TAMPA, Fla. — Over the last two months, as the Atlanta Falcons dropped seven of eight games and fell out of playoff contention, coach Raheem Morris implored his team to “find a way” so often that it became almost a meme for the team’s frustrated fans.

On Thursday night, though, Atlanta found a way in the most unlikely of ways, coming from behind to shock the division-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers 29-28 to give the team a chance for a rare happy weekend in a disappointing season. The win gave the Falcons a 33-32 all-time head-to-head edge against their NFC South foes.

“Couldn’t be more proud of the way those guys stayed resilient and found a way to win tonight,” Morris said. “That’s what we’ve been talking about all year. It was a lot of fun to watch that game. These guys, they are fighters, man.”

The Falcons (5-9) trailed by 14 points with 10 minutes remaining and had a 4.8 percent win probability, according to NextGenStats. All it took from there was a miraculous fumble recovery by center Ryan Neuzil to preserve Atlanta’s late touchdown drive, a leaping interception of Baker Mayfield by Dee Alford on the Buccaneers’ next-to-last drive and an improbable 21-yard grab by David Sills V on fourth-and-14 to get the Falcons in range for a 43-yard Zane Gonzalez field goal as time expired.

“It’s pro football, you just have to keep playing, be resilient,” said quarterback Kirk Cousins, who was 30-for-44 for 373 yards and three touchdowns. “It tests you every week, and when you get kicked in the teeth, you just get back up and keep going. I was proud of the way our team fought tonight. It was really just a reflection of the character I know we have.”

All three of Cousins’ touchdown passes went to tight end Kyle Pitts, who had a career-high 11 catches for 166 yards and the first three-touchdown game of his career. He became the first tight end since Shannon Sharpe in 1996 to have more than 150 receiving yards and three touchdowns in a game.

“I was far from born then,” Pitts said.

His performance was only the second-most remarkable stat of the night for the Falcons, who overcame a staggering 19 penalties to get the win. It was the most penalties by a team in a single game since 2016 and the most by any Atlanta team since at least 1999, according to TruMedia.

When the game ended, Morris turned to a television camera on the sideline and said, “Call that one.”

More important, though, than the big numbers Atlanta put up were the big plays made by players who don’t often find themselves in the spotlight. The most impressive of those was the fumble recovery by Neuzil 15 yards downfield after wide receiver Darnell Mooney coughed up the ball.

“We talk about playing for each other, and that is the absolute definition of playing for each other when you run down the field and recover a fumble like that,” Morris said.

Ryan Neuzil (not pictured) recovered this ball. https://t.co/TPngBudya6

— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) December 12, 2025

Cousins had jogged off the field, thinking the Buccaneers had recovered.

“Somebody said, ‘No, we might have it.’ I said, ‘How?’” Cousins said. “When the ball is thrown, (the offensive linemen) are (supposed) to run forward. They don’t know where or why, but they are to run forward. They do it so much that when we’re in a walk-through, after every play, they walk forward to train the muscle memory. Neuz did it tonight.”

The Falcons’ offensive linemen give out a Finisher of the Week Award after each game for plays like the one Neuzil made Thursday, guard Chris Lindstrom said.

“Neuz was a phenomenal example of what we try to preach in our room,” Lindstrom said.

“We said in the locker room Neuz won that game for us,” Pitts said.

Alford and Sills helped, too. Alford intercepted Mayfield on the series before Neuzil’s recovery.

“I knew Baker was going to look for Mike Evans. I read him and was able to get my drop, and he threw it right to me,” he said.

Sills’ heroics came on the final drive on what was just his ninth catch of the season.

“I really trusted David there,” Cousins said. “I wanted to throw a ball that was higher to get it over the corner, and David went up and got it and stayed in bounds. That was really an exhale there.”

Sills, who said he felt like he owed Cousins one after dropping what would have been a long gain in the third quarter, was expecting man coverage on the play but adjusted his route when he realized it was Cover 2, he said.

“I ended up getting to the void, and Kirk gave me a shot, so I had to go up and make the play,” he said. “Felt like I needed that one, had a pretty big miss earlier.”

“We put some people in big moments, and those people in those moments had to make those plays,” Morris said. “We have obviously been talking about finding a way. That’s finding a way.”