We all heard the narratives going into Sunday’s Vikings and Saints game.
Kirk Cousins hasn’t won a playoff game. He’s 0-9 on Monday Night Football (although, this game wasn’t on MNF, so whatever). Cousins doesn’t win big games. He’s in those kind-of-weird Sleep Number commercials.
And then for Vikings fans, there’s always the friend who is like what about Case Keenum or Teddy Bridgewater? We could have saved the money that isn’t even ours . . .
Well, well, well. To quote Michael Scott, how the turn tables.
Cousins and the Vikings just beat the Saints 26-20 in overtime. IN A PLAYOFF GAME! The Vikings were 7.5-point underdogs. This was a game the Vikings were not supposed to win!
Cousins’ numbers aren’t wild. He threw for 242 yards and a touchdown. But he never turned the ball over, and he made two huge plays in overtime. He connected with Adam Thielen on a 43-yard bomb that ended up setting up the game-winning four-yard touchdown to Kyle Rudolph.
There’s not much of a debate that Cousins outplayed future HOF Drew Brees.
Cousins signed a three-year $84 million deal prior to the 2018 season to win games like this. And while the Vikings haven’t won the Super Bowl (yet!), they are advancing to the Divisional Round against the 49ers which is more than pretty much everyone thought they’d do.
To give Cousins a hard time leading up to this game made sense. But after a game like the one he had against the Saints, it’s also time to give him some credit.
