StumpHunter wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 6:51 am
Pondering Her Percy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 13, 2021 9:10 pm
Excellent post. I also saw cousins PFF grade. I said to a buddy today, I swear it’s like a black cloud over this teams head. The cousins haters love to say “he can’t lead a game winning drive blah blah”. Well of course this time he led TWO game winning drives when the ball is in his court and one led to the game tying field goal and one was where cook fumbled.
Cousins does what he’s suppose to do and then others crap the bed. Was cousins a little shaky early on? Yeah but after he got in a rhythm he was just fine. He was exactly why we came back when the defense started to crap. The haters can’t use the “cook carried the team” argument because that sure didn’t happen.
I have come to the conclusion that the issue isn't haters it is the people who claim things like Cousins lead two game winning drives, neither of which won the game.
Why is the focus on Cousins in this last game at all?
In my view he didn't win the game any more than he lost the game. He played well enough to win had other aspects played better, but also didn't make any amazing plays to compensate for those other aspects not playing better.
In the end, Cousins isn't the problem any more than he's the solution.
The problem against the Bengals were the offensive and defensive lines primarily along with some of the defensive secondary. The OL looked overmatched against a pretty underwhelming defensive front most of the game. They couldn't pass block consistently (Cousins did get pressured frequently), couldn't run block (Cook had nowhere to run most of the game), and couldn't execute (way too many penalties on the OL all game). They are the biggest reason why the team lost.
Right behind them is the defensive front who did a piss poor job of limiting the Bengals running game, mostly due to sloppy and undisciplined play up front (Hunter, in particular, was very undisciplined and allowed Mixon multiple huge cutback lanes). They generated some pass rush, which was nice, but it wasn't nearly enough. The secondary play was very uneven. Breeland in particular struggled, but he wasn't alone. That defensive performance was not near what I expected to see given all the changes that were made this offseason and all the purported talent the Vikings have on that side of the football now. They gave up too many running yards on early downs and the big plays down the field were reminiscent of last year as well.
Zimmer's team overall wasn't ready to play. Blame that on too conservative a preseason, the weather conditions on the field with the heat and humidity, or maybe the Vikings believing the Bengals were not a good team, but whatever it was, the Bengals were ready to play as a team and the Vikings were not.
THAT is what needs to be addressed.
The only thing I wanted to see from Cousins that I didn't see was a deep attempt or two. Just something to take the top off the defense and maybe draw a flag. Other than that he wasn't the issue.