That's Not $84 Million Worth Of QB Play

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@SFVikeFan said:
I'd seriously make a trade for Teddy ... 3rd rounder and Rudolph to free up cap space.

no thanks on Teddy. He led the saints to 9 points today

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I'm pretty sure Stefanski didn't expect for Cousins to make a throw a high school sophomore would know better than to launch up...

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@jargomcfargo said:

@silverjoel said:

@jargomcfargo said:

@Mike Olson said:

@Vikergirl said:
I am so pissed about that INT. All he had to do was keep handing it off. Boneheaded. 

Not his call though. OC called pass for some odd reason. I still think thielen broke his route off as well. 

Never should have been passing at all there.

Exactly. Why wouldn't you run? They couldn't stop it, and they were gassed.

Wait, so all last year and this off-season there were tons of fans clamoring for the run to set up the play action pass.  The Vikings ran and set up a play action pass.

Don't blame a terrible throw on play calling.

BS. If they can't stop it, why stop yourself?  This has nothing to do with fans clamoring. It had everything to do with stopping yourself. And the play caller should know you can't trust a guy who was erratic all day. Why not trust a guy who was producing? Cook. It was first down so Cousins should have thrown it away. But why not run it a couple more times, then throw if needed?

It was a good play call.  It was meant to keep the defense off balance.  First down passes have the highest success rate, better than waiting for a sure passing down.  An incomplete pass doesn't hurt there.

Don't throw a horrible pass.  That's it.

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We called Play Action off of 6 successful run plays, on first down too. I thought Thielen was selling the playaction, as if he wasn't running a route then bang; cuts to the sideline. The defender read it like a book, partially because even the announcer noticed we sucked at that play repeatedly, partially because the corner playing man coverage didn't react to the blocking sell and cut it off.  

Others are clamoring for the days of Case or Teddy; the truth is, even Christian Ponder :o would have thrown that ball away.   

It's a one man route that's covered? Ponder's throwing it away.
It's a playaction bootleg that takes the QB out of the pocket? Ponder is throwing it away.
There is pressure? Ponder is throwing it away.
The WR is 2 yards away from the boundary? Perfect position for Ponder to throw it away.

I don't believe he "saw" Diggs open and hurried the throw. He knew Diggs was crossing the whole time. When Thielen's simple ass one man route was immediately jumped on he's under some pressure, bang bang, he assumes zone coverage and puts the ball beyond the defenders that stepped up into Thielen's flat. Diggs cover guy was playing man and followed him across the field. Oops. ...the safety was even able to recover getting back turning up solid double coverage. 

That ball should have went out the back of the endzone and it should have been 2nd down where, sure, we could have ran the ball again. Hell, even a sack would have still sucked but been fine there. Cousins had more options there than the two dumb routes called and as a lifetime QB now making $84 million I don't get how he didn't instinctively use them.

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great post

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If you are running the ball down your opponents throat you should NOT pass the ball unless they stop the run. Why even think about passing the ball there, have you noticed Cousins previous passes in the game? Running the ball also runs the clock and with about 2 minutes left it was also creating more pressure on the Packers.

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Josh Freeman would have put it in the friggen crowd!

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The Teddy discussion aside, Cousins is not the answer.

I was lukewarm on the guy when we signed him and he's done nothing to dissuade that. Mark my words: we won't go anywhere with him under center. I know we don't have a proven back up, but if we want to salvage this season, try ANYTHING else. Sign a vet, go to the bench, but Cousins will win the winable games, and he'll botch the tough ones.

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Pro Football Focus offered this as context for Cousins’ INT on 1st-&-goal from 8: “From the opponents’ 10-yard line and in, Cousins ranks 27th out of 27 qualifying QBs in passer rating (76.5) since 2017, completing 44.6 percent of his passes w/ lowest yards per attempt avg (1.6)

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@holmanjp said:
Pro Football Focus offered this as context for Cousins’ INT on 1st-&-goal from 8: “From the opponents’ 10-yard line and in, Cousins ranks 27th out of 27 qualifying QBs in passer rating (76.5) since 2017, completing 44.6 percent of his passes w/ lowest yards per attempt avg (1.6)

Bench this guy. If this is going to be our year (and we have a short window with this defense), we can't focus on his contract. 

He's abysmal in games that matter. Get somebody else.