Kevin O’Connell didn’t shy away from it. After his postgame speech following the Minnesota Vikings’ 34-26 game over the Arizona Cardinals, he stood in front of his team waving a game ball in each hand. “There are two players in this locker room who once had a C on their chest for that team over there,” he said, voice rising as he gestured toward the visitor’s locker room. “And both of them made big plays and led us all day.”
First, he called Patrick Peterson over. The 12-year veteran spent his first 10 years in the league with Arizona and thought he’d end his career in the desert. Instead, the Cardinals owners printed out emails from fans who said Peterson couldn’t tackle anymore and left them on the chair by his locker. Peterson left Arizona after the 2020 season and signed with Minnesota. He still remembers that general manager Steve Keim never called him that offseason.
“I’ve been told a lot of things about me from that organization,” he said after the game. “I got fan mails from the owner, saying I can’t tackle. I’m old. I lost it.”
Asked for clarification, he said, “I don’t know. Someone was sending emails to the owners, and I’d get ‘em on my chair, just things like that. And they said as long as I was on the team, they wasn’t going to be a season ticket holder anymore. I think his name was John H. Berry, if I’m not mistaken.”
Minutes later, Kirk Cousins took to the podium to address the media after the game. A reporter informed Cousins of Peterson’s reaction to beating his old team and asked him for his response.
“Yeah, he was bringing the energy,” Cousins said, chuckling. “If anything, I was nervous he was a little too fired up. Sometimes I know in this game, you have to have the emotion, but you also have to have the focus. He did a tremendous job of playing with passion but not letting it go too far. He’s a pro. We expect that. He just did a phenomenal job today. Jordan Hicks, as well.”
Another reporter asked Cousins if he had extra motivation for the Week 9 game against the Washington Commanders.
“I haven’t even gotten there yet,” Cousins responded. “I’m still trying to come down from this one. I think for me, it will be important to not even go there and just kind of focus on the job and kind of be just very surgical about what I’m doing.”
Cousins spent his first six seasons in DC and is returning there for the first time since signing with the Vikings in 2018. The Commanders franchise-tagged him twice but never signed him long-term. They allowed him to enter free agency and did not match Minnesota’s $84 million offer. Still, Cousins demurred during the week when a reporter asked why it didn’t work out in Washington.
“I’m not gonna get into all that,” he said. “It’s something that was well-documented when we were going through it, but I just had the best memories of my time there that I feel very positively about.”
Asked why the Commanders weren’t interested long-term, he said, “I think it’s probably a combination of reasons. I think any time you go .500, it’s a league that you wanna win; you gotta win. It’s ‘what have you done lately?’ and you’re only as good as your last play.
“So I think by going .500, it’s hard to have that staying power in any place.”
It’s worth noting that the Vikings head into Washington with a 6-1 record, but Cousins is having a down year statistically. That he is, despite playing in O’Connell’s modern offense with a plethora of weapons, is curious. Cousins has made it clear that the record is more of a reflection of how the team is playing rather than his personal success. Still, for a quarterback who was known for putting up stats but hovering around a .500 record, it’s a development worth monitoring.
“When you do have leads in football games, you’re trying to protect leads,” O’Connell said when asked about Cousins’ stats this season. “Sometimes there’s not going to be those seven, eight, nine opportunities to throw the ball late in the game and statistically be in a place where maybe you didn’t win the game, but you feel great about the statistics.
“I don’t really look at those things. All I can tell you is when I evaluated where we’re at as an offense on the bye, I think Kirk’s playing some really, really good football. I think he’s handling our offense at a level that’s allowing us to continue to build and continue to challenge our players around him to do things to help put us in successful positions.”
But if anything, this is the perfect time to lean into the revenge game. Washington is a 4-4 team led by former Vikings backup Taylor Heinicke. They can’t be overlooked, though. The Commanders have won their last three games, albeit in ugly victories over the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, and Indianapolis Colts – three struggling teams. But Minnesota will lose this game if they look past it with a big matchup in Buffalo looming.
Why not lean into the revenge angle? What’s wrong with searching for extra motivation?
Hicks admitted to wanting to beat his old team last week. He said so nonchalantly without creating any bulletin-board material. He was fired up and played well against Arizona. Was he yelling at Kliff Kingsbury on the sideline and asking Keim to call him in the end zone like Peterson? No. But you could tell he was fired up.
All is well and good as long as you are more motivated than the guys on the other side.
“Those guys were ramped up for the game,” said defensive coordinator Ed Donatell with a short laugh. “There’s no question about it. I’ve never seen Pat P that up for a game. It was just different because he’s usually just a totally calm guy.
“But you get your moments when you play your ex-teams. We wanna just make sure you stay within yourself.”
Peterson, Hicks, and Cousins are all different people, and players are always better off acting true to themselves. Peterson is a friendly neighbor who was upset with his previous HOA. Hicks is kind of a “dude.” That guy who always wears his hat backward and calls the football a “pill.” He didn’t appear angry with Arizona; he just wanted to beat his old team.
Cousins is a goober at his core but one who is probably getting the last laugh. He may love Star Trek and be the only multimillionaire who drives around a dented truck. But he ultimately cashed in with the Vikings and is now leading a winning team. As a team leader, all he needs to do is make sure they’re in the right mindset to take care of business in Washington and go into DC with a 7-1 record.
If he can do that without griping about one of football’s most mismanaged franchises, all the power to him. But it would be kind of fun to see him make Dan Snyder a cash offer for his team after ending their winning streak.
