Kirk Cousins absolutely has to stop throwing pick sixes

In his first season with the Minnesota Vikings, three of the veteran quarterback’s passes were intercepted and returned for touchdowns.

Prior to joining the Minnesota Vikings in 2018, Kirk Cousins had never thrown more than two pick sixes in a single season.

Unfortunately for Cousins, he ended up tossing a total of three pick sixes in his first season as the Vikings’ starting quarterback last year. These costly interceptions from Cousins came during Minnesota’s matchups against the New Orleans Saints (Week 8), Chicago Bears (Week 11), and Miami Dolphins (Week 15).

His pick six against the Dolphins didn’t matter since the Vikings won the game by 24 points. But the ones against the Bears and Saints basically acted as the nail in the coffin for each of these two contests that resulted in losses for Minnesota.

Prior to Cousins arriving to the team, no Vikings quarterback had thrown a pick six in a game since Week 5 of the 2014 season when Christian Ponder tossed one against the Green Bay Packers.

During their tenures with Minnesota, Case Keenum, Teddy Bridgewater, and Sam Bradford never threw an interception that resulted in a touchdown for the opposing defense.

Not all of Cousins’ pick sixes in 2018 were 100 percent his fault. His interception against New Orleans came after Minnesota receiver Stefon Diggs abruptly stopped his route at the last second. And Cousins’ pick six against Miami could have been prevented if Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph didn’t miss his assigned block.

But the interception thrown by the Minnesota quarterback against Chicago was all on him as he decided to try and complete a pass to Laquon Treadwell who was surrounded by three defenders.

For the Vikings in 2019, these types of mistakes absolutely need to be eliminated. Under Zimmer, Minnesota hasn’t really shown that they’re capable of overcoming the large deficits that a pick six usually creates.

Cousins has thrown the second-most pick sixes (eight) in the NFL since 2015. This is a part of his game that the Vikings definitely have to figure out how to erase.

If not, it could end up turning into something that results in Minnesota being left out of the playoff picture for the second-straight season.