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: 05.06.23
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 : 05, 2023 9:28 am : NFL divisional playoffs Kirk Cousins fai |
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The cruel and unfair nature of the NFL playoffs is that one or two throws tend to define a quarterback regardle s of what happened from September through December. Make the throws in the moments demanding perfection, and wind up with Super Bowl rings and the reputation of a future Hall of Famer -- like, say, . Mi s them, and -- regardle s of what came before -- get dismi sed. Like, say, .This is a clich but nece sary preface to any story that begins to discu s the complicated career of the ' quarterback, especially a story that attempts to distill Cousins' reputation. Cousins is a good quarterback. But on Saturday afternoon in Santa Clara, against the , he was not good enough. Cousins finished with 172 yards (21-for-29), one touchdown and one interception .Not good enough to shake the narrative that followed him from Washington to Minnesota and will linger Brandon Montour Kids Jersey into 2020. Not good enough for the Vikings to upset the top-seeded and advance to the NFC Championship Game. Not good enough to fulfill the expectations that came attached to the mega-contract the Vikings awarded him two offseasons ago. The defense -- the supposed strength of the team -- got bullied in the second half by a punishing ground a sault. They allowed 186 yards on 47 carries. The offensive line failed to open up the nece sary holes -- the supposed strength of the offensive line -- for . He was limited to 18 yards on nine carries. The offensive line was unable to provide Cousins with adequate protection -- we already knew that was a weakne s. The Vikings didn't score a point after halftime. They gained only 147 yards and picked up only seven first downs. A week after going 10-for-18 on third down, the Vikings went 2-for-12.The Vikings lost because they're, quite simply, from top to bottom, not as good as the 49ers. They haven't been all season long, which is why they entered the game as seven-point underdogs. And they weren't on Saturday, which is why they lost by 17 points.In that sense, nobody should put the entire weight of the lo s on Cousins. First and foremost, the 49ers deserve praise. Many quarterbacks have failed to vanquish the 49ers. He wasn't the first. And he probably won't be the last with the 49ers continuing to look like the premier team in the NFC. In that sense, it's not fair to rip Cousins to shreds for what transpired on Saturday. A lot of quarterbacks would've lost that game. But when Cousins signed a with the Vikings in March 2018, fairne Chris Wagner Jersey s flew out the window. So did comparisons to the majority of NFL quarterbacks. Cousins was always going to be judged on his performances come January (and maybe, one day, February). Teams don't spend $28 million per season on quarterbacks so they can be pa sengers. They pay that money so the quarterback in question can elevate the team around him. In that sense, Cousins came up short. He wasn't good enough to adorn the Vikings' ugly flaws. Saturday served as a microcosm of Cousins' career, neatly encapsulated into four quarters. He didn't play terribly, and it certainly wasn't all his fault. He wasn't helped by his offensive line, receivers, or coaches. Too often, the Vikings stubbornly gave the ball to Cook even though Cook had nowhere to run, putting Cousins in disadvantageous situations where the 49ers' defense was able to look for the pa s. The game-changing moment came midway through the third quarter when stopped on his route just as Cousins released the football. , , caught the pa s. The . Richard Sherman. Elite.Records his third career postseason INT.(via ) CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) Eight plays later, the 49ers took a two-score lead. No longer able to stubbornly stick to their ineffective ground game, in desperate need of a touchdown, the Vikings called three straight pa sing plays on their ensuing drive. They gained six yards. On the third play, Cousins declined to run for Brandon Montour Men Jersey a first down in order to throw incomplete to a tightly covered receiver. The Vikings went three-and-out. Cousins should have run for the first down here. Threw incomplete instead. Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) After the 49ers tacked on a field goal to take a 17-point lead, the game all but ended. The Vikings officially waved the white flag when they punted the ball back to the 49ers even though they needed three scores to mount a succe sful comeback. It ended in disappointment, but it didn't begin that way. Fresh off an Andy Welinski Jersey upset over the in New Orleans, in a game that saw Cousins seemingly shake the narrative by outplaying and leading a game-winning drive in overtime that culminated with a walk-off touchdown, Cousins connected with in the first quarter for a 41-yard touchdown. On that series, the Vikings abandoned their running game and let Cousins sling it. It worked. Cousins threw the ball six times and on those plays, the Vikings gained 73 yards. Most importantly, they tied the game after a demoralizing beginning. What a response! finds for the deep TD. Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) Those 41 yards accounted for nearly a quarter of Cousins' final output. He finished with only 172 yards on 29 attempts, meaning he averaged only 5.9 yards per attempt. From an efficiency standpoint, it was the third-worst game of his otherwise productive season. Cousins misfired on only eight of his pa ses, but the mi ses were crucial. There was the interception, which could either be pinned on Thielen or simply credited to Sherman. And there was his inaccurate throw to Diggs late in the first half that would've given the Vikings a first down inside the 10-yard line, but instead resulted in a third-and-11 that led to a sack in an obvious pa sing situation and forced the Vikings to settle for a field goal in a seven-point game. It's the Korbinian Holzer Kids Jersey kind of throw -- Cousins wasn't pre sured and Diggs wasn't well covered -- that NFL starting quarterbacks, regardle s of their salary, are supposed to hit 10 times out of 10.Cousins mi sed. The replay was even more damning. "Just felt like when I was throwing it, I thought we had it," Cousins said. "The corner was off, but I think I just pulled him too far to the sideline. Just didn't connect on it."Tough one." It's moments like that -- not to mention, the plays where Cousins declined to take open shots downfield in order to dump the ball down underneath -- that breathed new life into the narrative that Cousins can't win big games, even if he just took down the Saints one week ago. Cousins said he needed to look at the film before he could say if he mi sed some opportunities downfield, but admitted he mi sed one chance to tight end Jr. in the second half. "I think we had some called," said Vikings coach Mike Zimmer when asked about throwing deep. "We didn't throw them." What makes Cousins' struggles so frustrating is how well he played leading up to Saturday. It genuinely did feel like he turned the corner after his first season in Minnesota that was statistically impre sive but didn't resu
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