Its a DeJaVu Kind of Season for Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings

Its a DeJaVu Kind of Season for Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings

09 October, 2023

If his contract with the Minnesota Vikings expires at the end of this season, Kirk Cousins will leave a strange legacy.

It’s the Sixth season with the Vikings for Cousins. Although he is better than most people realize, he is hardly the caliber of player who Minnesota would eternally remember. The Vikings have had enough of Cousins, and quarterbacks are evaluated by the success of their teams. With Cousins, they have only achieved one postseason victory.

Cousins probably only has one more opportunity with the Vikings this season to go down in history, and it’s vanishing fast. The Vikings started the season 0-3 after suffering three narrow losses, but they upset the Carolina Panthers and had a chance to beat the Kansas City Chiefs at home on Sunday. That was inadequate.

The Vikings were defeated by the Chiefs 27-20. In the fourth quarter, they had a chance. Even with Justin Jefferson out due to injury, Cousins advanced the Vikings. If Alexander Mattison hadn’t mishandled a screen pass with a few seconds left, they might have knotted the game. On downs, that drive came to an end with a turnover. When time ran out, the Vikings’ final drive came to an end.

The issue wasn’t Cousins, who will be a free agency after this season. He had a good game, totaling 284 yards and two touchdowns. However, his performance wasn’t good enough to make the difference in what would have been a decisive victory. His time with the Vikings is summed up in that.

Kirk Cousins career stats

Vikings don’t succeed

The Vikings are 1-4, which historically speaking is not a good spot for an NFL team to be in. Although the season is still not ended, it already seems like time is getting short.

Sunday’s game got off to a bad start. Josh Oliver intercepted a 15-yard pass intended for the Vikings on their opening play. After recovering, the Chiefs went on a little drive and scored a touchdown.

To keep up with Patrick Mahomes, you need to score a lot of points, which the Vikings were unable to do. In the second quarter, Minnesota did lead 13-10, but that advantage was transient. The Vikings trailed 27-13 in the fourth quarter after the Chiefs knotted the score just before halftime and virtually controlled the third quarter.

Cousins made an effort to re-engage the Vikings. They had a few opportunities to put together a drive to preserve the victory since they were only down seven points late in the fourth quarter.

When a pass interference flag was raised in the end zone on fourth down during the opening drive, the drive resulted in a turnover on downs. In the waning seconds, the Vikings attempted one last desperate shot, but they were out of timeouts and had a long way to go. The Vikings had a shot from 38 yards out on the game’s last snap. Cousins failed to complete a pass. He lost his job.

That makes sense.

What will Cousins do next?

Cousins may depart after this campaign. Next season, he will be 36 years old, yet there will be a market for him. Four-time Pro Bowl quarterback available to a lot of teams.

Even though they don’t seem to have a better quarterback in the works, the Vikings might be prepared to move on. But the Cousins era as a whole has felt a little stagnant. Minnesota is unable to advance. Although it’s not Cousins’ fault, nothing seems to be changing either.

The season is still ongoing. The Vikings might come back. They were better than their record this season and won 13 games last season. Next year, Cousins might make a comeback. The Vikings don’t exactly have better options.

But it also appears likely that the Cousins era will come to an extremely disappointing end. Fans of the Vikings will always demand more from it if that’s the case.