Raheem Morris fiercely defends Kirk Cousins amid calls for Falcons to start Michael Penix

For anyone who had Week 13 on their When-Do-Falcons-Fans-Start-Calling-For-Michael-Penix bingo card, come on down and claim your prize!

Through the first 12 games of the Falcons' Kirk Cousins era, things have gone ... kinda how everyone expected them to? Cousins hasn't been good per se – he currently ranks 24th out of 39 eligible quarterbacks on Pro Football Focus – but he certainly hasn't been terrible; heading into Sunday's game, he had the 7th most passing yards in the NFL and ranked 9th in touchdown passes.

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But Sunday's game – a tough, four-interception home loss to the Chargers – officially started the noise. Fans' interest in seeing Michael Penix – the Falcons' 1st round pick this year – get a few week's worth of run is growing by the week, especially as the team continues to lose their grip on a division title. But after the game, Falcons head coach Raheem Morris *quickly* shut down the notion that they'd be making a change any time soon.

Morris shuts down possibility of Michael Penix taking over for Kirk Cousins

"We've got to make better decisions in some cases," Morris said. "We can't turn the ball over. We've gotta throw the ball out of the back of the end zone. End of the game, you're trying to win that thing, you try and fit it into a tight window. It is what it is. We can't have those things happen, regardless of what it was or what the reasons are. We won’t make any excuses for them. That guy has carried us all season, he’s done such a marvelous job. It’s hard to throw that guy under the bus. What he's done for us, what he's done for the organization. We’ll bounce back, we'll bring him back and we’ll be ready to go.”

I mean, nothing Morris says here is wrong. You can't bench the QB you just gave a historically large contract to after 3/4ths of one (1) single season. And it's not like Cousins' overall body of work has been bad enough to warrant it, either. For better and for worse, everyone's always known what you get with Cousins – this is just the 'for worse' part.

The conversation becomes more interesting this offseason, with enough teams presumably in the market for a veteran QB that can come in and produce right away. But for now, this is Cousins' team and Cousins' season. For better and for worse.