Kirk Cousins Blamed for Vikings Loss to Eagles
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins accounted for 364 passing yards and 4 touchdown passes in a Thursday Night Football loss at the Philadelphia Eagles, 34-28.
Kirk Cousins Blamed for Vikings Loss to Eagles
The 35-year-old became the first quarterback in Vikings history to throw for 700+ passing yards and 6+ passing touchdowns in the first two games of a season. And he’s the 11th quarterback in NFL history to achieve the mark, with only Drew Bledsoe (1994) and Matt Ryan (2020), plus Cousins, accompanied by 0-2 team records.
Naturally, because it’s a familiar tactic applicable to Cousins, the Vikings signal-caller was blamed for Minnesota’s loss despite the Vikings allowing 259 rushing yards to the Eagles while producing just 28 rushing yards of their own.
FS1‘s Colin Cowherd said about Cousins’ performance Thursday, “So, I think the Kirk Cousins thing, you know, these big TV Thursday night, Monday night, Sunday night standalone games — Kirk Cousins is just bad at them. There’s no getting around it. He is just bad.”
Cousins banked 364 passing yards, 4 touchdowns, no interceptions, and one fumble en route to a 125.6 passer rating and 83.1 QBR in Philadelphia. This would not be coined “bad” by any other quarterback metric or standard — if the passer had a different name than Kirk Cousins.
Meanwhile, The Viking Age’s Luke Parrish tweeted Thursday night, “Kirk’s stat line is better than he played and the score is worse than he played. So far, he hasn’t been the problem for the Vikings but he also has not elevated the team for the most part. Needs to be a lot better when games are within reach.”
Tabulating 364 yards with 4 scores is the very definition of elevating a team.
There’s more. Skip Bayless couldn’t resist either, tweeting, “The Vikings obviously should be ahead in this game. But there’s something about having Kirk Cousins at QB that makes everything shaky.”
Bayless also added, “Sometimes Kirk Cousins looks like some guy they picked out of the stands just before kickoff and threw a uniform on, including a helmet that’s too big.”
The Vikings are the fifth team in NFL history to start the season with an 0-2 record but throw for 6+ passing TDs. One might wonder how pitiful the first two games would’ve played out without Cousins, but nuanced thought is frequently absent from the “Cousins debate.”
Minnesota plays the Los Angeles Chargers in nine days at U.S. Bank Stadium, setting the stage for a Week 3 desperation game.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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