Leave Kirk Alone!

I’m honestly not sure what the hell else Kirk Cousins has to do to impress people. On the season, he’s now completed 69.3% of his passes and thrown for 23 touchdowns against just four interceptions. And you can’t chalk it up to “garbage time” statistics, as we heard so often last year, because the Vikings haven’t been in a lot of those situations this season.

In the last ten games, he has thrown two interceptions, both of which went off of the hands of Stefon Diggs and into the hands of a defensive player. He played most of the last six weeks without (arguably) his best wide receiver, and played basically the entire second half on Monday night without his starting left tackle.

Oh, and Dalvin Cook missed the second half with an injury, too. He’s been alright this season, if nobody had noticed.

But, after getting down 34-17, it was Cousins that got this team back into a position to potentially win, despite his team having a 2-to-1 disadvantage in time of possession. Yes, the last offensive drive came up short, and if people want to get angry about that, that’s fine. But without Cousins, they’re not in that position in the first place.

When the Vikings signed Kirk Cousins, it was with the belief that he was the “missing piece” to the Vikings having a shot at winning a Super Bowl. However, when you label someone as the “missing piece,” it brings the implication that all. . .not some, but all. . .of the other pieces are in place.

At this point, Kirk Cousins is nowhere near the Minnesota Vikings’ biggest problem. The Minnesota Vikings’ offense is nowhere near the Minnesota Vikings’ biggest problem, and that will become even more apparent when Adam Thielen finally gets back. If any of the self-styled football experts out there wanted to take a second and look around, it would be relatively easy for them to see that.

But that’s not what gets “the clicks” or “the views” or what have you, so we’re going to continue hearing the garbage about Kirk Cousins and his “failures.” Even when it’s abundantly clear that the Vikings’ failures are not necessarily on him.

Anybody that’s still going on about this kind of thing when they’re talking about Cousins is never, ever going to be impressed by Cousins or give him anything even remotely resembling a fair shake. There will always be a reason for them to disparage Cousins, or to move the goalposts to their liking at a particular moment. If that’s the tack that people want to take, that’s fine, they can do that.

But, if we’re being completely honest, there’s no reason to take Kirk Cousins haters seriously at this point. I certainly don’t see any, at any rate.