Michael Penix Jr. sitting out of the Atlanta Falcons' Week 8 game against the Miami Dolphins gave Kirk Cousins another shot at redemption. Instead, all he did was remind fans why he was benched in the first place.
Cousins led the Falcons to just three points in the first half, resulting in a 17-3 deficit. He completed six of his eight passes, but accounted for just 53 passing yards at the break.
Fans in Mercedes-Benz Stadium were unsurprisingly upset with his subpar performance. The Falcons' faithful let Cousins hear it from the opening drive and immediately showered the veteran quarterback with boos, David Furones of the Sun Sentinel reported.
Atlanta ran 19 first-half plays and had just 65 yards to show for it. The Dolphins also bottled up Bijan Robinson, who had no running room through the first 30 minutes of action.
The Falcons prepared for Cousins to start all week, but it did not help his performance. He was off-target and not on the same page for the entire first half.
However, in Cousins' defense, the Falcons' defense did not set him up for success. Atlanta was set up for success as Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa dealt with an eye injury, but could not stop Miami in the first half. Tagovailoa shrugged off his criticism and led the team to three scoring drives in the first half to put Cousins' back against the wall from the gun.
Cousins also played without Drake London, the Falcons' leading receiver. Miami honed in on Darnell Mooney defensively, leaving tight end Kyle Pitts as Atlanta's top pass-catching option for the game.
