Why the Vikings loss to the Packers wasn’t Kirk Cousins’ fault

Offensive line struggled mightily in pass protection

This past offseason, the Vikings put a good amount of effort into trying to improve the talent level of their offensive line. Minnesota used their first-round draft pick on center Garrett Bradbury and they also signed free agent Josh Kline to be their starting right guard.

In addition to the new players the Vikings added to the position group, Rick Dennison was also brought in to be the team’s new offensive line coach.

Well, two games into the 2019 season and Minnesota’s blockers still have a lot of improving to do. This was made very obvious on in Week 2 with the Vikings’ offensive line putting forth a very disappointing performance.

Against the Packers this week, Minnesota’s blockers gave up a total of 28 pressures. Green Bay was only able to sack Kirk Cousins once on Sunday, but the Vikings quarterback was faced with pressure all game long.

Of the mistakes Cousins’ made this week, almost all of them were due to him trying to avoid the constant pressure from the Packers’ defense.

When he threw that game-sealing interception in the fourth quarter, the Minnesota quarterback was being chased down by Green Bay defensive end Dean Lowry. If the Vikings’ offensive line could have given Cousins a second or two more to survey his options, he probably would have made a smarter decision on that play.

But thanks to the poor performance of Minnesota’s offensive line, their quarterback didn’t have time to even think once he got the ball in his hands. Instead, Cousins was forced to get some throws out much quicker than he probably would have liked.

Credit goes to the Packers’ defense too for showing a lot of improvement in their pass rush from a season ago. But the Vikings have tried to convince everyone that their offensive line would be better this year and so far, it’s just been more of the same.