Kirk Cousins is just NOT a big game quarterback

[VikingLord]

It wasn't just "better", it was shutdown defense. If Cousins sucks for a quarter, and then plays at an elite level(stopping Rodgers for 3 qrters is elite) for 3, would it be fair for me to rip him after we lose 38 to 42? Or would that seem like I was trying to deflect blame from the defense that would have absolutely lost us that game?

Come on, do you really think the Packers kept the pedal down after those first 3 scores? So that "shutdown" defense might not have been so shutdown. Plus, as I mentioned before, the Packers drove into scoring range on 2 more drives later in the game during that "shutdown" stretch you are puffing around as proof of the defense's dominance. A fumble ended one of those drives. Yes, the defense caused it. Yes, it was fortunate. If the Packer player takes better care of the football it doesn't happen. Another drive ended when the Packers tried to foolishly go for it on 4th-and-1 with an obvious run play.

It wasn't as dominant a defensive performance as you claim even when it improved.

I'm also not ripping the defense. They sucked at times in the game and that contributed significantly to the loss. Cousins sucked at times during the game and that contributed significantly to the loss. The special teams sucked at times during the game and that contributed to the loss.

All three phases of the game contributed to the loss and the refs added their piece in there to boot.

I'm not trying to deflect blame from any aspect of the loss, while you seem intent on deflecting from the defense and shifting everything on Cousins.

Pointless to continue to argue this. You see only what supports your opinion and ignore what doesn't.

[StumpHunter]

It wasn't just "better", it was shutdown defense. If Cousins sucks for a quarter, and then plays at an elite level(stopping Rodgers for 3 qrters is elite) for 3, would it be fair for me to rip him after we lose 38 to 42? Or would that seem like I was trying to deflect blame from the defense that would have absolutely lost us that game?

Come on, do you really think the Packers kept the pedal down after those first 3 scores? So that "shutdown" defense might not have been so shutdown. Plus, as I mentioned before, the Packers drove into scoring range on 2 more drives later in the game during that "shutdown" stretch you are puffing around as proof of the defense's dominance. A fumble ended one of those drives. Yes, the defense caused it. Yes, it was fortunate. If the Packer player takes better care of the football it doesn't happen. Another drive ended when the Packers tried to foolishly go for it on 4th-and-1 with an obvious run play.

It wasn't as dominant a defensive performance as you claim even when it improved.

I'm also not ripping the defense. They sucked at times in the game and that contributed significantly to the loss. Cousins sucked at times during the game and that contributed significantly to the loss. The special teams sucked at times during the game and that contributed to the loss.

All three phases of the game contributed to the loss and the refs added their piece in there to boot.

I'm not trying to deflect blame from any aspect of the loss, while you seem intent on deflecting from the defense and shifting everything on Cousins.

Pointless to continue to argue this. You see only what supports your opinion and ignore what doesn't.

The Packers never got a chance to letup. Immediately following the short TD drive that was a result of the QB turning the ball over, the Vikings scored a quick TD themselves. You don't take the pedal off up 2 scores in the 2nd quarter. No team does.

[Fat Stupid Loser]

The Redskins do Stump.

[VikingLord]

The Packers never got a chance to letup. Immediately following the short TD drive that was a result of the QB turning the ball over, the Vikings scored a quick TD themselves. You don't take the pedal off up 2 scores in the 2nd quarter. No team does.

You're right - at the end of the game they drained most of the clock and got 2 critical first downs, one off a running play where the dominant Vikings defense left a huge cutback lane open.

They also piled up a sizeable advantage in time of possession despite being shutdown along with well north of 100 yards rushing for the game.

Stump, while the defense improved after the first 16 minutes of complete incompetence, that wasn't even close to a shutdown performance over the remaining 44 minutes. It was better, but at best it was competent and kept the Packers off the scoreboard with some help from the Packers. When given the chance late to truly shut down the Packer offense and get the ball back for one more go from the offense, the Vikings defense couldn't manage it.

And I'm not even being harsh on the Vikings defense with that assessment, nor is it inaccurate to say that type of performance from them has been typical under Zimmer. When they're good, they're good, but you can't expect them to be good for a whole game, and that isn't just against the best teams, either. They collectively have been at least as flawed as Kirk Cousins has been individually IMHO. Both will need to be lot more consistent and a lot better overall if this team is getting anywhere near the Superbowl this year.

[PacificNorseWest]

Good news, guys...According to an article in the Star Tribune, he's "going to throw it away next time."

[YikesVikes]

Rodgers had a field day? He had 200 yards. Gb didnt do #### past that first quarter

He put up 21 points at the snap of a finger. They stopped. Just as we did against the Falcons. What do you need 60 points before it's a field day. 500 yards passing? The guy was averaging over 10 yards an attempt then backed off. He was laughing. To me that's ripping a team up but maybe to you that's average play. He also had all day to throw. That's what I saw. But I guess we stuffed him once the game was over. We also needed to stop them at the end and couldn't. That tells nothing? But they didn't nothing past the 1st quarter.

I disagree. I think outside of the first quarter, we flustered them. I was surprised they didnt run the ball more. It was working. Their passing game was limited except when they went to Rhodes side.

[Bowhunting Viking]

Whew we can all calm down and not stress about Kirk's play anymore. I read on Vikings.com this morning his comments in yesterday's presser. He is excited about playing better now. He realizes he wont me playing here much longer if he plays like he did Sunday. Most importantly, the next time hes in that situation he will throw the ball away
It will definitely go into the stands.
So it's all fixed now. He figured it out and is gonna be ok.
Just having some pre work fun here. I'm not giving up on him yet. Still plenty of season. Gonna put on my Optimism Hat and keep hoping for the best. Just hoping for some consistency in playing well instead of all the up and down stuff. Gotta get into work so gotta cut this short

[Pondering Her Percy]

I personally think that Kirk Cousins is broken. Some how we have broken this mans confidence. When I look at him, I dont see a guy that believes in himself. I see a guy trying not to make a mistake. Listening to him, he isnt a guy I would run through a wall for. He is a nice guy and a decent QB but I strongly believe that all the ridicule he was gotten for having a simple contract has gotten to him. I think Zimmer had gotten to him. I dont believe he thinks, he is the best player on the field. He is a guy acting a part. He is broken.

This is very similar to the way I look at it and a good post.

This is where I get embarrassed to be associated with some Viking fans. Some fans are just fricken ruthless going on his social media page. For what? WTF does that accomplish? Guys did it with Walsh, Kalil, Ponder, Bradford and hell....even Thielen when he fumbled that punt vs Dallas a few years ago. His wife posted about how he was receiving death threats. But now, if thielen dropped his pants guys would be on their knees. But at the time, guys were ruthless saying he cost us the game and so on and so forth. Again, what did that accomplish other than making our fan base look pathetic? I honestly feel bad for cousins because he can’t even post a picture of his sons without guys ripping into him. Blair Walsh disabled the comments on his Instagram for a while because of it. Like let the guys live their lives. Your clueless football IQ carries zero weight other than just to tear those guys down. It doesn’t surprise me that guys like Kalil and Walsh never turned it around. We had idiotic fans jumping down their throats if they posted a picture of them getting married for God’s sake. Ponders wife also mentioned him getting death threats. Like some vikings fans are a fricken embarrassment to our fan base. I follow every Vikings player on social media so I happen to see this crap quite often when someone makes mistakes. It makes me want to unfollow them simply because I’m sick of seeing them get ragged on by clueless fans that probably only know their name from playing Madden. If you’re ticked at cousins or any other player, yell at your TV screen. Don’t run to social media and act like a tough guy behind a screen. 99.9% of fans wouldn’t have the balls to say this crap to most of these guys faces. Grow the hell up and let the guys live their lives. He’s not collecting $84 million from you and leaving you in the streets homeless. People get ticked at their teams all the time. ONE fan base a year can be happy at years end. The other 31 have something to complain about. Compain to your friends, tv screen, whatever. Don’t act like a coward and rag on the players behind a screen. You look pathetic.

Like this definitely plays a part in Cousins IMO and it definitely effects him. As it would anyone when it's this constant. Like if Cousins threw that bad INT in the first quarter of the game and our defense collapsed at the end, would guys be going on Griffens social media? Rhodes? Barrs? No. Guys would be saying, "well if Kirk didn't make that throw in the first quarter we would have won". Like could you imagine posting pictures of your kids or you and your wife or you at a charity event and fans are shredding you non-stop in the comments? A few comments here and there is one thing. But the constant threats and verbal abuse would eventually get to any of us. This is what I hate about our fan base (and others). What are you accomplishing? Do you think Kirk is gonna be like "yeah John Doe said I shouldn't throw interceptions on instagram so I'm gonna listen to him"? No! But the constant threat and so on does eventually effect players. If it wasn't effecting Blair Walsh, he would have never disabled commenting on his pictures. I think Kalil did it at one point too. That screams that it's effecting them. I don't think Kirk will ever do it and I honestly wish he did. Fans act like Cousins is the worlds biggest criminal/D-bag on earth because he didn't take us to the SB after getting his contract. Like it's not that fricken easy. You don't just go to a SB because you gain a player or two. You need chemistry and good play from the entire team. Offense, defense, ST, coaching, etc.

Like I don't think anything ticks me off more then when our fans do it to our players. I don't care if it's Kirk Cousins or Christian Ponder. I can tell you it sure doesn't EVER "help" these players play better. If anything, it kills their confidence and can cause them to play worse. And I don't want to hear that he needs to have thicker skin or whatever. This effects a lot of other players other than just Kirk Cousins. A lot of players have been effected by stuff like this. It's cowardly and pathetic. And most of all it's an embarrassment to our fan base.

Side note: Not saying any of you guys on here do this. This is just in general. I'm sure many would agree.

[StumpHunter]

I personally think that Kirk Cousins is broken. Some how we have broken this mans confidence. When I look at him, I dont see a guy that believes in himself. I see a guy trying not to make a mistake. Listening to him, he isnt a guy I would run through a wall for. He is a nice guy and a decent QB but I strongly believe that all the ridicule he was gotten for having a simple contract has gotten to him. I think Zimmer had gotten to him. I dont believe he thinks, he is the best player on the field. He is a guy acting a part. He is broken.

This is very similar to the way I look at it and a good post.

This is where I get embarrassed to be associated with some Viking fans. Some fans are just fricken ruthless going on his social media page. For what? WTF does that accomplish? Guys did it with Walsh, Kalil, Ponder, Bradford and hell....even Thielen when he fumbled that punt vs Dallas a few years ago. His wife posted about how he was receiving death threats. But now, if thielen dropped his pants guys would be on their knees. But at the time, guys were ruthless saying he cost us the game and so on and so forth. Again, what did that accomplish other than making our fan base look pathetic? I honestly feel bad for cousins because he can’t even post a picture of his sons without guys ripping into him. Blair Walsh disabled the comments on his Instagram for a while because of it. Like let the guys live their lives. Your clueless football IQ carries zero weight other than just to tear those guys down. It doesn’t surprise me that guys like Kalil and Walsh never turned it around. We had idiotic fans jumping down their throats if they posted a picture of them getting married for God’s sake. Ponders wife also mentioned him getting death threats. Like some vikings fans are a fricken embarrassment to our fan base. I follow every Vikings player on social media so I happen to see this crap quite often when someone makes mistakes. It makes me want to unfollow them simply because I’m sick of seeing them get ragged on by clueless fans that probably only know their name from playing Madden. If you’re ticked at cousins or any other player, yell at your TV screen. Don’t run to social media and act like a tough guy behind a screen. 99.9% of fans wouldn’t have the balls to say this crap to most of these guys faces. Grow the hell up and let the guys live their lives. He’s not collecting $84 million from you and leaving you in the streets homeless. People get ticked at their teams all the time. ONE fan base a year can be happy at years end. The other 31 have something to complain about. Compain to your friends, tv screen, whatever. Don’t act like a coward and rag on the players behind a screen. You look pathetic.

Like this definitely plays a part in Cousins IMO and it definitely effects him. As it would anyone when it's this constant. Like if Cousins threw that bad INT in the first quarter of the game and our defense collapsed at the end, would guys be going on Griffens social media? Rhodes? Barrs? No. Guys would be saying, "well if Kirk didn't make that throw in the first quarter we would have won". Like could you imagine posting pictures of your kids or you and your wife or you at a charity event and fans are shredding you non-stop in the comments? A few comments here and there is one thing. But the constant threats and verbal abuse would eventually get to any of us. This is what I hate about our fan base (and others). What are you accomplishing? Do you think Kirk is gonna be like "yeah John Doe said I shouldn't throw interceptions on instagram so I'm gonna listen to him"? No! But the constant threat and so on does eventually effect players. If it wasn't effecting Blair Walsh, he would have never disabled commenting on his pictures. I think Kalil did it at one point too. That screams that it's effecting them. I don't think Kirk will ever do it and I honestly wish he did. Fans act like Cousins is the worlds biggest criminal/D-bag on earth because he didn't take us to the SB after getting his contract. Like it's not that fricken easy. You don't just go to a SB because you gain a player or two. You need chemistry and good play from the entire team. Offense, defense, ST, coaching, etc.

Like I don't think anything ticks me off more then when our fans do it to our players. I don't care if it's Kirk Cousins or Christian Ponder. I can tell you it sure doesn't EVER "help" these players play better. If anything, it kills their confidence and can cause them to play worse. And I don't want to hear that he needs to have thicker skin or whatever. This effects a lot of other players other than just Kirk Cousins. A lot of players have been effected by stuff like this. It's cowardly and pathetic. And most of all it's an embarrassment to our fan base.

Side note: Not saying any of you guys on here do this. This is just in general. I'm sure many would agree.

It is the the tiniest percentage of Vikings fans who do that stuff, and our fans are probably better than most team's when it comes to social media posts and fan behavior.

I would hope professional athletes would have a thick enough skin that this tiny percentage of mentally unstable people wouldn't affect them. Sorry, that is isn't fair to people with mental health problems. These are people who never matured past their Junior years of HS.

[StumpHunter]

He put up 21 points at the snap of a finger. They stopped. Just as we did against the Falcons. What do you need 60 points before it's a field day. 500 yards passing? The guy was averaging over 10 yards an attempt then backed off. He was laughing. To me that's ripping a team up but maybe to you that's average play. He also had all day to throw. That's what I saw. But I guess we stuffed him once the game was over. We also needed to stop them at the end and couldn't. That tells nothing? But they didn't nothing past the 1st quarter.

I disagree. I think outside of the first quarter, we flustered them. I was surprised they didnt run the ball more. It was working. Their passing game was limited except when they went to Rhodes side.

Rhodes sucks against Adams and they need to stop letting him cover the guy.

It is odd that he can pretty much shutdown a better receiver in JJ, and then struggle so much against Adams.

[Bowhunting Viking]

I personally think that Kirk Cousins is broken. Some how we have broken this mans confidence. When I look at him, I dont see a guy that believes in himself. I see a guy trying not to make a mistake. Listening to him, he isnt a guy I would run through a wall for. He is a nice guy and a decent QB but I strongly believe that all the ridicule he was gotten for having a simple contract has gotten to him. I think Zimmer had gotten to him. I dont believe he thinks, he is the best player on the field. He is a guy acting a part. He is broken.

This is very similar to the way I look at it and a good post.

This is where I get embarrassed to be associated with some Viking fans. Some fans are just fricken ruthless going on his social media page. For what? WTF does that accomplish? Guys did it with Walsh, Kalil, Ponder, Bradford and hell....even Thielen when he fumbled that punt vs Dallas a few years ago. His wife posted about how he was receiving death threats. But now, if thielen dropped his pants guys would be on their knees. But at the time, guys were ruthless saying he cost us the game and so on and so forth. Again, what did that accomplish other than making our fan base look pathetic? I honestly feel bad for cousins because he can’t even post a picture of his sons without guys ripping into him. Blair Walsh disabled the comments on his Instagram for a while because of it. Like let the guys live their lives. Your clueless football IQ carries zero weight other than just to tear those guys down. It doesn’t surprise me that guys like Kalil and Walsh never turned it around. We had idiotic fans jumping down their throats if they posted a picture of them getting married for God’s sake. Ponders wife also mentioned him getting death threats. Like some vikings fans are a fricken embarrassment to our fan base. I follow every Vikings player on social media so I happen to see this crap quite often when someone makes mistakes. It makes me want to unfollow them simply because I’m sick of seeing them get ragged on by clueless fans that probably only know their name from playing Madden. If you’re ticked at cousins or any other player, yell at your TV screen. Don’t run to social media and act like a tough guy behind a screen. 99.9% of fans wouldn’t have the balls to say this crap to most of these guys faces. Grow the hell up and let the guys live their lives. He’s not collecting $84 million from you and leaving you in the streets homeless. People get ticked at their teams all the time. ONE fan base a year can be happy at years end. The other 31 have something to complain about. Compain to your friends, tv screen, whatever. Don’t act like a coward and rag on the players behind a screen. You look pathetic.

Like this definitely plays a part in Cousins IMO and it definitely effects him. As it would anyone when it's this constant. Like if Cousins threw that bad INT in the first quarter of the game and our defense collapsed at the end, would guys be going on Griffens social media? Rhodes? Barrs? No. Guys would be saying, "well if Kirk didn't make that throw in the first quarter we would have won". Like could you imagine posting pictures of your kids or you and your wife or you at a charity event and fans are shredding you non-stop in the comments? A few comments here and there is one thing. But the constant threats and verbal abuse would eventually get to any of us. This is what I hate about our fan base (and others). What are you accomplishing? Do you think Kirk is gonna be like "yeah John Doe said I shouldn't throw interceptions on instagram so I'm gonna listen to him"? No! But the constant threat and so on does eventually effect players. If it wasn't effecting Blair Walsh, he would have never disabled commenting on his pictures. I think Kalil did it at one point too. That screams that it's effecting them. I don't think Kirk will ever do it and I honestly wish he did. Fans act like Cousins is the worlds biggest criminal/D-bag on earth because he didn't take us to the SB after getting his contract. Like it's not that fricken easy. You don't just go to a SB because you gain a player or two. You need chemistry and good play from the entire team. Offense, defense, ST, coaching, etc.

Like I don't think anything ticks me off more then when our fans do it to our players. I don't care if it's Kirk Cousins or Christian Ponder. I can tell you it sure doesn't EVER "help" these players play better. If anything, it kills their confidence and can cause them to play worse. And I don't want to hear that he needs to have thicker skin or whatever. This effects a lot of other players other than just Kirk Cousins. A lot of players have been effected by stuff like this. It's cowardly and pathetic. And most of all it's an embarrassment to our fan base.

Side note: Not saying any of you guys on here do this. This is just in general. I'm sure many would agree.

I remember an interview Samantha Ponder did where she talked about how it got to the point that she had to quit going out to the grocery or a store when her and Christian lived in Minny because of the crap ppl would say to her and yell at her. She was so graceful about it, only saying the things she heard were disgusting and horrifying. But she also noted that so many Minny ppl would actually console her and stand up for her in those situations. I can't imagine living in that spotlight.
Hell when my hometown family friend who was the center in Wash moved the ball a little early down by the goal line at the end of a game, getting a penalty and 10nsec run off, leaving Skins with only 3 secs left and they lost the game, his brother told me at the time he couldn't believe the crap ppl were posting on social media. One guy actually posted I hope u get ur neck broken next game, and posted he hoped harm came to his kids.
It's one thing to criticize or critique a player when they do play bad, but to post that kind of stuff is disgusting.
That's why neither my wife or I are Facebook ppl. Never have been, never will. To me it's a cesspool of rumors and garbage alot of the time.
This board and a few bowhunting forums are the only ones I post on at all.
I would love to have their money, but not the crap that comes with the fame.

[VikingLord]

Whew we can all calm down and not stress about Kirk's play anymore. I read on Vikings.com this morning his comments in yesterday's presser. He is excited about playing better now. He realizes he wont me playing here much longer if he plays like he did Sunday. Most importantly, the next time hes in that situation he will throw the ball away
It will definitely go into the stands.
So it's all fixed now. He figured it out and is gonna be ok.
Just having some pre work fun here. I'm not giving up on him yet. Still plenty of season. Gonna put on my Optimism Hat and keep hoping for the best. Just hoping for some consistency in playing well instead of all the up and down stuff. Gotta get into work so gotta cut this short

It just shouldn't come down to Cousins. The 2019 Vikings aren't a team built to live or die on the QB. This is a team with a veteran defense, with most of the starters having been with each other now for what, the 3rd year running? Many of the defensive starters are very well paid. The head coach is known as a defensive guru. This is a defense that should be in the top 10 minimum against both the run and pass, and I would say top five overall. This is a defense that shouldn't be giving up TDs on 3 drives in a row to open a game in any stadium or situation against any offense. This is a defense the Vikings should expect can hold scores down so the offense can play the way it needs to play to win.

Cousins blew it. He knows that. It shouldn't come down to him, though.

[Bowhunting Viking]

Whew we can all calm down and not stress about Kirk's play anymore. I read on Vikings.com this morning his comments in yesterday's presser. He is excited about playing better now. He realizes he wont me playing here much longer if he plays like he did Sunday. Most importantly, the next time hes in that situation he will throw the ball away
It will definitely go into the stands.
So it's all fixed now. He figured it out and is gonna be ok.
Just having some pre work fun here. I'm not giving up on him yet. Still plenty of season. Gonna put on my Optimism Hat and keep hoping for the best. Just hoping for some consistency in playing well instead of all the up and down stuff. Gotta get into work so gotta cut this short

It just shouldn't come down to Cousins. The 2019 Vikings aren't a team built to live or die on the QB. This is a team with a veteran defense, with most of the starters having been with each other now for what, the 3rd year running? Many of the defensive starters are very well paid. The head coach is known as a defensive guru. This is a defense that should be in the top 10 minimum against both the run and pass, and I would say top five overall. This is a defense that shouldn't be giving up TDs on 3 drives in a row to open a game in any stadium or situation against any offense. This is a defense the Vikings should expect can hold scores down so the offense can play the way it needs to play to win.

Cousins blew it. He knows that. It shouldn't come down to him, though.

This post was meant as a little sarcastic fun at the way that the media and alot if fans are blaming about 95% of anything bad that happens on Cousins and his contract. That's all. Trust me I know we have ALOT of high paid big time players who have also played poorly sometimes. It was all in jest. We have the talent to make a run and just need to get it together and play to our capabilities. I wasn't and haven't blamed him for the losses. On the contrary I've supported him. It's a team game and everyone has to play their role. I just put that out there cuz the guy does get so much blame for everything.

[MikethePurple]

I disagree. I think outside of the first quarter, we flustered them. I was surprised they didnt run the ball more. It was working. Their passing game was limited except when they went to Rhodes side.

Rhodes sucks against Adams and they need to stop letting him cover the guy.

It is odd that he can pretty much shutdown a better receiver in JJ, and then struggle so much against Adams.

You're right in that Rhodes has struggled against Adams historically. I think it's just a bad match up in styles. Adams is a quicker, less physical receiver. Basically the type Rhodes has not had as much success with in the past. He's typically done better with the bigger, more physical corners, ala Jones. It isn't to say Jones isn't fast, but that he has a different style. I remember when Zimmer first took over that they kept talking about the physical attributes that they were looking for in corners, basically to match up against Calvin Johnson, Alshon Jeffrey, Brandon Marshall, etc who were pretty dominant against the Vikings secondary. Essentially bigger, physical receivers. How many times did Vikings corners get beat in those jump balls against bigger receivers before we had Rhodes? I seem to remember a lot.

As always, the game seems to be changing some and smaller, shiftier, and speedy receivers are starting to become more common and I think Rhodes struggles with them, one because that's never been his particular specialty and two because he is getting older and slowing down some.

They should recognize this and game plan accordingly. I'm not entirely sure whether that's happening or not, but it could potentially help with the struggles we saw last Sunday.

[StumpHunter]

Whew we can all calm down and not stress about Kirk's play anymore. I read on Vikings.com this morning his comments in yesterday's presser. He is excited about playing better now. He realizes he wont me playing here much longer if he plays like he did Sunday. Most importantly, the next time hes in that situation he will throw the ball away
It will definitely go into the stands.
So it's all fixed now. He figured it out and is gonna be ok.
Just having some pre work fun here. I'm not giving up on him yet. Still plenty of season. Gonna put on my Optimism Hat and keep hoping for the best. Just hoping for some consistency in playing well instead of all the up and down stuff. Gotta get into work so gotta cut this short

It just shouldn't come down to Cousins. The 2019 Vikings aren't a team built to live or die on the QB. This is a team with a veteran defense, with most of the starters having been with each other now for what, the 3rd year running? Many of the defensive starters are very well paid. The head coach is known as a defensive guru. This is a defense that should be in the top 10 minimum against both the run and pass, and I would say top five overall. This is a defense that shouldn't be giving up TDs on 3 drives in a row to open a game in any stadium or situation against any offense. This is a defense the Vikings should expect can hold scores down so the offense can play the way it needs to play to win.

Cousins blew it. He knows that. It shouldn't come down to him, though.

It only came down to Cousins because he was so bad it made winning with him next to impossible. It wasn't like the defense gave up 30 points, they gave up 14 that weren't a result of turnovers. On offense, the run game was going strong and moving the ball in spite of the QB.

The Vikings did not ask a lot of Cousins Sunday, and he still managed to lose us the football game.