One more time, Kirk Cousins thrilled the home crowd in Minnesota. Unfortunately for Cousins, though, he was wearing the road team’s uniform.
Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons, stumbling through a losing streak and on the verge of losing their division lead, came into Minnesota hoping to level out what’s become a late-season spiral. Instead, the spiral grew only steeper as the Vikings defeated Atlanta 42-21.
Cousins was thoroughly outplayed by Sam Darnold, his replacement, and the Falcons’ season is now in serious trouble as a result. Minnesota, meanwhile, has no regrets, and appears well on the way to securing a playoff berth with Darnold at the helm.
A longtime fixture in Minnesota, Cousins and the Vikings amicably parted ways last year after it became clear that Minnesota wouldn’t offer Cousins the length of contract he wanted. Coming off a season-ending Achilles injury, Cousins signed with Atlanta, which was looking to shed its long-running reputation for underachievement.
Cousins has had his moments this season, including a career-high 500-yard passing game, but the Atlanta inertia is strong indeed. Slowly, inexorably, Cousins has slid from a competent, at times exceptional, pocket passer to a flustered turnover machine dishing out interceptions like Halloween candy.
Sunday wasn’t Cousins’ worst game of the season; he threw four interceptions in a debacle last week against the Chargers that started the calls to start backup Michael Penix Jr. But Cousins did serve up two more crushing interceptions and a third, probably-should-have-been interception on the afternoon, and twice he led the Falcons inside the Minnesota 5 and couldn’t punch the ball into the end zone.
And that’s where the Falcons’ second problem on the afternoon reared its head: terrible penalties. Atlanta committed an astounding 12 penalties for 127 yards on the afternoon, the most against any team in the NFL all season. Sloppy play killed drives on offense, and — most notably — gifted Minnesota an extra four points when a penalty on a Minnesota field goal attempt gave the Vikings new life. Minnesota responded with Justin Jefferson’s first touchdown after a six-game drought.
Atlanta struck first on Sunday with its best red-zone weapon: a sledgehammer running game, in this case Tyler Allgeier. But Darnold bedeviled Atlanta’s secondary, starting with a 49-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Addison and continuing with a brilliant third-quarter play where he eluded a swarming Atlanta rush and found a wide-open Jefferson 50 yards downfield for Jefferson’s second TD:
Atlanta’s run game kept the Falcons in the hunt, and Atlanta tied the game at 21 with less than a minute left in the third on a 13-yard touchdown Bijan Robinson run. And for a moment, it looked like the Falcons would at least make a fight of it.
But Darnold continued to show why he’s a revelation in Minnesota. He marched the Vikings back downfield in just over two minutes and hit Addison for the receiver’s second touchdown, Darnold’s fourth on the afternoon, to take a 28-21 lead.
Immediately afterward, Atlanta’s Ray-Ray McCloud added to Atlanta’s woes when he fumbled on the kickoff runback, and soon afterward, Darnold again found Addison for a touchdown, and the lead grew to 35-21 with just over eight minutes remaining in the game. Cousins then led Atlanta on a promising drive … but proceeded to stomp any Falcon hopes flat when he threw another interception, his eighth fourth-quarter interception of the year. Seven plays later, Aaron Jones Sr. rumbled into the end zone for the Vikings’ third fourth-quarter touchdown.
Atlanta’s final drive ended, fittingly enough, with a turnover on downs as Cousins’ final pass tipped off the hands of Kyle Pitts. Cousins finished with 344 yards passing, but no touchdowns and two picks. Robinson and Allgeier ran for 92 and 63 yards, respectively, and a touchdown apiece.
There are both short- and long-term ramifications for this latest Falcon loss. Atlanta has surrendered first place in the NFC South to Tampa Bay despite sweeping the Bucs in both games this year. Atlanta has several winnable games remaining — the Raiders, Giants, Commanders and Panthers await—but so too does Tampa Bay. For the first time in months, Atlanta doesn’t control its own playoff path.
On a larger scale, though, this will increase calls for Atlanta to start Penix, the highly-touted and highly-drafted rookie. After the game, Falcons head coach Raheem Morris remained resolute, saying “Kirk Cousins is our quarterback.” But how long can he stick with a quarterback who’s clearly struggling?
Atlanta has a huge financial investment in Cousins — who, it must be noted, doesn’t play defense — but the Falcons also have an array of offensive weapons that can’t be used if the quarterback keeps throwing the ball to the other team.