In his 11th season, Kirk Cousins is enjoying the best record he has ever had as an NFL quarterback. At 9-2, the Minnesota Vikings are threatening the rest of the NFC but despite their dominant presence, Cousins is having a notably negative season.
On the surface it looks like Cousins is having a wonderful year; he has the 5th most passing yards in the league, and the 6th most passing touchdowns, but what could he be doing so wrong that I have to write an article about it? It is not like Cousins is having a historically terrible QB season, but by his own standards, he is not performing at his highest level.
As the 5th most accurate QB of all time, Captain Kirk is known to have a very high completion percentage, but currently has the lowest completion percentage he has had in 5 years. He has been missing easy throws that he would previously complete and throwing way too many interceptions. Cousins has thrown 9 picks so far this year, which is the 3rd most in the league, and already more than he had thrown the entirety of last year. He and the Vikings have been able to recover from these giveaways, but as games become more important toward the end of the season, Cousins needs to refocus and cut down those numbers in order to put themselves in better positions to win games.
His quarterback rating is also the lowest it has been since he became a Minnesota Viking, and that is thanks to the increased number of incompletions and interceptions – married with the fact that he has the lowest yards per pass attempt of his entire starting QB career right now.
Cousins has proven that he is a top-quality quarterback, and has still been putting together a good season despite making an increased number of errors and dealing with an offensive line that has allowed 28 sacks so far this year (already more than last year). He leads the league with 6 game winning drives, has been stoking the flame of Justin Jefferson’s explosive season and has been able to find the endzone plenty of times to give his team victories.
The Vikings are a good team but could be made even better once Kirk finds his rhythm and plays like the best quarterback he can be. Minnesota will be looking to claim their spot in the playoffs in the coming weeks, and can certainly do so if their 3-time pro bowl quarterback kicks his game into high gear and leads the way.
