Vikings Didn’t Need a Great Kirk Cousins on Sunday… but He’ll Be Ready When They Do

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) celebrated with Dalvin Cook (33) after scoring on a quarterback sneak in the second quarter. (Photo: Carlos Gonzalez - Star Tribune)
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I mentioned it in yesterday’s postgame. EVERYTHING the Vikings could have wanted Sunday, came to fruition. The performance was so dominant that it bordered on strange, seeing so many things go right. I don’t think it’s stepping out on a ledge to call Dalvin Cook the most talented running back in the NFL, when healthy.

On top of that, the offensive line + CJ Ham made our constant obsession with their inadequacies a moot-point, almost immediately after the game started. 

I’ve seen fans sticking up for Kirk Cousins and his career-low 10 passing attempts (8 of which were completed) but I haven’t actually heard or seen anyone actually criticizing him… I don’t think there are too many fans upset with how the Vikings got this W. There were some running themes out of the Vikings locker room after the game though, surrounding the way the Vikings won, that I did REALLY like.

It came out best in a quote from Kirk Cousins:

“Don’t be surprised if we have to win a game 52-51 this year. Coach [Mike] Zimmer wouldn’t be very happy about that, but every week is different. You look around the league today, and you see how wacky the scores can be and the results can be. You realize that every game is its own entity, and you have to go play what the game calls for. It’s very important that you understand what kind of game we had to play today to win, and that’s what we played.”

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Does anyone else feel like we are going to beat the packers by 75 points on Sunday afternoon, in Lambeau?

The offense has the perfect mentality after that week-1 win. I’d be worried a bit if Zimmer would have come out and acted like we were going to see all games unfold like that one, as if running the ball 3/4 of the time is our new identity. I love that they don’t want to put an identity on this offense. Why would you? As long as Kirk Cousins and the O-line hold up, you have top-5 weapons in every facet. You don’t need to put a run/pass label on a team like that.

No matter how improved the Vikings O-Line and running game is, compared to 2018, the Vikings can’t dominate on the ground like that all of the time. Mike Zimmer got his fantasy fulfilled this weekend but he knows that won’t be the way it works week-in and week-out. On Sunday, Cook and Mattison were able to eat up chunks at 5.4 YPC. Throw in some early takeaways + some short fields, and you had a Mike Zimmer wet dream happening right there on the football field.

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But, Kirk will be relied on much more heavily in future games and his quote from above shows how aware of that he is. Speaking of Kirk Cousins, I’m starting to fall madly in bro-love with this weird mother fucker. No matter how much negativity or criticism this guy gets, he just continues to be himself. He’s doing corny dad commercials for Pizza Ranch and coming up with touchdown dances that could only be made more awkward by the addition of a fanny pack.

Real respects real and Kirk Cousins is real AF. My #QB1.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

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