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

Too many self-inflicted wounds

Kirk Cousins obviously didn’t have the best game of his career on Sunday and he made plenty of mistakes. But Cousins was far from being the only one to make a mistake against the Packers in Week 2.

For starters, Minnesota racked up 100 yards in penalties for the second-straight game. Only one of these infractions resulted in a first down for Green Bay, but the Vikings can’t continue to accumulate a high amount of penalties each week if they want to be successful this season.

Minnesota also saw the return of a struggling Dan Bailey on Sunday against the Packers. Bailey not only missed a 47-yard field goal attempt in the first quarter, but he also missed an extra point try in the third quarter.

If he was able to convert on his first field goal attempt of the afternoon, the Vikings could have potentially found themselves only down two points in the fourth quarter and Cousins probably wouldn’t have felt the need to force a pass into the back of the end zone to Stefon Diggs.

In addition to Minnesota’s defense giving up 21 points to Green Bay on their first three drives of the game, the Vikings also allowed the Packers to rush for a total of 144 yards on Sunday.

Since Mike Zimmer was hired in 2014, Minnesota is just 5-15 in games where they allow their opponents to finish with at least 140 rushing yards. Unsurprisingly, failing to stop your opponent’s rushing attack is not a good strategy to get wins.

So Sunday’s loss was a total group effort by the Vikings. The special teams could have been better, the defense could have been better, and the quarterback could have been better.

There is no one player or position group that deserves the majority of the blame for Minnesota’s Week 2 loss to the Packers. There were a number of factors that played a part in Sunday’s results, just as there are when the Vikings are able to come out of a matchup with a win.