Welcome to Kirk-tober

The Vikings, with Kirk Cousins, Win When This Happens
Kirk Cousins

The Minnesota Vikings escaped the month of September with a record of 2-1, and fans of the purple team should be ecstatic about that. Nonetheless, if historic trends stay true, this October should be another very strong month for the Vikes. For fans that have followed Kirk Cousins throughout his NFL career, this month is nicknamed “Kirk-tober”, and it’s for a very good reason. October has been a very kind month for Cousins during his NFL career.

Throughout his 10-plus years in the league, Cousins has appeared in 33 NFL games in the month of October. His teams are 17-15-1 in those games, making October one of three months where his teams are above .500 along with November (we’ll talk about November in a bit) and January. Here are the stats for Captain Kirk during Kirk-tober. Those in bold indicate the highest of his career in any given month.

  • 775 pass completions
  • 68.8% completion percentage
  • 8821 passing yards
  • 56 touchdowns
  • 28 interceptions

The only reception of Cousins career also came during the month of October. The man really does do it all during these weeks.

This October, the Vikings will rely on their QB to come through again as they face a tough stretch of opponents, including the New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears, and Miami Dolphins before going into a Week 7 bye, and then following the bye week, they’ll face the Arizona Cardinals.

That said, we may have to wait another month to see the true prime Kirk Cousins. While Cousins historically has been fabulous in the month of October, there’s an argument to be made that the month nicknamed after him should be November.

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”1108097″ player=”26281″ title=”A%20Preview%20of%20Vikings%20at%20Saints%20with%20Bryant%20McKinnie” duration=”1635″ description=”Dustin Baker chats with Bryant McKinnie and his pals about the Vikings in Week 4.” uploaddate=”2022-09-29″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/19439/snapshot/1108097_th_1664471733.jpg” contentUrl=”//cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/19439/sd/1108097.mp4″ width=”16″ height=”9″]

In just 27 games, Cousins teams have nearly as many wins in November (16) as they do in October (17). He also averages 274.3 passing yards in November compared to 267.3 in October and has a TD/INT split of 58/11. While Cousins needs to be good in October to help keep the Vikings afloat, November is when they’ll truly need to ride their QB’s arm to wins. Here’s Minnesota’s opponents throughout November:

  • Week 9 @ Washington Commanders
  • Week 10 @ Buffalo Bills
  • Week 11 vs. Dallas Cowboys
  • Week 12 vs. New England Patriots

For now, though, all attention goes to tomorrow morning’s matchup with the New Orleans Saints. Either way, it’s promising to know that these next couple months should bring out the best of Kirk Cousins.

Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing as well as minors in History, Human Biology, and Journalism. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh can often be found training for a marathon, playing video games, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. For more of his takes, NFL and otherwise, check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken

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