Monday night’s game ended with a 19-13 final score after a fourth-quarter touchdown that put the Minnesota Vikings ahead. By all accounts it was a close game through and through. Blaming Kirk Cousins for such a sloppy game is often warranted, but at least this time, the nail-biting nature of Monday night’s game was not really on the quarterback.
Most of the factors that kept the score close in this one had little to nothing to do with Cousins’ play. For one, Cordarrelle Patterson’s kickoff return touchdown to open the second half was a tough blow that put the Bears up for about a quarter or so. Granted, that was the Bears’ only touchdown of the night, but it did put the Vikings behind the 8-ball and force their offense to step up.
More important, however, is that the offense was already playing well in the first half … save for a couple of turnovers that were not the fault of Cousins. Both Kyle Rudolph’s fumble and the interception thrown while targeting Adam Thielen were completely out of Cousins’ hands.
[videopress DPL8qbEz]Chicago comes out in a two-high safety shell, which is quite common for them. They are one of the heaviest two-high teams in the league under defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano. With one outside linebacker walked up right over the slot “receiver” (tight end Tyler Conklin), Cousins is most likely thinking some kind of quarters or man coverage because this alignment makes more sense for that defender in those coverages than if he were dropping to a hook in Cover 2. As such, Cousins should know the opposite flat player is likely the weak inside linebacker if the Bears are going to rush four here.
Right off the snap, Cousins confirms the weak linebacker is sprinting to the flat, so Cousins knows Rudolph has 1-on-1 over the middle with the hook player. Cousins delivers a good, timely throw, only for Rudolph to fumble it away right as he gets the offense into field goal range.
[videopress DgwGiXAG]The interception is a similar story. While the Bears do a bit more with their front to mix up where the rush is coming from by making Khalil Mack (52) a zone defender, Cousins does well to find Thielen and deliver a good ball with plenty of time for Thielen to bring this in safely. Somehow, Thielen does not do that, and ends up bobbling the ball right into Mack’s hands. Thielen very obviously was not point-shaving — and I am not by any means accusing him of that — but if you were to write a scene in a movie where it looks like a player is point-shaving, it would turn out a lot like this. Again, it is just a bad play by Thielen, but the visual of him more or less handing the ball to Mack is hilarious, and not really something Cousins could control.
Cousins played quite well aside from these two turnovers, too. In particular, Minnesota’s offense kept coming out in formations that featured two receivers in relatively tight splits to the same side of the field. Cousins did his job to dissect how the Bears wanted to handle these looks.
[videopress 8EenMJR4]With 13 seconds left on the play clock here, Cousins makes sure to take his time checking out the defense pre-snap. At first, Chicago’s cornerbacks to both sides are in off alignments, but the two defensive backs to the weak (right) side of the formation communicate at the last second and the outside cornerback walks down.
Cousins probably assumes that the cornerback walking up like this means the Bears want to lock these two players in man coverage. In doing so, wide receiver Justin Jefferson gets a 1-on-1 on an out route. The cornerback responsible for Jefferson gets sucked in by the underneath route for just a second, giving Cousins the green light to hit Jefferson.
[videopress ZCfJ7tpY]The go-ahead score featured two receivers in a tight split as well, though this time Thielen was even tighter to Jefferson in an offset stack. As Cousins sends wide receiver Chad Beebe across the formation, Chicago pushes their coverage rather than have someone follow him, which signals to Cousins that the Bears are in zone coverage. Seeing as the Bears are also in a two-high shell, Cousins mostly needs to see if the Bears are in Cover 2 or quarters. With how the outside cornerback gains depth, Cousins now knows the slot defender has to cover Thielen alone in the flat. Thielen, of course, shakes the defender and creates a clear window for Cousins to give the Vikings the lead.
By and large, Cousins seemed to have the Bears’ number in this one. Considering they are a divisional opponent with a fairly vanilla defensive scheme, that should be the case for a smart veteran quarterback, but it’s still nice to actually see it from Cousins with the up-and-down season he is having.
With three bad defenses lined up on the schedule (the Dallas Cowboys, Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars), it is more than likely that the Vikings get this version of Cousins for the time being. Two of those games, the Cowboys and Jaguars games, feel like nearly automatic wins, too. Barring a catastrophic meltdown of sorts, the “should the Vikings stick with Cousins” debate is going to be right back in full swing.
