts 11 yards up the middle of the field. He then went back and floated a 21-yard pass to Darnell Mooney down the left sideline, and Mooney went for 26 again just out of reach of rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell.

“They’re playing the two deep safeties and they’re so deep in their attempts to avoid giving up the big play that it opened up that boundary shot,” Troy Aikman said on the ESPN broadcast after Mooney’s first. “That was a big chunk play that they needed.”

London was next with a 5-yard catch and step out of bounds, followed by Ray-Ray McCloud missing an end-zone attempt that Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox denied. But the Falcons still benefited from a distraction from where their next play would ultimately lead.

The Falcons faced third-and-5, the game clock was less than a minute old, and a field goal wouldn’t be enough to tie the game, let alone win. London gestured outside just before the play, then went inside to confirm his belief that cornerback Darius Slay believed his route had been cut.

The stutter was enough for London to lose Slay on an out route that Cousins ​​captured the ball placement for, and kicker Younghoe Koo hit the extra point to push the tying lead into a goal. Two plays later, safety Jessie Bates intercepted Jalen Hurts’ throw to DeVonta Smith and the 1-point decision was indeed over.

Cousins ​​gave credit to his entire team for the win, from the swatting defense to the squaring London who “made it easy for me.” Teammates argued that Cousins ​​actually made the hard thing look easy, as he completed 20 of 29 passes for 241 yards, two touchdowns and no errors.

This wasn’t a repeat of the Falcons’ Week 1 offense. The narrative, they knew, was changing.

“He’s been getting so much criticism all week,” Bates said. “‘Kirk can’t move. Kirk can’t do this.’ To see his poise (in the) two-minute drive and how sharp it was? The leaders on this team, when it’s time to tear the ball down and it’s time to make plays, that’s what we lean on.

“I’m glad we have him.”

It’s not the Falcons’ ultimate goal to beat the Eagles

Concerns about Cousins’ first action after an Achilles injury, after his 36th birthday, were justified.

Against the Steelers’ stifling defense, Cousins ​​threw for just 155 yards and one touchdown to two interceptions. His passer rating of 59.0 was well below the 101.2 he averaged in six previous seasons with the Minnesota Vikings.

Questions lingered: Could Cousins ​​ever return to post-injury form? How healthy was he, really, considering he was operating without a gun more often than he had in the better part of a decade and was averaging a career-low 3.1 yards per dropback, according to Next Gen Stats?

Eight days later, the Falcons had reintroduced play action and under-center throws to their presentation. Cousins ​​averaged 5.0 yards per dropback in Philadelphia and his passer rating rose to 117.2.

Progress.

“You can never say, ‘Oh, we unlocked things and now it’s going to be this or that,'” Cousins ​​said. But “coming from behind, finding a way on the road in a tough environment against a good football team, that builds determination … that we’re going to have to lean on as the year goes on.

“The more we are tested and have these moments, the better prepared we are for what lies ahead.”

The Falcons are hoping for even more offensive rhythm going forward, with third-down efficiency topping their list after a 2-of-9 (22.2%) night, followed closely by red zone efficiency, which improved to 1 for 3 in the final minute of the game.

Cousins ​​and co. know they’ll be facing stronger defenses than the Eagles, and they know they realistically have a tougher task coming into this short week.

The message Morris gave to the team in the locker room after their first win as a unit was, “Who’s next?”

The answer to the semi-rhetorical question: The Kansas City Chiefs play in Atlanta in six days.

The celebration of Monday night’s victory will therefore be short-lived. For the team that has won the Lombardi Trophy for the past two years, the preparation for the match is only just beginning.

The Falcons understand the task before them, schematically and emotionally.

They will soon know whether they can carry it out.

“In one short week, we had the reigning champions come to our house — that’s just how this season is going to go,” Bates said. “We kind of shit the first week at home and then you come back and you have a big win. It’s like a roller coaster. You can’t be too high or too low.

“It’s a big win for us. And (now) for us to just flush it and move on.”

“This is a big game that we’re playing away against a really good team. I don’t care if they have AJ Brown or not. It’s a big win for us and for us to just flush it and move on.”