Chicken or Egg

[VikingOracle]

Facts:

• First three games, Cousins’ time to attempt clocked in at 2.37 seconds.
• Cleveland: Cousins’ time to attempt clocked in at 2.51 seconds.

Cousins was pressured on approximately half his drop backs against Cleveland.  But was the number of pressures totally on the offensive line or was it due to the ball not getting out quickly enough?

Theories:

• Stefanski knows how Cousins makes his reads and how he struggles when his first read is not open.  Therefore, perhaps their DBs really focused on taking away the first read?
• Did KK's game plan call for longer developing routes?
• Did Cousins get flustered as the game developed causing him to be slower to react and less likely to trust his receivers? 
• Were Cleveland's adjustment in the defensive backfield after the first drive that good and Kubiak didn't make suffcient counter-adjustments?

[Guest]

It is on Cousins to get rid of the ball, but after 3+ years, I blame the OC, Cousins is what he is and you have to game plan to his strength, he has a great arm and is very accurate, but. very poor mobility and pocket presence, he needs to be put into situations where he is getting rid of the ball quickly, so it has to be short drop with slants and short routes and also rollouts.  Everything Sunday was a deep drop, it's a serious concern that our OC could not see that.  Classic definition of insanity in doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  

[Guest]

It's certainly both. As stated previously, you couldnt really roll out vs the Browns due to their DL so we had to rely on the OL being able to hold for those deep drop backs we typically run. I guarantee the Vikes aren't the 4th best blocking OL in the NFL after Sunday, same goes for Kirk's rating. 

[Guest]

I think with the increased pressure actually makes the QB hold the ball longer.  Scrambling takes much more time than the normal throw.  But it could also be caused by taking away the first read as you said.

[Guest]

Cousins is at his best beating blitzes,  The Browns were able to get pressure without blitzing most of the game and our o line was not up to the task of stopping their front 4.   7 defenders was too many in coverage and forced cousins to hold the ball longer..

[Guest]

Stefanski used his experience to his advantage. Not sure about Kubiak, he is still a work in progress. Cousins did seem to get flustered. I think Cleveland made the necessary adjustments and Kubiak did not. 

[Guest]

Blah Blah and then another Blah...we lost...again.   Excuse #   

[Guest]

Maybe it was this.

https://twitter.com/LukeBraunNFL/status/...4688191505

[Guest]

90% of it was stunts and blitzes they didn't pick up. Like with week one with Browning, Stefanski played a big role in that. 

[Guest]

@MaroonBells said:
90% of it was stunts and blitzes they didn't pick up. Like with week one with Browning, Stefanski played a big role in that. 

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