Koo’s 41-yd FG in OT places .500 Falcons at high of NFC South

ATLANTA – They got here streaming off the sidelines and surrounded Younghoe Koo. After a wild, considerably inconceivable recreation Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the dependable Atlanta Falcons kicker had executed what the franchise had made him one of many NFL’s highest-paid kickers to do.

Win video games.

Koo made a 41-yard discipline purpose in time beyond regulation to present Atlanta a 37-34 win over the Carolina Panthers, giving the franchise a one-game lead within the NFC South the place solely the Falcons are at .500. Everybody else is under.

This recreation, nicely, the Falcons had this gained after which misplaced after which gained once more. Twice.

In regulation, Atlanta held a six-point lead after a Younghoe Koo discipline purpose with 36 seconds left, 34-28. Then a 62-yard Hail Mary landing from Carolina quarterback PJ Walker to receiver DJ Moore with 12 seconds left appeared to present the Panthers the win.

However Moore eliminated his helmet, resulting in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, pushing the additional level try again 15 yards. Carolina kicker Eddy Pineiro missed the longer further level, preserving the rating 34-34 and sending the sport to time beyond regulation.

In time beyond regulation, the Falcons obtained the ball, after which quarterback Marcus Mariota threw an interception to CJ Henderson that was returned 54 yards. The Panthers (2-6) have been in simple discipline purpose vary for the win.

However Pinero missed the 32-yard discipline purpose, giving Atlanta (4-4) life once more.

On this division this season, nothing much less might need been anticipated than the surprising.

Coming into Week 8, there have been solely two different instances within the four-division period – which began in 2002 – the place no workforce within the division had been .500 or higher: The 2020 NFC East and 2015 AFC South. That is not a difficulty in the mean time for the NFC South anymore, because the Falcons at the moment are at .500.

Atlanta is in first place within the division regardless of not being over .500 at any level this season.

That is the most recent the Falcons have been in first place within the division since 2016, the yr the franchise final went to the Tremendous Bowl.

It is a good distance from Week 1 for the Falcons, the place the workforce blew a 16-point second half lead, and Atlanta head coach Arthur Smith had a fiery press convention the place he talked about folks writing off and “burying” his workforce earlier than the season began.

“We do not care,” Smith mentioned then. “We’ll get again to work.”

The Falcons, from that time, continued to indicate they believed of their second-year head coach. Up till final Sunday in opposition to Cincinnati, the Falcons had been in each recreation that they had performed regardless of having a roster with probably the most lifeless cap within the NFL – over $80 million in keeping with Roster Administration System – and over $9 million in cap room left on the roster, too.

It is a workforce that has turned over virtually their whole roster from when Smith and basic supervisor Terry Fontenot took over in January 2021, together with the jettisoning of franchise icons: quarterback Matt Ryan (traded to Indianapolis in March) and receiver Julio Jones (traded to Tennessee in 2021).

And but it is a workforce that, for now, is in first place in one of the vital intriguing divisions within the NFL, the place each workforce is inside two video games of the highest of the division.