Long before the Vikings made him the face of the franchise, the 32-year-old veteran made a name for himself in the NFL as good enough to put up big numbers, but not good enough to win big games.
All of that might still be true.
After a 52-33 annihilation at the hands of the New Orleans Saints (11-4) on Christmas Day, the Vikings (6-9) have now missed the playoffs in two of three seasons with Cousins under center.
To this date, the biggest win Cousins has engineered in a Vikings uniform is a walk-off win over the Saints in the opening round of the playoffs last season. He followed it up with a dud in a humbling loss to the San Francisco 49ers as the Vikings came up eons short of a Super Bowl.
To say Cousins hasn’t come close to living up to his fully guaranteed $84 million contract — not to mention the contract extension he signed this past offseason — would be a massive understatement.
Those are cold, hard facts. Here’s another: You can’t blame Kirk Cousins for this season.
While the Vikings very clearly overshot their goals for this season — those Super Bowl aspirations were nothing more than a pipe dream after a 1-5 start — Cousins has played his butt off for most of it.
He has racked up 3,860 passing yards and 32 touchdowns. He has remedied his interception problem after a terrible start. He even has learned how to use his legs to better navigate the pocket.
In that sense, Cousins has done nearly everything the Vikings have asked of him this season.
Were there still some games that left something to be desired? Absolutely. He singlehandedly cost the Vikings a win over the Atlanta Falcons with his careless play, then folded like a cheap tent down the stretch against the Dallas Cowboys.
Still, for as bad as Cousins was during that horrendous start, he actually had the Vikings in a pretty good spot heading into the final month of the season.
In fact, the Vikings were actually in playoff position for a hot second at the beginning of the month before a would’ve-could’ve-should’ve loss the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a frustrating loss to Chicago Bears, and now, Friday’s embarrassing loss to the Saints.
While it’s likely that Cousins would be the first to admit he could have done more in those games, he wasn’t the reason the Vikings lost those games. Not even close.
What’s he supposed to do when kicker Dan Bailey turns into a puddle and finishes 0 for 5 on kicks in a single game, against the Cowboys? What’s he supposed do when the Bears’ David Montgomery rumbles for a career-high 146 yards? What’s he supposed to do when the Saints’ Alvin Kamara makes coach Mike Zimmer’s precious defense look like a bunch of Pop Warner kids learning how to tackle for the first time?
As much as Cousins has deserved most of the criticism thrown his way over the past few seasons, and has done little to prove he’s good enough to lead a team to the Super Bowl, he also has turned into a convenient scapegoat as of late to explain the current struggles.
Now, there’s still a legitimate argument to be made that Cousins — or, more specifically, his contract — makes it impossible for the Vikings to build for the future. He was viewed as the missing puzzle piece when, in fact, the Vikings might only have had the edges complete.
That’s a conversation for another time.
In the meantime, the Vikings will ready themselves for a meaningless game against the Detroit Lions next week, then likely head into next season with Cousins at the helm of a core that has proven incapable of getting over the hump.
Asked about the future, Cousins said he thinks the Vikings have a lot of things to be encouraged about moving forward. He promised the Vikings would give everything they had against the Lions and then prepare themselves for what they hope is deeper run next season.
Maybe at that point it’ll be OK to start blaming Cousins again. Just not right now.
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December 26, 2020 at 09:00AM
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Dane Mizutani: Maybe it's time to stop blaming Vikings' Kirk Cousins for everything - Bemidji Pioneer
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