Kirk Cousins Weekly Review: Week 1 vs. the Green Bay Packers

What were the best and worst moments of Week 1 for Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins?

The Vikings Age‘s weekly series on Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins‘ high and lows from the 2020 season formally begins this week. Throughout the year, the positive aspects of his performance will be uplifted as well as the not-so-great occurrences from each game.

The Week 1 contest for Cousins was laden with highs and lows, although the positives were heftier than the negatives. It’s a rarity for this phenomenon to occur as the Vikings typically stack wins when Cousins is efficient. This time though, it was the normally-reliable Minnesota defense that looked moronic. However, Cousins was not without fault either. More on that later.

The Vikings met the Green Bay Packers last week in a game that slapped the most combined points on the scoreboard of any game during the Mike Zimmer era. The matchup felt odd. The Packers advanced the ball downfield at will all day long as Minnesota’s pass-rush was in absent and the secondary was unimpressive.

Moreover, this was the highest-scoring Vikings-Packers game of all-time since the teams started dancing together in 1961.

By the numbers, Cousins’ afternoon was bittersweet. His passer rating was a seductive 118.6, but much of the production was registered while Minnesota was trailing.

For QBR, Cousins recorded a 59.3 which is on par with his performance from 2019. It was also the 17th-best in the league in Week 1. Therefore, some quarterbacks overachieved last week or many players are suddenly better.

There’s more to the bittersweetness of Cousins’ day versus Green Bay, so let’s dive in.