Vikings 31, Falcons 24 – John Breech, CBS Sports
The Kirk Cousins revenge game is finally here, although I’m not sure we can technically call this the “Kirk Cousins revenge game” because there’s a 50 percent chance that Kirk Cousins doesn’t even believe in revenge. He’s that nice.
For Cousins, it feels like this game is coming at the worst possible time: He’s currently stuck in one of the worst ruts of his career. This is exactly when you don’t want to be facing your old team. This is like gaining 80 pounds and then running into your ex at Christmas.
So how bad is Cousins’ rut?
On Nov. 4, the Falcons were sitting at 6-3 and it looked like they were in total control of the NFC South, but since then, they’ve totally fallen apart and it’s mostly because of Cousins. Since Week 10, the Falcons have gone 0-3 and, in that span, Cousins has thrown six interceptions and fumbled the ball four times. Four of those six interceptions came in a 17-13 loss to the Chargers in Week 13. If Cousins only throws three interceptions, the Falcons probably win.
The Falcons are 2-6 this year when Cousins throws at least one interception in a game and 4-0 when he doesn’t. I think what I’m trying to say here is that this game is going to come down to how well Cousins plays and based on the past three weeks, I don’t have high hopes for the Falcons.
With Cousins struggling, the easiest way to take some pressure off him would be for the Falcons to run the ball, but this is the one week where that strategy probably isn’t going to work. The Vikings are surrendering just 81.3 yards per game on the ground, which makes them the best defense in the NFL against the run.
The Vikings have struggled to stop the pass, but with the way Cousins is playing, I’m not sure he’s going to be able to take advantage of that. If Kohl’s offers Cousins $10,000 in Kohl’s cash for every touchdown he throws this week, then the Falcons might be able to pull off the upset, but I haven’t seen anything about an offer, so I’m going to take the Vikings.