Photo Courtesy of Anthony Souffle, Star Tribune
After a 13-4 regular season finish, which consisted of an NFC North Championship and a slew of individual records being shattered, the Minnesota Vikings' season ended in the Wild Card Round of the NFC playoffs to the hands - or should I say legs - of Danny Dimes and the New York Football Giants. Vikings fans, and pretty much any football fan with a Twitter account, were quick to criticize Kirk Cousins for the critical 4th and 8 checkdown that ultimately ended their season. Although that play did in fact end their season, the shorter-than-expected end to the season doesn't solely fall on the shoulders of Kirk Cousins, and I'd argue that Cousins should be one of the last people to blame.
In the 31-24 loss, Cousins finished 31-39 for 273 yards and two touchdowns. Hard to complain with those kinds of numbers. In the regular season, Cousins totaled 4,547 yards (4th in the league), 29 touchdowns (5th in the league), and 14 interceptions (tied for 30th in the league). Again, hard to be upset with consistent top-five rankings. But the narrative that Kirk can't win the big game prevailed following the game, especially with the decision on the final fourth down. Speaking of which, let's take a deeper dive into that final play.
The Vikings lined up in 11-personnel, which means they had five down-linemen, a tight end, three receivers, and a running back and quarterback. In this particular instance, they ran a two-by-two set (because TJ is aligned out wide, you could consider it 10-personnel - but we'll go with 11). KJ Osborn and Adam Thielen were aligned to the left, while TJ Hockenson and Justin Jefferson were aligned to the right.
New York ran a 2-man defense in which they had a defender play man-to-man on each receiver and played two safeties over the top. The Giants, to their credit, were going to force Minnesota to let someone other than Justin Jefferson make a play. On the snap of the ball, New York doubled Jefferson. Kirk's first read was clearly to take Jefferson over the top. When he saw two defenders going to Jefferson, I'd like to believe he wanted to progress to the left side of the field where he had both Osborn and Thielen man-to-man.
However, when he went to do so, star defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence - who had made his presence known all game long - was in Cousins' face. At that point, as a QB you have to get the ball out; you can't take a season-ending sack. In an effort to do just that, Cousins checked the ball down to his only remaining option, which was TJ Hockenson in the flat to the right. Hockenson caught the pass five yards short of the first down, and after he was unable to break a tackle, was taken down well short of the first down - thus capping a disappointing end to the season.
I retweeted a clip of the play and gave my thoughts on the play call as a whole. Personally, I think they could've drawn something else up in which Hockenson's route would've taken him beyond the sticks. Secondly, the emphasis of the play was to clearly look for Justin Jefferson. Which, I get it, he's a phenomenal talent who was having a phenomenal, record-breaking season. But in a situation like this, the focus has to be to keep the season alive. All four targets have made a number of big-time plays for them, so Head Coach Kevin O'Connell needs to put Kirk in a situation there where he can play free and take what the defense is giving him. I think once he realized Jefferson was going to be doubled -which I believe he could've seen pre-snap - he could've taken Adam Thielen one-on-one with a corner, but by the time he would've progressed there, Kirk would've been sacked to end the game.
So sure, it's a bad look when you throw five-yards short of the sticks when the season is on the line. I get it. But take a second to actually analyze the play before resorting to the regularly scheduled Kirk-sucks programming.
If it's not on Cousins' shoulders, who is to blame? Easy. Ed Donatell's defense. New York had 301 yards of offense through the air and 142 yards on the ground (Jones ran for 78). That's right, the Giants accumulated 443 yards of total offense against the 3rd-seeded Vikings. And no disrespect, but New York doesn't have a star-studded offense. Other than Saquon Barkley, you had a young QB making his first postseason start, and a WR room full of mid-tier names.
This defense has been an issue for Minnesota all season long. Kirk and the Vikings were able to win 11 one-score games in the regular season. Much of that has to do with how poorly this defense has played all-season long.
The Vikings ranked 31st out of 32 teams in yards per game (388.7), only ahead of the Detroit Lions. They ranked 20th in rushing yards allowed per game (123.1), 22nd in yards-per-rush (4.5), 31st in passing yards per game (265.6), 22nd in sacks (38), and they finished 30th in points allowed per game (25.1). Clearly, that's not very good, especially for a 3rd-seeded playoff team.
It had been their primary issue all season long, and it certainly was again on Sunday afternoon. For Kevin O'Connell, it was an impressive first year as the head-man in Minnesota. But with as much talent as they had offensively, it is certainly a disappointment to see the season end in the Wild Card round to a team they had beaten just a few weeks prior.
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