Once again, Kirk Cousins thrilled the home crowd in Minnesota. Unfortunately for Cousins, though, he was wearing a street team uniform.
Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons, stumbling through a losing streak and on the verge of losing their division lead, came to Minnesota hoping to reverse the late-season spiral. Instead, the spiral got steeper as the Vikings beat Atlanta 42-21 to hand the Falcons their fourth straight loss.
Cousins was completely outplayed by Sam Darnold, his replacement, and the Falcons’ season is now in serious trouble. Meanwhile, Minnesota has no regrets, and looks well on its way to securing a playoff berth with Darnold at the helm.
A longtime fixture in Minnesota, Cousins and the Vikings had an amicable split this past offseason when it became clear that Minnesota would not offer Cousins the contract length he preferred. Coming off a season-ending Achilles injury, Cousins signed with Atlanta, which was looking to shed its longstanding reputation for underachievement.
Cousins has had his moments this season, including a career-high 500-yard passing game, but Atlanta’s momentum is strong. Slowly, unintentionally, Cousins went from a skilled, occasionally exceptional, pocket passer to a restless turnover machine, disrupting obstacles like Halloween candy.
Sunday wasn’t Cousins’ worst game of the season; He threw four interceptions in a loss last week against the Chargers, who called on backup Michael Penix Jr. to start. But Cousins had two more fumbled interceptions and a third, maybe-should-have-been interception of the afternoon, and twice he led the Falcons inside the Minnesota 5 and couldn’t punch the ball into the end zone.
And that’s where the Falcons’ second problem of the afternoon reared its head: terrible penalties. Atlanta committed an astounding 12 penalties for 127 yards on the afternoon, the most against any team in the NFL all season. Sloppy play killed the drive on offense, and — most notably — gifted Minnesota four extra points when a penalty on a Minnesota field-goal attempt gave the Vikings new life. Minnesota responded with Justin Jefferson’s first touchdown after a six-game drought.
Atlanta struck first Sunday with its best red-zone weapon: a sledgehammer running game, in this case Tyler Algier. But Darnold spelled Atlanta’s secondary, starting with a 49-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Addison, and went on to have a great third-quarter play in which he swarmed Atlanta and got Jefferson 50 yards downfield for Jefferson’s second:
Atlanta’s run game kept the Falcons in the hunt, and Atlanta tied the game at 21 with less than a minute left in the third on a 13-yard touchdown run by Bison Robinson. And for a moment, it looked like the Falcons would at least fight it out.
But Darnold continues to show why he’s a revelation in Minnesota. He drove the Vikings back downfield with just over two minutes left and hit Addison for the receiver’s second touchdown, Darnold’s fourth of the afternoon, to take a 28-21 lead.
Soon after, Atlanta’s Ray-Ray McCloud added to Atlanta’s woes when he fumbled on a kickoff runback, and soon after, Darnold found Addison again for a touchdown, increasing the lead to 35–21 with just eight minutes left in the game. Cousins then led Atlanta on a promising drive … but proceeded to end any Falcon hopes when he threw another interception, his eighth fourth quarter INT of the year. Seven plays later, senior Aaron Jones ran into the end zone for the Vikings’ third fourth-quarter touchdown.
Atlanta’s final drive ended, appropriately enough, with a turnover on downs as Cousins’ final pass bounced off the hands of Kyle Pitts. Cousins finished with 344 yards passing, but no touchdowns and two picks. Robinson and Algiers rushed for 92 and 63 yards and a touchdown, respectively.
This latest Falcon loss has both short- and long-term implications. Atlanta surrendered first place in the NFC South to Tampa Bay despite sweeping the Bucs this season. Atlanta has several winnable games left — the Raiders, Giants, Commanders and Panthers await — but so does Tampa Bay. For the first time in months, Atlanta doesn’t control its own playoff path.
On a larger scale, though, it would increase calls for Atlanta to start Penix, a highly touted and highly drafted rookie. After the game, Falcons head coach Raheem Morris was emphatic, saying “Kirk Cousins is our quarterback.” But how long can he stick with a quarterback who is struggling?
Atlanta has a huge financial investment in Cousins - who, it must be noted, can’t play defense – but the Falcons have offensive weapons that can’t be used if the quarterback throws the ball to the other team.
