The anti-Cousins narrative has reached new lows
Joe Johnson
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As I sat grinding my teeth and worrying about the future during the disaster that was Minnesota Vikings/Chicago Bears II: Electric Trubiskiloo, I started to see some Tweets that I’m sure all of you are accustomed to when the Vikings are trailing in a game. No, I’m not talking about the “Fire Zimmer” or “Let’s burn this thing down” Tweets (which have some merit and no merit, respectively), but rather the “THIS IS ALL COUSINS FAULT” Tweets that permeate Vikings social media and have since he put pen to paper in 2018.
I know that I said that I was done writing these “Cousins apologist” articles but, as I typically don’t engage in social media “debates” (and did this time) I felt that this would add something to the narrative as it fully encapsulates the anti-Cousins narrative that is seemingly down to it’s last … As you’ll see… goalpost.
What am I even talking about?
Strap in!
This Tweet is what started what is an ongoing/never-ending debate about Cousins role in the Vikings lack of success since 2018. First, I’ll post an article to explain my thoughts on Cousins (for those that care), as this one links to my other Cousins defense articles:
I’ll also sum it up in TL:DR. Essentially, I am not saying that Cousins is a perfect quarterback. Everyone who cared knew Cousins’ strengths and weaknesses before he came to Minny, and while I feel like Cousins has done a good job mitigating some of those weaknesses since 2018, the Vikings never have helped in that regard and that is one of the reasons that these Vikings teams have failed to live up to on paper potential.
I sound vague. What I mean is, Cousins hasn’t been the best under pressure and the Vikings haven’t done enough to mitigate that, especially in 2018 and 2019. Cousins was known to be statue esque, something that he’s shown isn’t exactly fair (especially in 2019 when he had to use his legs to create a de facto pocket as the line collapsed over and over that).
Again, Cousins isn’t perfect. But he isn’t mediocre, either. He’s been mostly good (2018), bad (2019 weeks 1-4, and weeks 1-5 this season), and elite (weeks 5-17 2019, and since the bye this season).
Again.
He isn’t perfect, but he is BY far the best non-40 year old quarterback this team has had since 2004. Statistically and otherwise, this Vikings team hasn’t NOT won a Super Bowl because of Cousins, in fact, they only ever had a chance BECAUSE of Cousins.
There’s no nuance anymore. Because the Vikings broke the bank (or set the market) for Cousins, people are still convinced somehow that his contract somehow limited the Vikings’ chances.
And when I say people, I mean people with sway.
Context.
Eric Eager (of PFF) is a Vikings fan and loathes Cousins (despite the site he is a VP of contradicting said loathing), jumped into the above conversation by saying:
To which I replied, cause I’m a dick:
To which Eager replied:
So. That’s the standard then? Winning a Super Bowl? If so, I guess Favre in ‘09 sucked.
Which lead to:
A) Favre wouldn’t have beat the Niners with that line.
Eager’s site had the 27th-ranked offensive line in 2019. 2009?
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/234176-2009-offensive-line-rankings
B) What defender did we lose in 2018 or 2019 because of Cousins? The only starter they lost from 2018 to 2019 was Sheldon Richardson, WHO SIGNED AFTER COUSINS.
As you’ll notice in my replies, I can’t argue when people are saying objectively wrong things about the last couple seasons. Also, you have to wonder which side of this argument seems like it’s grasping when one side uses false memories and creates arguments I didn’t even say (over and over) instead of addressing what I am saying.
Which again, is that Cousins isn’t perfect but this team has other gigantic flaws that hamstrung their potential post 2017. Also, he is our best chance to do just that as we’ve seen with how elite this offense is despite the frustratingly conservative approach they use.
The Vikings defense peaked in 2017, and was so checked out in the early part of 2018 that many thought they had checked out on Zimmer altogether. Think I’m being hyperbolic? Ask Chris Tommason of the Pioneer Press in this article titled ‘Vikings’ once-dominant defense has fallen apart in Zimmer’s fifth year’
Despite that, and some key injuries (like Dalvin Cook missing half the season), Cousins kept this team afloat by starting his Vikings career breaking records with Adam Thielen (to the apparent ire of Stefon Diggs). Cousins had the first 4,000 yard, 30 touchdown, and 10 or less interception season in team history.
But the Vikings missed the playoffs after missing a win-and-in Week 17 against the Chicago Bears in which it was recently discovered by Tyler Dunne of GoLongTD (formerly of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) was a statement as to how the Vikings felt about Zimmer at the time.
https://vikingsterritory.com/2020/general-news/report-things-are-bad-in-zimmerland
“Says one of the many ex-assistants to cycle through this staff: “That tells you everything you need to know about what the players think of Zim. Right there. That game.”
But yeah, that season? Totally all Cousins’ fault. Sure, we now know what I was saying (and ostracized for to the point of literally getting death threats) in 2015-16. Teddy Bridgewater is not a complete/franchise quarterback. Case Keenum is a back-up in Cleveland after flaming out in Denver (and Washington).
The lack of Vikings success is a multi-year, multi-faceted situation. Cousins isn’t blameless, because that’s not how football works.
That nuance (none of which is mutually exclusive) was mocked, though, as if I was jumping from excuse to excuse instead of explaining the above.
It was this Tweet that made me want to write this piece, as you’ll see:
There were other strange responses like:
They were underdogs against the Saints, by more than a touchdown. But… They won! Newsflash! The Vikings beat the Saints in the playoffs last year!
How is that an argument?
Or rather, how is that a negative? Oh, and that’s not how betting lines work. But they also expected the game to be pretty close (as the total was 49.5 poibts, which if the Saints were to win by 7.5, means the score would be 28-21 Saints). Wow. What an indictment on Cousins and Cousins alone.
As we saw today, Cousins and the offense can’t do everything. The defense couldn’t stop Trubisky and the Bears when it mattered, or at all, but after people forget the particulars all we’ll hear in 2021 is that Cousins didn’t come through down the stretch.
This is all moot as Cousins is here through 2022 regardless. But, isn’t it time that we stopped blaming him for EVERYTHING while using revisionist history to do so?
Let’s summarize:
One side is blaming Cousins for things that objectively not true (signing or keeping defenders, the cap, the playoffs).
One side has moved the goalposts as to what is good enough over and over AND ADMITS it.
I’ve been consistent. Painfully so.
I’ve watched those goalposts/narratives shift.
Cousins can’t (deep inhale): win against good teams, put the team on his back, come from behind, win prime time games, Monday Night Football games, win a playoff game, etc.
He’s done those things, and he put the team in a position to win today. Irv Smith Jr. dropped a pass. Thielen was held on the Hail Mary and Bisi Johnson forgot how to jump. Oh, and the defense was bad. Again.
This Vikings offense is great despite the conservative / atrocious play-calling. Jefferson is having a Moss like rookie year, but Cousins sucks?
How? Why?
Don’t answer that. Cause I can’t take much more of this. It’s like arguing with angry smoke. You can never convince people because they made their mind up in 2018 and care more about being right about their 2018 take than they do about actually being right.
Case in point, this final Tweet stating that the Vikings are a run first team BECAUSE COUSINS is so bad he has to be hidden (despite his accuracy (2nd most accurate passer in league history) or the fact that they’re 8th in passing touchdowns but 29th in attempts, or that Cousins has had 3 touchdowns in six home games this season and would’ve had seven if not for Irv Smith Jr/Bisi Johnson)?
Now I’ve heard it all!
So, the Vikings started hiding Cousins before he got here? Even though we’ve been a running team since Zimmer arrived? Or that they’ve drafted signed/kept/ lineman who can run block but not pass block? If he is so bad, why would you not give him some semblance of protection? Why are his stats what they are? Let me guess “garbage time”? Cause that’s how percentages work.
Cousins has kept a bad defense afloat in 2020 and, if we’re being honest, since we signed and extended him. This defense has been a shell of it’s self since the second half of the 2017 Saints game. They never come through when it matters despite all the attention paid to it. And Cousins gets blamed.
How?
Because the above Tweets were sent out during a game in which Cousins kept the Vikings in it the entire time. Or at least until they decided to “hide” Cousins on third-and-1 and run the ball. They created the run first offense before he got here (ask Teddy), before he played a snap, and for some reason extended him at $45 mil guaranteed in 2022 despite needing to hide him? That would be an admission he was a mistake, so how/why resign him when you’re rebuilding?
Because he gives them the best chance to win and because this team hasn’t drafted or developed a quarterback in decades. Now we have a pretty damn good one, that isn’t a year away from selling metal socks, and people can’t stand it because they thought his 2018 contract was some albatross it turned out not to be.
https://vikingsterritory.com/2019/general-news/in-retrospect-was-cousins-contract-a-bargain
Okay, NOW I’m done.