Kirk Cousins is not off to a hot start in this second season with the Minnesota Vikings and has been owning up to his disappointing play thus far.
The Minnesota Vikings have a lot of great things going for them this year. Through two weeks, the team has the NFL’s leading rusher in Dalvin Cook, have a defense that is making plays holding teams on third down, and plenty of star power in every phase of the game.
Weirdly enough, the one place they haven’t been getting much production is from the quarterback position. Week 1 was okay for Kirk Cousins, who only threw the ball ten times en route to a win over the Atlanta Falcons. This set forth the narrative from several sports news outlets that using the quarterback as little as possible was the team’s recipe for success.
Week 2 did nothing to improve on that narrative. Three turnovers, numerous bad decisions, and a disappointing 43.75 completion percentage did nothing to help a game that saw other phases of the game make great adjustments to keep the team in the game. And much of the loss to the Green Bay Packers is resting on the shoulders of Kirk Cousins.
When speaking with the media, Cousins has made some interesting statements to own up to his play, including taking ownership in his performance as shared on the team’s official website:
"“It was just a gut-wrenching loss. I’m proud of the way my teammates fought, kept fighting … but I’m very disappointed in my performance today,” Cousins said. “It just wasn’t good enough. At the quarterback position, to expect to win, I felt like with the way our team fought, we were right there at the end, as a result of the way our team kept playing."
In addition to that, the Vikings quarterback says he knows that if he continues to play at that level that he won’t be there for much longer. Here is a tweet from the Pioneer Press’ Chris Tomasson with the statement:
Kirk Cousins said “I won’t be playing quarterback here much longer if I play the way I did Sunday”
— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) September 18, 2019
Cousins knows he needs to improve but the question is whether or not he will be able to do so. According to ESPN, Minnesota’s passer still has the full support of the team and will be given every opportunity to prove his worth as an $84 million man.
"“He’s going to be fine,” Zimmer said. “We have the utmost confidence in him. He’s in a good place where he’s going to play good this week and continue to play good for the rest of the year.”"
The good news is that there are plenty of chances for Kirk Cousins to show that his early struggles are a fluke. This will start in Week 3 of the 2019 season when the Vikings host the Oakland Raiders in a game that will hopefully get them out of a tie for last place in the NFC North.
Kirk Cousins will need to show much better decision-making and execution in the passing game than he did against the Green Bay Packers if he wants to start winning back the trust of fans as well as get back to winning football games. Hopefully, that can be the case when the quarterback takes the field on Sunday.