6 biggest takeaways from the Vikings win over the Steelers in Week 14

Minnesota struggled to pass the football

There were a few times when Kirk Cousins threw a beautiful deep ball to a receiver that had a great chance of being reeled in. Otherwise, Minnesota’s quarterback didn’t look like his usual self at all on Thursday night.

For Cousins, completing only 14 of his 31 throws is a poor ratio. When you add in that he recorded two interceptions on the day, it gets worse. Sure, one of those picks was a tipped pass and the other was when pressure was in his face, but those turnovers hurt.

If you subtract the 62-yard play where K.J. Osborn may or may not have pushed off to get open, the numbers get even uglier. Thankfully, on a day when 21 penalties were accepted against both teams for a total of 187 yards, that wasn’t called back.

The Vikings can’t rely on Dalvin Cook to carry this team. Kirk Cousins needs to play as close to mistake-free football as possible while making smart decisions to move the chins and eat the clock. He may miss Adam Thielen in the red zone, but he needs to make sure he can keep Minnesota in games. Plus, targeting Justin Jefferson on 15 of those pass attempts while he caught only seven of them was not efficient.