Three hundred and twenty-three days after tearing his Achilles tendon at Lambeau Field while playing for the Minnesota Vikings, quarterback Kirk Cousins ​​​​staged one of the most improbable game-winning drives in recent memory when he led the Atlanta Falcons 70 yards in 1:05 and fired a game-winning touchdown pass to Drake London with 34 seconds left to seal a 22-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.

After a disastrous performance against the Steelers in his Falcons debut, Cousins ​​​​emerged under the spotlight, completing 20 of 29 passes for 241 yards and two touchdowns. He had no interceptions, no fumbles and recorded just one sack. His passer rating was a majestic 117.2.

“I’m just trying to play football with my teammates and come away with a win. It’s so important to find ways to win,” Cousins ​​said after the game. “That’s how you have a great season, when you have games that could go either way, you find a way to make it go your way. That’s what this league is, so if you can find those inches, it can really change the story of the season.”

According to NextGen Stats, the Falcons had a 0.7% chance of winning with 1:56 left in the fourth quarter. The result was the seventh-most unlikely victory since 2016.

Cousins ​​has led 31 fourth-quarter comebacks in his career, 17 of which came while playing for the Vikings from 2018-23. Even more impressive, 29 of those 31 comebacks qualify as game-winning drives.

His first comeback as a fourth quarterback in purple came at Lambeau Field in 2018, when he threw for 425 yards and four touchdowns. The game ended in a 29-29 tie, but it was Cousins ​​​​who threw footballs into tight holes to tie the game. His first game-winning drive for the Vikings came on Nov. 17, 2019 against Denver, when he led the Vikings back from a 20-0 halftime deficit to a 27-23 victory.

Cousins ​​led the Vikings to three game-winning drives in 2020, four more in 2021, and led the 13-win Vikings to an astonishing eight game-winning drives in 2022. And who was it playing quarterback for the Vikings when they won in overtime at New Orleans in the 2019-20 Wild Card round? It was Cousins, of course.

In his career, Cousins ​​now has a 4-10 mark as a starting quarterback at Monday night football. and 13-20 in primetime games. Cousins ​​​​has actually won two in a row Monday night football games after leading the Vikings to a win over the 49ers in Week 7 of last season. Six days later, he tore his Achilles tendon in Green Bay.

His last two trips to Philadelphia were both primetime games with the Vikings. Last season, Cousins ​​and the Vikings couldn’t overcome turnovers, losing 34-28 to Thursday night football in week 2. In 2022, the Vikings were defeated 24-7 by the Eagles on Monday night in week 2.

“I just try to play the best I can, whether it’s a Sunday afternoon game or an evening game, no matter what day of the week it is,” Cousins ​​said. “You just try to do the best you can and then let it go.”

The narrative that Cousins ​​isn’t good in prime time has always been unfair. If Monday night was more than a football game, it was a reminder that Cousins ​​can be as clutch as they come when the game is on the line in the fourth quarter.