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Darnold delivers for Vikings with career-high 347 yards and 5 TDs to beat Cousins, Falcons 42-21

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Darnold delivers for Vikings with career-high 347 yards and 5 TDs to beat Cousins, Falcons 42-21


Sam Darnold threw for 347 yards and five touchdowns, both career highs, and the Minnesota Vikings pulled away from Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons 42-21 on Sunday for their sixth straight victory.

Darnold added another highlight to his brilliant first season in Minnesota following the departure of Cousins in free agency to Atlanta with a 22-for-28 performance and no turnover-worthy plays despite heavy first-half pressure.

Darnold passed for 250 yards after halftime to help the Vikings (11-2) break a 21-all tie early in the fourth quarter and stay one game behind NFC North-leading Detroit with a final-week matchup looming with the Lions. Jordan Addison had eight catches for 133 yards and three scores and Justin Jefferson racked up seven receptions for 132 yards and two touchdowns after going the past six games without scoring.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins walks off the field after throwing an interception during the second half of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings.

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Abbie Parr | AP

Cousins threw two more interceptions without a touchdown in his return to Minnesota, where he was greeted by loud boos and left with Atlanta’s fourth consecutive loss to tumble out of first place in the NFC South and fall one game behind Tampa Bay.

Cousins has eight interceptions and no passing scores for the Falcons (6-7) over their four-game losing streak, which was extended by a wide array of errors that stretched beyond their 35-year-old quarterback who’s coming back this season from surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon that ended his six-year tenure with the Vikings midway last season.

Cousins went 23 for 37 for 344 yards for the Falcons, who crossed midfield on all nine of their possessions. He overthrew Ray-Ray McCloud III on fourth down in the first quarter, and the Falcons settled for short field goals just before and right after halftime to negate their 496 yards of total offense.

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Their fate was sealed when McCloud fumbled the kickoff after the Vikings went 70 yards in six plays for the go-ahead touchdown pass to Addison, giving Darnold the ball at the 32 to go get another score to Addison. The Falcons also handed the Vikings another touchdown when Kentavious Street was called for defensive holding during a field goal attempt late in the second quarter, and Darnold hit Jefferson in the end zone three plays later.

Bijan Robinson had 22 carries for 92 yards and a touchdown and Tyler Allgeier rushed nine times for 63 yards and a score for the Falcons against the NFL’s leading run defense, but the turnovers were again too much to overcome.

Cousins, who was picked off four times last week, hesitated as he wound up to throw on first down from the Minnesota 47 in a tie game early in the second quarter and then inexplicably fired a pass straight to Josh Metellus as he sat in a zone in front of Drake London. Cousins has a league-most 15 interceptions.

Injury report

Falcons: Mike Hughes (knee) was back in the lineup after missing two games. Minnesota’s 2018 first-round draft pick returned an interception for a touchdown against Atlanta in his NFL debut here.

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Vikings: CB Stephon Gilmore (hamstring) and backup OLB Patrick Jones (knee) were out. TE Josh Oliver (wrist/ankle) returned from a two-game absence, and LS Andrew DePaola (hand) and PK Will Reichard (quadriceps) were back from four-game injured reserve stints.

Up next

Both teams play next Monday night, Dec. 16: Atlanta visits Las Vegas, and Minnesota hosts Chicago.



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Atlanta, GA

Cancellations, delays continue at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

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Cancellations, delays continue at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport


ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — The trouble for travelers at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport continued Sunday as rain persisted in metro Atlanta.

As of 5 p.m. Sunday, 487 flights have been delayed and 124 have been canceled.

TSA wait times have also ballooned; passengers going through the main checkpoint should expect to wait upwards of an hour, and those going through the north checkpoint should expect to wait more than 30 minutes.

The airport said, “The delays are the result of residual impacts from two ground stops issued on Friday, which created a temporary backlog in passenger volumes, combined with current TSA staffing constraints.”

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The delays added to a disastrous weekend for Hartsfield-Jackson. Travelers on Saturday described hourslong tarmac waits, missed connections and overnight strandings after storms triggered mass cancellations and delays.

The Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines received the bulk of travelers’ frustration. The airline released a statement to Atlanta News First addressing the tarmac delays.

“We apologize to our customers, as we know that a delay on the tarmac waiting for an arrival gate is frustrating. Delta people worked through severe weather challenges in ATL that drove gating constraints overnight,” the company said. “The safety of our customers and crew is our highest priority.”



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Atlanta, GA

Youth, served: Real Salt Lake pulls past Atlanta United to keep fast start

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Youth, served: Real Salt Lake pulls past Atlanta United to keep fast start


SANDY — Three games into the 2026 campaign and Real Salt Lake has a formula for success.

Spoiler alert: the kids are (still) all right.

Aiden Hezarkhani scored a goal for the second-straight week, rookie Sergi Solans added his first professional, and Real Salt Lake served its youth again en route to a 3-2 win over Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Fellow teenager Zavier Gozo also scored for Real Salt Lake, the Utah native’s first of the season after his breakout four-goal, three-assist campaign last year to help his home side improve to 2-1-0.

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Aleksei Miranchuk had a brace for Atlanta, which fell to 0-3 while being outscored 7-2 a year after struggling to a 5-16-13 campaign.

“It was a shootout,” RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni said. “This was one of those games that was super exciting. It’s a real credit to the group on both sides of the ball. I thought we were really deliberate … and defensively, we were great against a top attacking group.

“We knew it was going to be difficult. But the guys weathered the storm … and we challenged the group to dig deep, to defend our box, and manage the game the right way.”

Salt Lake, meanwhile, has won two of its first three matches — even with a shorthanded roster. The club lost Diego Luna (knee) and Victor Olatunji (eye) to injuries during the same training session before the season opener in Vancouver, and former U.S. international fullback DeAndre Yedlin picked up a hamstring injury last week.

But if adversity spawns opportunity, Real Salt Lake’s rising generation is taking advantage of either — or both. Give credit, too, to the veteran players for bringing along the youth that also include 17-year-old Luca Moisa — and not skip a beat.

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“It’s like a brotherhood,” Mastroeni said. “There’s no guy that’s bigger than the team.”

Gozo and Morgan Guilavogui nearly connected for a goal just 49 seconds into the match, but the newly signed Designated Player making his first start saw his shot tipped over the cross bar.

Instead, Guilavogui gave the visitors the early lead midway through the first half, slipping a brilliant through ball behind the defense to Solans for the clinical finish in the 23rd minute.

Solans was selected with the 30th overall pick of the 2025 MLS SuperDraft by Salt Lake, who traded $50,000 in general allocation money to the LA Galaxy in select the Spanish native.

But instead of signing forthright with the club, Solans elected to return to collect for one more year and the 22-year-old alumnus of Spain’s Girona FC academy returned to UCLA and scored a team-high 16 goals with six assists in 19 matches en route to All-American second-team honors and a program record-breaking third hat trick in the Big Ten Tournament final.

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“Sergi doesn’t necessarily have top-end speed,” Mastroeni said, “but he has top-end timing. When you threaten the back line, you don’t have to have the fastest speed. But you do have to have the right timing.

“You’ve got to make plays — and that’s what making plays looks like.”

Hezarkhani doubled the lead in the 27th minute, gaining possession of the ball in the final third with his chest off an angled touch from Solans before sliding a right-footed shot from the center of the box that put Salt Lake up 2-0.

It’s the second goal in as many matches for Hezarkhani, the 18-year-old academy alumnus who had six goals with four assists in 21 matches (19 starts) for Salt Lake’s third-division affiliate Real Monarchs a year ago.

Miranchuk pulled one back for the home side in the 38th minute, scoring Atlanta’s first goal of 2026 with one touch from Elias Baez from the center of the box to cut the deficit to 2-1.

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But Gozo finished a counter initiated by Philip Quinton and Justen Glad with his left less than two minutes later to push Salt Lake back in front 3-1 at halftime.

After a series of second-half introductions including the halftime debut of Utah native and former Corner Canyon High standout Griffin Dillon for RSL, Miranchuk added another for Atlanta in the 74th minute to cut the deficit to 3-2.

But Rafael Cabral made two saves on 16 shots faced to help the visitors hold on for their second straight win.

Real Salt Lake returns home next Saturday, March 14 to host Austin FC (7:30 p.m. MDT, Apple TV) before a road trip to San Diego FC.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Atlanta, GA

On the set of "Scream 7"

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On the set of "Scream 7"


Ghostface is back…and this time, the call’s coming from Atlanta! The seventh installment of the blockbuster horror franchise “Scream” was filmed in Metro Atlanta, including at Midtown’s SCAD Film Studios. We’re checking out one of the film’s notable sets, which is now serving as a classroom for students. We’re also catching up with screen legend Kurt Russell, his real-life won Wyatt, Emmy Award winner Anna Sawai, and the rest of the cast of the Apple TV hit “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” which is back for a second season. Finally, we’re getting a first taste of Atlanta’s newest culinary hotspot, 17th & State Restaurant + Bar! Bon Appetit!



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