Cousins Love - Underappreciated by Some

[HappyViking]

https://thevikingage.com/2018/11/28/cousins-success-minnesota-vikings-underappreciated/

Kirk Cousins’ success with the Vikings is grossly underappreciated by Adam Patrick


The Minnesota Vikings quarterback is on pace to set
numerous passing records for the franchise and yet still not fulfilling
the expectations of some fans.From 2011 to 2017,
Teddy Bridgewater was the only Minnesota Vikings quarterback to throw
for at least 300 yards in a game more than twice in a season.
Bridgewater passed for over 300 yards three times in 2014.
Through 11 games this year, Kirk Cousins already has five different games with over 300 passing yards for the Vikings. Another outing like this and Cousins will tie Minnesota’s all-time record for most 300-yard games in a single season with Brett Favre in 2009 and Daunte Culpepper in 2004.
In addition to that record, the Vikings’ current quarterback is also on pace to break the franchise record for total passing yards in a single season.
His current completion percentage of 71.4 is also not far off from the
single-season Minnesota record currently held by Sam Bradford when he
completed 71.6 percent of his passes in 2016.
Cousins
is also on track to become just the fifth Minnesota signal-caller in
team history to start at least 13 games in a year and finish with an
interception percentage below two. Three of the four guys
to previously do this for the Vikings (Case Keenum in 2017, Brett Favre
in 2009, Fran Tarkenton in 1976) all led the team to the NFC
Championship or farther during these specific seasons.
With Cousins under center this year, Minnesota also has a top 10 passing offense for the first time since 2009. The Vikings literally have not had quarterback this talented playing for them in almost a decade.
Despite
all of the success Cousins has been having this season though, it still
doesn’t seem to be enough for some of those who root for Minnesota each
week.
These people look at last season and the Vikings’ run to
the NFC Championship and expected the team to pick up right where they
left off with their new quarterback this year.
Not
taken into account by these fans has been Minnesota losing the best
offensive coordinator they’ve had in a long time in Pat Shurmur, the
Vikings having a harder schedule this season, and the team’s offensive
line playing significantly worse.
Minnesota has not
been running the ball in 2018 as much as they were last season too. So
Cousins has had to put the offense on his shoulders way more than Keenum
did last year.
In games where their current quarterback has attempted 40 or more passes,
the Vikings are 1-4-1 this season. During the matchups in which Cousins
has attempted less than 40 passes this year, Minnesota is 5-0.
Keenum had just three games last season
with more than 40 pass attempts (including the playoffs) and the
Vikings only came out victorious in one of them. During the matchups
when he threw less than 40 passes, Minnesota had an 11-2 record
So
in reality, when Cousins has been given a similar workload to what
Keenum basically had every week last year, the Vikings’ current
quarterback has been just as successful.
Like most
signal-callers around the NFL, Cousins is at his best when his offense
is running a balanced game-plan. Minnesota’s offense has been quite
unbalanced for the majority of the season and that falls on the
shoulders of offensive coordinator John DeFilippo.
So the next time someone hears a Vikings fan complaining about Cousins
missing a throw or tossing a costly pick, that person should be asked
why the blame doesn’t fall more on DeFilippo’s shoulders for asking his
quarterback to carry the entire offense on his back.

[Guest]

I've been guilty of this.  It's all about the Ws for many fans that don't play fantasy football.  I'd rather see the team winning by Kirk throwing for 230 and another 130 yards rushing.  When the team is losing, it's hard to be "thankful" we have such a great QB no matter how many yards he throws for.

If he can win this week against Brady, I'll be a proud supporter of Kirk.  If he plays like he did against Chicago and the Bills, lets just say he'll remain underappreciated.

Flip needs to give Kirk some help.  This lack of a running game is killing this team on both sides of the ball, not just our QB.

[Guest]

@"HappyViking" said:
I've been guilty of this.  It's all about the Ws for many fans that don't play fantasy football.  I'd rather see the team winning by Kirk throwing for 230 and another 130 yards rushing.  When the team is losing, it's hard to be "thankful" we have such a great QB no matter how many yards he throws for.

If he can win this week against Brady, I'll be a proud supporter of Kirk.  If he plays like he did against Chicago and the Bills, lets just say he'll remain underappreciated.

Flip needs to give Kirk some help.  This lack of a running game is killing this team on both sides of the ball, not just our QB.

It's all about the match up. And New England's defense ain't the Bears'. Cousins will have a good game. Whether it's enough to get a W in Foxboro is more about Brady v. Zimmer. 

[Guest]

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"HappyViking" said:
I've been guilty of this.  It's all about the Ws for many fans that don't play fantasy football.  I'd rather see the team winning by Kirk throwing for 230 and another 130 yards rushing.  When the team is losing, it's hard to be "thankful" we have such a great QB no matter how many yards he throws for.

If he can win this week against Brady, I'll be a proud supporter of Kirk.  If he plays like he did against Chicago and the Bills, lets just say he'll remain underappreciated.

Flip needs to give Kirk some help.  This lack of a running game is killing this team on both sides of the ball, not just our QB.

It's all about the match up. And New England's defense ain't the Bears'. Cousins will have a good game. Whether it's enough to get a W in Foxboro is more about Brady v. Zimmer. 

I agree about the Brady vs. Zim, but Flip needs to find the running game.  This would be a good game for Cook and Murry to grind out a win, and keep Brady on the bench. 

[Guest]

Straight up, Cousins has a beautiful deep ball. I know it sails sometimes but no one is perfect. And even if he is not elite so few are, and he is supposedly second tier, so fucking what? His first game against the Packers shows what he can do. And some people respond to his personality, he is cerebral and fiery so he can resonate with a lot of people. I am amazed he is still upright with this OL. I want the wins but damn you gotta put the guy in the best position to do it.

And yes the turnovers suck, he has owned his part. He will continue to work and put time in. He is forming relationships and establishing himself. The play calling still needs work. Let's run more hurry up and move the chains. Cousins is the guy now. He has some weapons. The offense needs to continue to evolve. All things considered, he is making progress. And sure he was a big investment but they need to continue to invest in the OL for him to succeed.

[Guest]

@"HappyViking" said:

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"HappyViking" said:
I've been guilty of this.  It's all about the Ws for many fans that don't play fantasy football.  I'd rather see the team winning by Kirk throwing for 230 and another 130 yards rushing.  When the team is losing, it's hard to be "thankful" we have such a great QB no matter how many yards he throws for.

If he can win this week against Brady, I'll be a proud supporter of Kirk.  If he plays like he did against Chicago and the Bills, lets just say he'll remain underappreciated.

Flip needs to give Kirk some help.  This lack of a running game is killing this team on both sides of the ball, not just our QB.

It's all about the match up. And New England's defense ain't the Bears'. Cousins will have a good game. Whether it's enough to get a W in Foxboro is more about Brady v. Zimmer. 

I agree about the Brady vs. Zim, but Flip needs to find the running game.  This would be a good game for Cook and Murry to grind out a win, and keep Brady on the bench. 

Agree. I would say that we should be able to run the ball against the Patriots' mid-level run defense. But it was alarming how much we struggled to run the ball against the Packers, a bottom third run defense. It seems to me our run success can almost be matched up with whether Compton plays or not. Maybe it's just my imagination, but it seems we struggled early, he gets hurt, we find some success and then he comes back and we struggle again. My assumption is that Compton is a better pass blocker than Isidora and that's why he's starting, but maybe it's time to revisit that. 

[Guest]

What is so special about 300 yard games?
300 yard games by a QB are good for fantasy guys.
Not for team wins. They don't improve the teams win %
Kirks 5 300+ games 3 were not wins 
1 of the games 300+ yards they  won by 2 points.

2018
WK1 7 QBs 300+ yards 5 did not win,
of the 2 that did win Case,  Fitzpatrick
Why did I bring this up? Had these 2 guys who,
are/where not know for big yard passing games not won.
Every QB with over 300 yards would have lost.
 

This is why I don't get exited about 300 yard passing games.
More times than not that QB's team lost

106 QB's have 300+ yard games in 176 total games this year
54 did not win the game

At best less than 50% chance of winning with over 300 yards.

Heck if every QB had over 300 every week only 50% would win

[Guest]

Cousins is not a "the guy" player in many peoples eyes. He was the 2nd QB taken by his former team that year. Not "the guy". He doesn't scream to the world, look at me! He gets knocked for every flaw and expected to fail at every turn. Yet this 4th round draft choice is hanging around. Workman like attitude. He was never "the guy" people wanted to build their team around. Then he became a free agent. Suddenly then some teams took notice??? Suddenly then he was a must have player??? Then he signs with the Vikings and suddenly he's not "the guy" again. Is it at all surprising? Not to this long time laughed at kicked in the nutz repeatedly Viking fan. So I say to them FU !!  you're right he's not "the guy". He's "our guy". Perfect match of player, team and outside attitude towards both. Let's make this work guys and give them a big up yours. That's my dream 

[Guest]

This is not that complicated. Our offensive line is not good. Sometimes, not very often, but sometimes, the pass protection is OK. Not great. Just OK. And when it is OK, Cousins does really well.  Our run blocking is almost always bad.  So go ahead and tell Flip to call more running plays. But you better hope we are playing a team with a weak offense because we are going to face a lot of third and long situations.  And that leads to pressure, sacks, interceptions, and fumbles (that has really been the worst part of KC's game and he needs to clean that up).  Success there means a couple of first downs and a lot of punts.
Cousins has played really well under pressure. That's good, because he has been under pressure more than just about any QB in the league.  So here is the easy solution to most of KC's problems: improve the O-line. It's really that simple (almost). The rest is on KC to take care of the ball. But less pressure and fewer sacks will result in fewer turnovers. Nonetheless, he needs to cut out the fumbling. That's on him.  I hope this problem will be resolved. I think it is in the process of getting resolved.
He has also started improving on another aspect of his game: running on pass plays when holes open up and no receiver is open.  He started that vs. GB. It worked. I have a lot of faith in KC. His problems are fixable and he has the right mindset to address them.  But without an improved O-line we are not going to get very far.  The  better teams have good offensive lines. Ours is among the worst.  There's your problem.

[Guest]

@"dadevike" said:
This is not that complicated. Our offensive line is not good. Sometimes, not very often, but sometimes, the pass protection is OK. Not great. Just OK. And when it is OK, Cousins does really well.  Our run blocking is almost always bad.  So go ahead and tell Flip to call more running plays. But you better hope we are playing a team with a weak offense because we are going to face a lot of third and long situations.  And that leads to pressure, sacks, interceptions, and fumbles (that has really been the worst part of KC's game and he needs to clean that up).  Success there means a couple of first downs and a lot of punts.
Cousins has played really well under pressure. That's good, because he has been under pressure more than just about any QB in the league.  So here is the easy solution to most of KC's problems: improve the O-line. It's really that simple (almost). The rest is on KC to take care of the ball. But less pressure and fewer sacks will result in fewer turnovers. Nonetheless, he needs to cut out the fumbling. That's on him.  I hope this problem will be resolved. I think it is in the process of getting resolved.
He has also started improving on another aspect of his game: running on pass plays when holes open up and no receiver is open.  He started that vs. GB. It worked. I have a lot of faith in KC. His problems are fixable and he has the right mindset to address them.  But without an improved O-line we are not going to get very far.  The  better teams have good offensive lines. Ours is among the worst.  There's your problem.

I'm not so sure our biggest problem is the talent on the offensive line. I'm beginning to wonder if a bigger problem might be John D or something in the schemes. Defenses seem to know exactly when we're running and when we're passing. I've always been impressed with the Chargers running game. Sure, Murray and Cook are no Melvin Gordon, but it doesn't seem to matter who's in there. Gordon, Eckeler, Jackson, there's always plenty of running room. So I looked up their line. There is no reason that line should be performing any better than ours. Except for Pouncey, it's a line filled with temporary patches and league average players. What about Denver? Their offensive line is atrocious, by all rights it should be worse than ours. Yet Philip Lindsay averages 6 yards a pop. Patriots, Houston...lines that are no better than ours, below league average players up and down, yet no big running game problems. Why? There's something else going on here. Are we tipping our hand? Is it bad play calling? Do our line coaches who replaced Sparano know what the hell they're doing? Elflein is a great talent, but he's not playing like one. Reiff is a better left tackle than any of the LTs on the teams listed above, yet he's not playing like it.