The Minnesota Vikings have been solid thus far in the 2022 season, getting out to a 3-1 start. Their only loss came on primetime against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2, which comes as no surprise because Kirk Cousins is the team’s starting quarterback.
Cousins is notoriously poor in games played in primetime, as that loss to the Eagles dropped his record on Monday Night Football to 2-10. That is the worst record of any quarterback on Monday Night Football that has started in at least 10 games.
In that game against the Eagles, Cousins completed 58.7 percent of his passes for 221 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. It was by far his worst performance of the season as his quarterback rating was 51.1; his next lowest this season came last week when the Vikings went overseas to take on the New Orleans Saints and he registered a respectable 84.6 quarterback rating.
Despite that poor performance against the Eagles, Cousins has had a solid season. He has turned the ball over only once in the three other games and he has thrown for at least 260 yards in each contest.
He is moving the ball downfield, which is encouraging for the Vikings because their running game with Dalvin Cook and Andrew Mattison has not gotten going yet. That has put some pressure on Cousins to perform and thus far, he has answered the call.
According to PFF, Cousins is the most accurate quarterback in the NFL this season when targeting past the sticks. That means that Cousins is the most accurate passer in the league when throwing the ball beyond the first down marker.
While that isn’t a stat on your everyday box score, it is a very important one. It means that Cousins is putting the ball where it needs to be for the offense to pick up first downs. The results are there, as Minnesota is fifth in the NFL through four games with 95 first downs.
If Kirk Cousins can keep performing at this level and the coaching staff can figure out how to get the running game going, the Vikings’ offense is going to be among the very best in the league this season.
