It was high noon at U.S. Bank Stadium. Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer stood across from Kirk Cousins at the 50-yard line as the two were about to stage in an old-fashioned duel. As both men took their 10 paces, Cousins stopped, turned around and looked back at Zimmer.
“I just have one question for ya,” Cousins said through his gritted teeth. “You like that?”
As Cousins turned around to draw his pistol, Zimmer was struggling with a landline to call Bill Parcells to see what he would do in this situation. Cousins had the clear shot, but held the gun too long and opted to shoot at a target about three paces short of Zimmer. Zimmer tried to bleed some imaginary clock and… well, none of this actually happened.
Instead, Sunday’s game revealed a problem that the Vikings have going into the future. This town isn’t big enough for both of them.
The relationship between Cousins and Zimmer has always been an odd pairing. Back in 2017, Zimmer had his most successful season with Case Keenum under center. The only problem? Keenum was due to get paid after leading the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game, which started a dilemma.
While Keenum and Teddy Bridgewater were presumed to be Zimmer’s favorites, the Vikings opted to sign Cousins in free agency. As the missing piece to get the Vikings to the Super Bowl, Cousins seemed like a safe bet to do that. But judging by Zimmer’s comments shortly before his signing, he never really seemed on board with breaking the bank for Cousins.
“I think it’s really, really important that we understand — and I’m not just saying this — we’ve won 40 games in the last four years,” Zimmer said. “We’ve done that by being pretty good on defense. This year obviously the offense was much better, but part of the reason we’ve been winning games and staying in games is that we’ve been playing good on defense and we’ve been a smart team and all those things. I want to be really careful about taking away from our strength and saying, ‘OK, we’re not going to be able to do this and we’re not going to be able to do that anymore because of financial reasons or something else.’”
On the surface, Zimmer was correct. The Vikings’ strength was their defense, which ranked first in the NFL in 2017 and helped carry Minnesota to the NFC Championship. But the offense ranked in the top 10 and was expected to take off with Cousins being an upgrade under center.
As we know, that hasn’t been the case, and part of that has been the play of Cousins. The 32-year-old has better career numbers in Minnesota than in his three seasons as Washington’s starter, but Cousins’ effectiveness has always gone beyond the stats.
Sunday’s game was a microcosm of the problem with Cousins. With the season on the line, Cousins opted to take short underneath throws rather than push the ball downfield to Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson. This was especially alarming with Thielen receiving fewer targets (3) than Tyler Conklin and Irv Smith Jr.
On the Vikings’ final drive of the game, Cousins needed to find a way to get the Vikings into the end zone. Instead, it was more of the dink-and-dunk offense that took more time off the clock and put the Vikings in a Hail Mary situation. Cousins had put the Vikings into this mess by continuing “The Kirk Vick Experience,” but the problem may have extended beyond his play at quarterback. In fact, it’s just how the Vikings’ coaching staff had drawn it up.
There are also the little things with Cousins such as a complete lack of pocket presence that we saw on the opening drive. As things caved around him, Cousins folded like a tent and took a sack that put the Vikings in 2nd and 16 shortly after the opening kickoff.
Later in the game, Cousins helped drive the Vikings down to the goal line, but also seemed tentative to pull the trigger to the ire of an open Jefferson in the end zone.
This combined with an inability to beat any team near .500 is enough of an excuse for some to run Cousins out of town, but it could also be a product of what the coaching staff is telling him to do.
Since Cousins arrived in Minnesota, Zimmer has been focused on turning the dial back on what he’s asked to do. When John DeFilippo unleashed Cousins in a pass-happy offense, it was greeted by Zimmer’s dismay, and DeFilippo was replaced with Kevin Stefanski.
As a blossoming offensive mind, the shift to Stefanski should have meshed well with Zimmer. Statistically, it did as Cousins turned in his most efficient season to date and cashed in with a contract extension this past offseason. But it may not have been the same offense that Stefanski wanted to run as Zimmer added old pal Gary Kubiak as an offensive consultant.
With Stefanski leaving to take the head coaching job with the Cleveland Browns, Zimmer turned to Kubiak to unleash one of the most conservative offenses in the NFL. The Vikings’ second-and-10 run rate is one of the worst in the league, and as our own Sam Ekstrom noted, the Vikings seem hellbent on running the ball on every short-yardage situation.
This has resulted in Zimmer dialing things all the way back for Cousins to run a 1990s offense. With the game on the line, Zimmer put too much faith in his running game, opting to get one yard on a 3rd and 1 when they needed about 50 more yards to put Dan Bailey in field goal range. Dalvin Cook was stuffed and the Vikings botched a 4th and 1 play-action call to give the ball back to the Bears.
The fourth-down play is another one where people may point at the faults of Cousins but also reeks of what Zimmer has demanded from his football team. Even with the Cousins signing, the Vikings have had money to spend which could have been used to make his life easier.
Instead, Zimmer reverted to his 2018 quote and made sure his aging defense didn’t fall apart. While there were casualties with Xavier Rhodes, Linval Joseph and Everson Griffen leaving town, the Vikings found enough money to keep Anthony Barr around and sign Shamar Stephen to a three-year deal in the past couple of offseasons.
Even more ridiculous is what they did with the money that was cleared up as part of Cousins’ extension. Again, the Vikings could have signed a guard, a third receiver or a kick returner with this money, but instead opted to sign nose tackle Michael Pierce to put a band-aid over the crumbling dike that was the Vikings defense.
Pierce’s decision to opt-out due to COVID-19 was out of their control, but it was a good example of why Cousins and Zimmer can not co-exist. Instead of attempting to make Cousins’ job easier, Zimmer has been reluctant to adapt his team to a more aggressive approach on offense. This has led to Cousins being more tentative and perhaps having the same confidence issues that have plagued Bailey over the past couple of weeks.
One has to wonder that if the Vikings had held onto Stefanski instead of running it back with Zimmer if the Vikings’ offense would have more punch to it. In fact, any offensive coach, like Eric Bieniemy or the guy that shook Sean McVay’s hand at the scouting combine three years ago, might be a better fit for a team that has more weapons on the offensive side of the ball.
This brings us to our initial point, either Zimmer or Cousins have to go entering 2021. Even after signing him to a three-year contract extension, the correct answer may be to have Zimmer be the fall guy.
Zimmer’s love for a conservative offense isn’t going to bring out the best in Cousins. With an archaic coaching staff around him, bringing him and Cousins back would probably result in the same 9-7 or 10-6 record the Vikings have been gunning for since 2017, which isn’t productive toward that elusive Super Bowl appearance.
With no cap room to speak of, the Vikings are more attached to Cousins and his $31 million cap hit in 2021 and $45 million cap hit in 2022 than Zimmer’s three-year extension. With quarterback and coach unable to get on the same page, it’s clear that this town isn’t big enough for the two of them.
