Kirk Cousins – QB
Kirk Cousins gets another chance to prove his naysayers wrong on Sunday. He’s on the road, against a great team in the playoffs. It is a big game and word on the street is Cousins can’t win the big ones.
He has lost the only playoff game he ever played in and this year against winning teams, the Vikings haven’t done well at all. It’s time for Cousins to play the way he did in the middle of the season and prove all his doubters wrong on Sunday.
Cousins has to get that fire back. He was playing angry in games this year and he took deep shots often. He was dropping dimes to Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen in those contests and he took control of the offense.
This is the Cousins who needs to show up on Sunday in New Orleans. The last time he took the field, we saw the shy, quiet version of Cousins and it resulted in the Minnesota offense having a truly pathetic performance against the rival Packers.
To have a great game, Cousins is going to have to have help from his offensive coordinator. Against the Green Bay in Week 16, Kevin Stefanski had Cousins doing far too many straight dropbacks. That isn’t what he’s best at. Stefanski needs to call plays to roll his quarterback out and let him throw on the move. The Vikings offensive coordinator also needs to utilize more screens, more play-action, and not be shy about taking shots down the field.
Cousins has been at his best this season when he plays angry. Let’s hope the disrespect the Vikings have received from the media (and the disrespect Cousins himself got from Cam Jordan) this week, lights a fire under his big old butt. The Vikings need angry Kirk to unleash his fury against the Saints or they will find their season over by Sunday night.