What were the high points and low points of the 2019 season for Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins?
This formally kicks offThe Vikings Age‘s 17-part (hopefully 20-part) series on Kirk Cousins‘ high and lows from each game throughout the upcoming 2020 season. Each week, the positive aspects of his performance will be uplifted as well as the not-so-great occurrences from each game.
As a review of sorts, a look-back at the 2019 campaign is in order. Cousins finished the 2019 season with a comely 107.4 passer rating, the best of his eight-year career. It also placed his passer rating at No. 4 on the NFL’s leaderboard behind only Ryan Tannehill, Lamar Jackson, and Drew Brees. With 26 touchdown passes, Cousins equaled the paydirt totals set by Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, Aaron Rodgers, and Matt Ryan — all finished the year with 26 touchdown tosses.
The Vikings fell short of winning the NFC North but did upset the New Orleans Saints in the wildcard round playoffs behind theatrics courtesy of Danielle Hunter, Adam Thielen, Kyle Rudolph, and the aforementioned Cousins. Minnesota followed up their New Orleans jaw-dropper with a rather irksome performance versus the San Francisco 49ers. The Vikings were booted from the postseason by the 49ers by the score of 27-10 in a game where Minnesota simply could not stop the run.
Overall, Minnesota benefited from Cousins’ stellar performance, although there was room for improvement that arose along the way. Let’s have a look at some 2019 positives and negatives.
1. Low – Performance against the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears
Unfortunately for everybody involved — Cousins, the Vikings, fans, the front office — this is a big damn deal to struggle against Minnesota’s two primary foes, Green Bay and Chicago.
Cousins took on the Packers defense twice per tradition in 2019 and left these games with passer ratings of 52.9 in Week 2 and 58.8 in Week 16. For anybody — Cousins especially — these numbers are lackluster. In Week 2 at Lambeau Field, the Vikings got off to a rotten start and trailed 21-0 with about 45 minutes of real-time elapsed. Minnesota battled back admirably, was jobbed on a Dalvin Cook holding call, and the Packers prevailed 21-16.
As for Chicago, Cousins notched a 91.4 passer rating during a Week 4 festival of eye-rolls. That passer rating wildly supersedes the eye-test because Cousins did not play well. In fact, it was reportedly the game that caused wideout Stefon Diggs to go AWOL. Diggs was evidently peeved by his role in the offense and didn’t return to the team for a couple of days. He was fined, the ship was righted, the Vikings later won a playoff game, and then Diggs was traded away. How’s that for a gridiron soap opera?
In 2018, Cousins was masterful at Lambeau Field but has never been at his finest against the Bears.
No rest for the wicked as Cousins gets a crack at redemption four times versus these foes in 2020.
1. High – The fumbles were largely curtailed
For a quarterback on a Mike Zimmer-led team, this step in the right direction is vital. Had former Vikings signal-caller Case Keenum not fancied a playground and quasi-reckless brand of play, he may still be the team’s quarterback. All NFL coaches loathe turnovers, but Zimmer in particular does not tolerate them.
In 2017, Kirk Cousins coughed away five fumbles while playing for the Washington Football Team. When he joined the Vikings the following year, he lost a total of seven fumbles. It was a fearful trend.
At least for one season, the worrisome habit has been remedied. Last season, Cousins lost just three fumbles which is a figure that aligns with a “cost of doing business” allowance. Quarterbacks touch the pigskin at least half the time of nearly every game, so some fumbles will happen. Three is significantly more workable than seven.
For context, New York Giants rookie signal-caller Daniel Jones lost 11 fumbles.
2. Low – Cousins did not scamper all that often
Fans tend to take one look at Kirk Cousins and dismiss him as an immobile quarterback. He’s not Lamar Jackson, but he’s also not Philip Rivers. Cousins has some wheels, sort of.
In Washington, former head coach Jay Gruden gave Cousins the leeway to tuck and run. In spots, he does this with the Vikings but it’s largely discouraged or just flat-out doesn’t happen. While he was a full-time starter in Washington, Cousins galloped to 13 touchdowns in three seasons. He’s scored two rushing touchdowns in Minnesota.
A more mobile version of Cousins would likely generate more fumbles because that’s the nature of the beast. Yet, there are several scenarios where it outwardly appears he should take off and reach the sticks with his two feet. Perhaps his reluctance to do so is a byproduct of age and/or maturity, but sometimes the Vikings just need a handful of yards, and Cousins seems hellbent against running the ball.
Minnesota now has a new-ish offensive coordinator in 2020 with Gary Kubiak. This season will serve as the verdict on Cousins’ rushing acumen. Will he continue to relent from tucking-and-running or will Kubiak give him the green light?
2. High – The raw stats were sexy
Foremost, the Vikings did not pass the football all that much when compared to other NFL teams. Only two teams passed the ball fewer times — the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens. Yes, the two AFC Championship participants.
By far, Cousins threw the football fewer times last season than any other season throughout his career, and this likely had something to do with a mostly healthy Dalvin Cook. Cousins is the team’s offensive steering wheel while Cook is the engine.
In 2018, Minnesota asked Cousins to throw the ball 606 times under offensive coordinator John DeFilippo. With DeFilippo out of the way, Cousins only passed 444 times in 2019. Most NFL teams pass significantly more than they do run it in the modern NFL, but the Vikings were one of the few equanimous teams.
And when Cousins was asked to fling it, he was spectacular. Think that’s a strong adjective for his production? Cousins’ 107.4 passer rating in 2019 was better than Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, Aaron Rodgers, and Tom Brady.
Finally (and out of nowhere for many pundits), Cousins led the NFL in touchdown passes of 50 yards or more. He dimed four in 15 regular-season games.
3. Low – Cousins consecutive starts steak is gone
Low on the totem pole of importance, Cousins is now unlikely to approach any “iron man” streaks for consecutive starts by a starting quarterback. He and the Vikings probably do not care about this mark, but the media enjoys propping guys like Brett Favre and Eli Manning up for their stamina.
Philip Rivers (224 games) and Russell Wilson (128 games) are the active leaders in consecutive starts. Before Week 17 of last season, Cousin stood at 79 straight starts.
Now, he must start over.
In a very strict hypothetical manner, Cousins with a clean bill of health could have realistically started around nine more seasons. This, in theory, would tag him at 223 starts in a row, which would certainly place him in the top five of all-time among quarterbacks.
Although interesting, it is all for nil now. Minnesota had nothing to play for in Week 17 against the Bears last year. The team’s playoff seeding was solidified and starters were subsequently rested.
3. High – The Comeback versus the Denver Broncos
As a preamble, the Vikings Week 11 game at U.S. Bank Stadium against the Broncos had no business being the scene of merciless slaughter in the first half. But it was.
Denver pounced on Minnesota from the start, and the Vikings season, for about 90 minutes, felt like a meaningless charade. A third-string quarterback named Brandon Allen filleted the Vikings defense, and Minnesota’s offense was effectively neutered. But only for a while.
The second half commenced, and Kirk Cousins’ Vikings expeditiously began erasing the Broncos lead. The offensive horsepower arrived while Cousins was systematically dissecting the three-touchdown lead. Irv Smith Jr. caught his first-ever touchdown, Diggs hauled in a Cousins’ missile, Dalvin Cook scored, and Kyle Rudolph put the Vikings in lead with about six minutes to go in the topsy-turvy affair.
Minnesota survived a late Denver counterpunch, and like that, Minnesota pulled off the biggest halftime comeback the franchise had seen in 35 years.
4. Low – Cousins lost a primary pass-catching target
Unless you’re a conspiracy theorist (they’re out there), this event was out of Kirk Cousins’ control.
Stefon Diggs emerged as Cousins’ top target in 2019 once fellow wide receiver Adam Thielen was injured against the Detroit Lions. Diggs stepped up with vigor. The previously-mentioned spat with the team was swept under the rug, a Kumbaya was litigated, and Diggs had one of the best campaigns to date in his five-year career.
The peace was short-lived as Diggs sent out signals that his dismay with the organization was ongoing. He appeared to use song lyrics as code for his disillusionment with the Vikings. This tactic continued all the way up until the day he was traded to Buffalo Bills for four future draft picks.
About five weeks after the Vikings divorced Diggs, they selected wideout Justin Jefferson from LSU in the 2020 NFL draft. In time, he figures to be Diggs’ replacement.
On Cousins, he will embark on the third year of his Vikings tenure with Adam Thielen as the unequivocal WR1, and Stefon Diggs will play about 900 miles eastward.
4. High – Cousins wins his elusive playoff game
He did it.
It took three years in a reservist role behind best-thing-since-sliced-bread Robert Griffin III, three more seasons as a starter with that now-embattled Washington Football team, and two years to learn the lay of the land in Minnesota. But Kirk Cousins finally won a playoff game.
Before the Vikings upended the Saints in January, Cousins was labeled a check-down artist that padded stats in meaningless spots games, who also had never won a big game. For a quarterback, it was whataboutism at its zenith.
Cousins did not universally silence naysayers, but he did convince the sensible ones that he has the mettle for playoff success. In two colossal spots during the wildcard playoff game in New Orleans, Cousins floated flawless passes. One was grabbed by Adam Thielen, the other by Kyle Rudolph for a walk-off touchdown.
This was, by far, Cousins crowning jewel through age 31. His contract was extended this offseason, and the 2020 season will be another stepping-stone that delineates his talent.