Defense cost the Vikings, not Cousins

I’m very disappointed in the Minnesota Vikings.

Sigh. I know. We had a first-year head coach and a first-year general manager. It’s the first time both of them are in their respective positions. They had no expectations even with a potentially great Vikings team that went 8-9 in 2021-22. We went 13-4 to end the regular season. I should be grateful for a 13-5 season, right?

Well…in my humble opinion, yes and no.

How do you measure a successful season? Is it based on how many wins a team records? Is it based on how the team got those wins? For me, it’s a combination of both.

Most people were calling us frauds at 13-4 while others said we were a Super Bowl contender. Both used the 11-0 record in single-score games as evidence for their case. Both used the greatest comeback in NFL history against the Colts for their claims.

For me, the season wasn’t a failure or a success. It was…meh. But if I had to choose one, I’m choosing failure.

It wasn’t the fact that we lost in the wild card round of the playoffs that makes me feel like this season was a failure. It was how we lost.

Now, people will go all the way to the ends of the earth to blame Kirk Cousins for the loss to the New York Giants because on the final offensive snap of the season, he pulled a Kirk Cousins…he threw a check down pass that only went three yards when they needed eight to convert the fourth down.

There are people who are going to point to that one play as the sole, indisputable, undebatable reason why the Vikings lost in the first round of the playoffs, and we will never, ever win a Super Bowl with him because of that play.

Never mind Kirk going 31/39 for 273 yards, two touchdowns, no turnovers, and no sacks in that game. Never mind the defense being suspect all year and in the playoffs, they made Daniel Jones look like Tom Brady in his prime. Never mind that most of our O-Line was a turnstile in the sense that we had a different lineup for most games or they couldn’t block if their life depended on it.

People are saying that Cousins should have at least tried throwing the ball to Justin Jefferson, our star wide receiver, to try and extend the drive, because that worked against Buffalo. One of two things. One: It’s easy to say that when you’re not on the field with defenders a step or two away from tackling you. Two: If he did that and he got intercepted, then people would be kvetching about how he threw up the ball in the last second to get picked off.

Let’s be real. People hate Kirk Cousins because he’s not cool. He’s a devout Christian (maybe Tim Tebow lite) who acts like a dorky dad in his 50s even though he’s 35. That’s about as anti-cool as you can get. He’s not flashy like Patrick Mahomes and he isn’t seen as wholesome like Josh Allen. He’s a goofball, and goofballs don’t get respect in the National Football League.

The bottom line is that the defense cost us the game. They allowed Daniel Jones to lead the Giants on a 31-point campaign. Daniel. Jones. The guy people were calling a bust last season. 

The defense has been abysmal all year, allowing Dallas to score 40, the Packers to score 41, and the Eagles to score 24 (21 of those in the first half).

Arguably, they were the reason we were in so many one-score games. Most of those, we were behind by a few points because of them. If it weren’t for Cousins leading seven fourth-quarter comebacks, we would have been 7-10 or even as bad as 5-12.  We were behind to the Chicago Bears in the first matchup of the season. That’s how bad they were.

Anyway, hate on Kirk all you want. I sure did the first few seasons he was here. But he’s one of the only reasons we did so well in the first place. Maybe the Vikings should have fired defensive coordinator Ed Donatell. Then we wouldn’t have had to score four or five touchdowns a game to have a semblance of a chance of winning.