I didn't want to throw out an unsupported opinion so I'll just throw out the numbers (sorry for the data dump).
Here are the drive stats for all non-desperation (e.g. last 15 seconds in Seattle) drives starting under 10:00 minutes to play in the 6 close games the Vikings have played this year.
Vikings:
10 Drives
0 points scored
Drive Results: 1 int., 2 turnover on downs, 7 punts
This is what you get with a Mike Zimmer coached team...his philosophy and scheme is not made for 2020 football and makes the margin of error so small for this team.
Newsflash I know Mike you said before the start of the season you’ve never had a bad defense? Look in the mirror, your baby is broken down and leaking oil. You can’t play conservative offense when your defense can’t stop anyone. There can’t be another team in the league that thinks running the ball on 2nd and 11 is a good play except for this team. You have two elite level WR’s...USE THEM! Did Irv Smith go Into the witness protection program after his two catches??
Everything has to go perfect for a team coached like this to win, you are going to be in a lot of games but also means you are going to be in a lot of games against crappy teams and one mistake can cost you the game.
I like Zim, but agree with you that this year they don't understand the mismatch in their strategy. They have consistently played like a team that thinks it has a shut down defense. That is definitely not the case, and it makes a lot of our offensive strategy problematic this year. It also makes me wonder why we aren't taking more risks on defense, particularly when the offense is playing a bad D (like Dallas). Dalton is not good against pressure, so what did we do? We barely blitzed him at all.
Zim needs to adjust his defensive schemes to opponents' weaknesses more than he does (like Bill B). He can do it, but he has such a preference to rush 4 and blanket coverage that we basically set up bad QBs to have good games against us. And we saw that today. We let a pretty bad Andy Dalton have enough time to make some key plays.
But, longer term, I think this style can work if we get the D to be above average. With the young talent we have now and the fact they are actually getting to play (which never normally happens with young defenders with Zim), the defensive turnaround could be faster than it would appear. I look for the D to potentially be good in 2021, if we get a little bit luck.
This style only works when you have a top 10 and maybe even top 5 defense. Limiting your own offensive possessions pretty much forces you to score every-time you have the ball. Zimmer’s model is let them do whatever they want between the 20’s and then tighten things up near red zone. You can’t be conservative on offense when your defense barely is a speed bump for teams this year. I don’t see a big defensive turnaround next year even if Hunter is back healthy and happy with his contract and Pierce in middle. You are likely losing Harris and Wilson (w/Barr back not sure that’s an upgrade) and you still have major holes at CB with no cap room. Zim’s going to want another corner early in draft and as we have seen the growing pains for corners is not a year it’s years
Yes, Cousins played great for the first 55 minutes, but once again he failed to step up when it mattered most. It wasn’t just the final drive either. It was the drive prior to that as well. Yes, Jefferson’s drop was huge, but the fact he went 1/6 down the stretch after going 21/24 is a problem.
I can’t lay all the blame on Kirk though. You could argue the first half is where this game was lost with the two big turnovers. In addition, the overall philosophy continues to be an issue. Without Dalvin as a threat, this offense is putrid. That’s not all on Kirk. It’s as much on the coaching staff as well, including Zimmer.
Kirk had one of those first-half turnovers, which led to six Dallas points, which, as it turned out, was enough to beat the Vikings. A high QB rating and assigning Brilliance in a headline to a player who fumbles the ball deep in his own territory makes no sense.
Since I’m pretty sure you write the headlines, Matthew, I’m going to take issue with your opinion of Cousins’ performance as “Brilliant.” First, he fumbled in Vikings territory. That led to six points by Dallas. Given a 28-24 lead with six minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Vikings managed one first down, but after that, Cousins looked shaky and was errant with his passes forcing a punt. Dallas went down the field and scored.
Boyd dropped a game-saving interception at the goal line. Zimmer got embarrassed by Mike McCarthy one play later and Dallas’ score made it 31-28.
The Vikings got the ball back with about 100 seconds left in the 4th quarter. A pass to Rudolph led to a first down, but on the next four plays, Cousins executed once, putting the ball in Jefferson’s hands over the middle. He dropped it. His first of the year, by my count. On third down, instead of checking down to Cook in the right flat, he pump-faked and air-mailed it downfield. On 4th down with the game on the line, under pressure, he threw up a desperation pass downfield. Ballgame.
When the game is on the line late in the 4th quarter, Kirk Cousins is not a good horse to bet on. There are a lot of past performance data that proves that.
I would like the Vikings to target Jefferson more. They threw at him five times in the game while Theilen got 11 targets. We all know who is the more explosive receiver. Why Cousins continues to favor Theilen is an ongoing mystery.
Cook takes a terrific beating between the tackles. Without Ezra at right guard, the middle of the line collapsed often in the game. Cook got the hell beat out of him by the Chicago defense on Monday night. Six days later, the same thing. Give Mattison more reps in the game. The Vikings are 4-6. Do the Vikings really want to give Cook 30 to 35 touches a game in a season that looks really iffy playoff-wise after today? A little long-term thinking might be in order.
A lot of fans had Minnesota winning their next three games. It was a night thought cloud to float on and contemplate. They have to win next week and the week after that to get to .500. If they get back to 6-6, that’s another conversation, but right now the most important game is straight away.
I understand why a lot of people will have this opinion but he repeatedly led go-ahead drives late in the game when it mattered the most and we seem to ignore those because it wasn't the very very very last drive of the game. Considering his team screwed him over time after time on poor pass protection, fumbles, penalties and he kept coming back and scoring, I'm pretty comfortable calling it a brilliant performance. Stats aren't everything but 22 for 30 with a 140.1 QB rating and 3 second-half TD drives, two of which put them ahead and all of which he was the main catalyst. If they get a 4th and 6 stop, he's the hero.
You can criticize his inability to lead final drives. I get that. But when he throws the ball right into Jefferson's hands and he drops it and then the Cowboys can come after him with their rush, I think it's unfair to say ALL YOUR FAULT when he played like he did.
That said, appreciate the well thought out comment and your continued support (and we agree on the Cook point 100%)
Matthew My Friend: Kirk Cousins has led the Vikings to 4th quarter game-winning drives one (1) time in the last three years. One. In that same time period, there have have 127 game-winning, 4th quarter drives led by other NFL quarterbacks.
When the game is on the line, whether against Dallas, Indianapolis and whomever we’ve lost to by fewer than six points this year, Cousins has not delivered.
Quarterbacks become “Brilliant” when they take their team down the field with the game is on the line. Patrick Mahomes is Brilliant. Kirk Cousins is just a guy.
Look, I get the frustration, but if you're going to compare Cousins to Mahomes, you might as well throw every other QB in the NFL in the trash. If your starting QB doesn't win when he has a 140 quarterback rating, that's on your supporting cast. Judging someone by fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives alone is not really a good process. Matt Stafford has a lot of them...because he's losing all the time.
There's a lot of fair points to be made about Cousins in the big picture but he played great on Sunday and was let down by everyone around him.
Matthew My Good Man: QB rating says more about how the offense functioned in a game than it does of QB performance. What if a QB throws check downs and short routes all day and RBs or WRs house those throws. The QB rating is sky high, but is that rating more of a reflection of the QB or the people catching a pass and going the distance? I have often thought a QB rating was bows and ribbons and not much else. True QBs, field generals to use a really dated cliche, are the players who can bring their team home to victory in the fourth quarter. Kirk Cousins, highly paid, overpaid Kirk, is not that guy.
Rog, I was trying to use a shorthand method of explaining how well he played but if you want to go throw by throw in that game considering the offensive line was not holding up, he did nothing but make accurate throws downfield that brought them back two times in the fourth quarter. I don’t know how you can throw it in the trash that he put them ahead twice and the defense did nothing to slow Dallas. To me, this is a product of being frustrated by Cousins’s overall body of work because I don’t see any objective way of viewing that game as being anything less than a terrific performance by the quarterback. I was not writing about his contract. I was not writing about whether they should have extended him. I was not writing about whether his tenure has been a success. Only about Vikings-Cowboys, a game in which his team did everything they could to undermine him and he kept coming back and gave them a chance to win. And even on the very last drive he got a dropped pass and terrible pass protection and after looking back, a very bad play call.
He’s not Mahomes. Nobody is Mahomes. There’s 10 QBs in the history of the game that consistently lead game winning drives and Cousins isn’t one of them. That doesn’t mean I’m going to trash him for every single loss and say it’s all his fault. I don’t think I’d be a very good journalist if I was that unfair.
I respect your passion and your viewpoint and greatly appreciate the support on my work. Just think you’re being a little tough on this one!
I am not a fan of KFC, but he had a very good game overall. I was surprised at his new found ability to move a bit in the pocket. But that ability underscored some of the same weaknesses we've seen from KFC at critical times. And the strip sack fumble was one of those (the D got their fast, but it seems to me a Brees or Brady would have seen that and gotten the ball out before taking the hit). Also, his judgment when he gets flushed from the pocket and has nobody open is poor. He held onto the ball several times and just ran out of bounds at or slightly behind the line of scrimmage (and this is his regular MO). When the play is that broken and he gets outside the tackle (with no prospect for a significant run), just toss the ball out of bounds past the line of scrimmage. The fact that he doesn't do this highlights his main problem: lack of awareness.
KFC had a really good game overall, but it is disappointing to me (and a lot of fans) that he can't finish. Today was less on him than normal (drops, too much pressure on last play), but elite QBs find a way -- and KFC never seems to do that.
Plus, I think the perspective here is that Dallas' defense is awful. The fact that KFC couldn't generate a few 1st downs so that we could at least kick a FG is very disheartening against one of the worst defenses in the league.
And now we are stuck in no-mans land: better than the teams who will score high draft picks, but not good enough to go to or compete in playoffs.
I agree with you. I think Kirk was at his best today. Can’t be better than that.
My concern is that they didn’t come in to this game slinging it down the field. JJ and Thielen are so (so, so, so) much better than the defenders who were covering them.
This was the perfect opponent to blow out early with huge plays in the passing game, then control the clock for the second half. With a multi-score lead, Zim could work his magic on defense. Instead, Dallas was able to stay on schedule and stay unpredictable.
This is Zimmer ball, he’s going to beat good teams playing this way but he’s also going to lose to horrible teams playing this way as he’s not going to deviate from being conservative. It’s a recipe to be in every game which is also a negative as like yesterday any team with a killer instinct comes out and just puts pedal to the medal and tries to demoralize them early and hope they tap out.
Cook has had I think 66 touches the last two games, this is not sustainable. I get using your star RB but you also just signed him to a contract extension for big $ that has not even kicked in yet and Zimmer is trying to squeeze every ounce of juice out of him this year. Why not save some Cook bullets for future years as this year is about to have a bow put on it.
Further to the mailbag, I appreciate that Maalouf doesn't have roster control. But, either he has the opportunity to make an impact or he doesn't. If the latter, he shouldn't be there--hire a rescue greyhound to increase morale. If the former, his impact is actively harmful to overall success, and he shouldn't be there.
How many times have kickoffs been taken out of the endzone? Is there any evidence the punt and punt return teams have been coached?
I was (and remain) happy to (have) see(n) the noted bigot Priefer leave; Maalouf was not the right new hire and needs to be replaced.
Zimmers lack of faith in Cousins is really showing. Against a bad pass defense the Vikings should have been airing it out more. This one is all in the head coach
I didn't want to throw out an unsupported opinion so I'll just throw out the numbers (sorry for the data dump).
Here are the drive stats for all non-desperation (e.g. last 15 seconds in Seattle) drives starting under 10:00 minutes to play in the 6 close games the Vikings have played this year.
Vikings:
10 Drives
0 points scored
Drive Results: 1 int., 2 turnover on downs, 7 punts
16.5yds/drive (165 yards)
3.3 yds/play (50 plays)
9 1st Downs (.9 1st Downs/Drive)
Kirk Cousins:
7-18, 67 yards, 0 td, 1 int., 1 sack, 0 yards rushing; 26.85 QB Rating
Opponents:
12 Drives
34 points allowed
Drive Results: 4 tds, 2 fgs, 1 int., 1 fumble, 3 turnover on downs, 1 punt
45.3 yds/drive (541 yards)
5.6 yds/play (97 plays)
31 1st Downs (2.6 1st Downs/Drive)
Drive Breakdown:
Titans:
Received Ball at 6:31 up 30-28
5 plays, 12 yards, punt; (1 1st down)
Cousins 2-2, 15 yards, 1 sack
Received Ball at 1:44 down 31-30
4 plays, 1 yard, interception (No 1st downs)
Cousins 0-3, 0 yards, 1 int.
Tennessee last 2 drives: 10 plays 39 yards, fg; 9 plays, 44 yards, fg
Houston
Receive Ball at 5:52 up 31-23
7 plays, 25 yards, punt (2 1st Downs)
Cousins 1-2, 7 yards
Houston last 2 drives: 9 plays, 77 yards, td; 10 plays, 71 yards, downs
Seattle
Receive Ball at 5:45 up 26-21
7 plays, 44 yards, downs (2 1st Downs)
Cousins no attempts (did not attempt QB sneak on 4th and inches)
Seattle last 2 drives: 4 plays, 13 yards, int; 13 plays, 94 yards, td
Green Bay
Receive Ball at 8:15 up 28-14
3 plays, 7 yards, punt (No 1st Downs)
Cousins no attempts
Receive Ball at 2:42 up 28-22
5 plays, 16 yards, punt (1 1st Down)
Cousins no attempts
Green Bay last 2 drives: 9 plays, 74 yards, td; 5 plays, 31 yards, fumble
Chicago
Receive ball at 8:35 up 19-13
6 plays, 19 yards, punt (1 1st Down)
Cousins 1-3, 8 yards (had a 15 yard run called back by penalty)
Receive Ball at 2:04
5 plays, 25 yards, punt (1 1st Down)
Cousins 1-1, 21 yards
Chicago last 2 drives: 5 plays, 11 yards, downs; 6 plays, 18 yards, downs
Cowboys
Receive ball at 5:54 up 28-24
4 plays, 12 yards, punt (1 1st Down)
Cousins 1-3, 12 yards
Receive ball at 1:37 down 31-28
4 plays, 4 yards, downs (No 1st Downs)
Cousins 1-4, 4 yards (Jefferson drop on 2nd down)
Dallas las 2 drives: 6 plays, 8 yards, punt; 11 plays, 61 yards, td
Thank you for this research Marcus.
This is what you get with a Mike Zimmer coached team...his philosophy and scheme is not made for 2020 football and makes the margin of error so small for this team.
Newsflash I know Mike you said before the start of the season you’ve never had a bad defense? Look in the mirror, your baby is broken down and leaking oil. You can’t play conservative offense when your defense can’t stop anyone. There can’t be another team in the league that thinks running the ball on 2nd and 11 is a good play except for this team. You have two elite level WR’s...USE THEM! Did Irv Smith go Into the witness protection program after his two catches??
Everything has to go perfect for a team coached like this to win, you are going to be in a lot of games but also means you are going to be in a lot of games against crappy teams and one mistake can cost you the game.
I like Zim, but agree with you that this year they don't understand the mismatch in their strategy. They have consistently played like a team that thinks it has a shut down defense. That is definitely not the case, and it makes a lot of our offensive strategy problematic this year. It also makes me wonder why we aren't taking more risks on defense, particularly when the offense is playing a bad D (like Dallas). Dalton is not good against pressure, so what did we do? We barely blitzed him at all.
Zim needs to adjust his defensive schemes to opponents' weaknesses more than he does (like Bill B). He can do it, but he has such a preference to rush 4 and blanket coverage that we basically set up bad QBs to have good games against us. And we saw that today. We let a pretty bad Andy Dalton have enough time to make some key plays.
But, longer term, I think this style can work if we get the D to be above average. With the young talent we have now and the fact they are actually getting to play (which never normally happens with young defenders with Zim), the defensive turnaround could be faster than it would appear. I look for the D to potentially be good in 2021, if we get a little bit luck.
This style only works when you have a top 10 and maybe even top 5 defense. Limiting your own offensive possessions pretty much forces you to score every-time you have the ball. Zimmer’s model is let them do whatever they want between the 20’s and then tighten things up near red zone. You can’t be conservative on offense when your defense barely is a speed bump for teams this year. I don’t see a big defensive turnaround next year even if Hunter is back healthy and happy with his contract and Pierce in middle. You are likely losing Harris and Wilson (w/Barr back not sure that’s an upgrade) and you still have major holes at CB with no cap room. Zim’s going to want another corner early in draft and as we have seen the growing pains for corners is not a year it’s years
Yes, Cousins played great for the first 55 minutes, but once again he failed to step up when it mattered most. It wasn’t just the final drive either. It was the drive prior to that as well. Yes, Jefferson’s drop was huge, but the fact he went 1/6 down the stretch after going 21/24 is a problem.
I can’t lay all the blame on Kirk though. You could argue the first half is where this game was lost with the two big turnovers. In addition, the overall philosophy continues to be an issue. Without Dalvin as a threat, this offense is putrid. That’s not all on Kirk. It’s as much on the coaching staff as well, including Zimmer.
Kirk had one of those first-half turnovers, which led to six Dallas points, which, as it turned out, was enough to beat the Vikings. A high QB rating and assigning Brilliance in a headline to a player who fumbles the ball deep in his own territory makes no sense.
Since I’m pretty sure you write the headlines, Matthew, I’m going to take issue with your opinion of Cousins’ performance as “Brilliant.” First, he fumbled in Vikings territory. That led to six points by Dallas. Given a 28-24 lead with six minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Vikings managed one first down, but after that, Cousins looked shaky and was errant with his passes forcing a punt. Dallas went down the field and scored.
Boyd dropped a game-saving interception at the goal line. Zimmer got embarrassed by Mike McCarthy one play later and Dallas’ score made it 31-28.
The Vikings got the ball back with about 100 seconds left in the 4th quarter. A pass to Rudolph led to a first down, but on the next four plays, Cousins executed once, putting the ball in Jefferson’s hands over the middle. He dropped it. His first of the year, by my count. On third down, instead of checking down to Cook in the right flat, he pump-faked and air-mailed it downfield. On 4th down with the game on the line, under pressure, he threw up a desperation pass downfield. Ballgame.
When the game is on the line late in the 4th quarter, Kirk Cousins is not a good horse to bet on. There are a lot of past performance data that proves that.
I would like the Vikings to target Jefferson more. They threw at him five times in the game while Theilen got 11 targets. We all know who is the more explosive receiver. Why Cousins continues to favor Theilen is an ongoing mystery.
Cook takes a terrific beating between the tackles. Without Ezra at right guard, the middle of the line collapsed often in the game. Cook got the hell beat out of him by the Chicago defense on Monday night. Six days later, the same thing. Give Mattison more reps in the game. The Vikings are 4-6. Do the Vikings really want to give Cook 30 to 35 touches a game in a season that looks really iffy playoff-wise after today? A little long-term thinking might be in order.
A lot of fans had Minnesota winning their next three games. It was a night thought cloud to float on and contemplate. They have to win next week and the week after that to get to .500. If they get back to 6-6, that’s another conversation, but right now the most important game is straight away.
Thank you for your continued fine work, Matthew.
I understand why a lot of people will have this opinion but he repeatedly led go-ahead drives late in the game when it mattered the most and we seem to ignore those because it wasn't the very very very last drive of the game. Considering his team screwed him over time after time on poor pass protection, fumbles, penalties and he kept coming back and scoring, I'm pretty comfortable calling it a brilliant performance. Stats aren't everything but 22 for 30 with a 140.1 QB rating and 3 second-half TD drives, two of which put them ahead and all of which he was the main catalyst. If they get a 4th and 6 stop, he's the hero.
You can criticize his inability to lead final drives. I get that. But when he throws the ball right into Jefferson's hands and he drops it and then the Cowboys can come after him with their rush, I think it's unfair to say ALL YOUR FAULT when he played like he did.
That said, appreciate the well thought out comment and your continued support (and we agree on the Cook point 100%)
Matthew My Friend: Kirk Cousins has led the Vikings to 4th quarter game-winning drives one (1) time in the last three years. One. In that same time period, there have have 127 game-winning, 4th quarter drives led by other NFL quarterbacks.
When the game is on the line, whether against Dallas, Indianapolis and whomever we’ve lost to by fewer than six points this year, Cousins has not delivered.
Quarterbacks become “Brilliant” when they take their team down the field with the game is on the line. Patrick Mahomes is Brilliant. Kirk Cousins is just a guy.
Look, I get the frustration, but if you're going to compare Cousins to Mahomes, you might as well throw every other QB in the NFL in the trash. If your starting QB doesn't win when he has a 140 quarterback rating, that's on your supporting cast. Judging someone by fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives alone is not really a good process. Matt Stafford has a lot of them...because he's losing all the time.
There's a lot of fair points to be made about Cousins in the big picture but he played great on Sunday and was let down by everyone around him.
Matthew My Good Man: QB rating says more about how the offense functioned in a game than it does of QB performance. What if a QB throws check downs and short routes all day and RBs or WRs house those throws. The QB rating is sky high, but is that rating more of a reflection of the QB or the people catching a pass and going the distance? I have often thought a QB rating was bows and ribbons and not much else. True QBs, field generals to use a really dated cliche, are the players who can bring their team home to victory in the fourth quarter. Kirk Cousins, highly paid, overpaid Kirk, is not that guy.
Rog, I was trying to use a shorthand method of explaining how well he played but if you want to go throw by throw in that game considering the offensive line was not holding up, he did nothing but make accurate throws downfield that brought them back two times in the fourth quarter. I don’t know how you can throw it in the trash that he put them ahead twice and the defense did nothing to slow Dallas. To me, this is a product of being frustrated by Cousins’s overall body of work because I don’t see any objective way of viewing that game as being anything less than a terrific performance by the quarterback. I was not writing about his contract. I was not writing about whether they should have extended him. I was not writing about whether his tenure has been a success. Only about Vikings-Cowboys, a game in which his team did everything they could to undermine him and he kept coming back and gave them a chance to win. And even on the very last drive he got a dropped pass and terrible pass protection and after looking back, a very bad play call.
He’s not Mahomes. Nobody is Mahomes. There’s 10 QBs in the history of the game that consistently lead game winning drives and Cousins isn’t one of them. That doesn’t mean I’m going to trash him for every single loss and say it’s all his fault. I don’t think I’d be a very good journalist if I was that unfair.
I respect your passion and your viewpoint and greatly appreciate the support on my work. Just think you’re being a little tough on this one!
I am not a fan of KFC, but he had a very good game overall. I was surprised at his new found ability to move a bit in the pocket. But that ability underscored some of the same weaknesses we've seen from KFC at critical times. And the strip sack fumble was one of those (the D got their fast, but it seems to me a Brees or Brady would have seen that and gotten the ball out before taking the hit). Also, his judgment when he gets flushed from the pocket and has nobody open is poor. He held onto the ball several times and just ran out of bounds at or slightly behind the line of scrimmage (and this is his regular MO). When the play is that broken and he gets outside the tackle (with no prospect for a significant run), just toss the ball out of bounds past the line of scrimmage. The fact that he doesn't do this highlights his main problem: lack of awareness.
KFC had a really good game overall, but it is disappointing to me (and a lot of fans) that he can't finish. Today was less on him than normal (drops, too much pressure on last play), but elite QBs find a way -- and KFC never seems to do that.
Plus, I think the perspective here is that Dallas' defense is awful. The fact that KFC couldn't generate a few 1st downs so that we could at least kick a FG is very disheartening against one of the worst defenses in the league.
And now we are stuck in no-mans land: better than the teams who will score high draft picks, but not good enough to go to or compete in playoffs.
I agree with you. I think Kirk was at his best today. Can’t be better than that.
My concern is that they didn’t come in to this game slinging it down the field. JJ and Thielen are so (so, so, so) much better than the defenders who were covering them.
This was the perfect opponent to blow out early with huge plays in the passing game, then control the clock for the second half. With a multi-score lead, Zim could work his magic on defense. Instead, Dallas was able to stay on schedule and stay unpredictable.
This is Zimmer ball, he’s going to beat good teams playing this way but he’s also going to lose to horrible teams playing this way as he’s not going to deviate from being conservative. It’s a recipe to be in every game which is also a negative as like yesterday any team with a killer instinct comes out and just puts pedal to the medal and tries to demoralize them early and hope they tap out.
Cook has had I think 66 touches the last two games, this is not sustainable. I get using your star RB but you also just signed him to a contract extension for big $ that has not even kicked in yet and Zimmer is trying to squeeze every ounce of juice out of him this year. Why not save some Cook bullets for future years as this year is about to have a bow put on it.
Further to the mailbag, I appreciate that Maalouf doesn't have roster control. But, either he has the opportunity to make an impact or he doesn't. If the latter, he shouldn't be there--hire a rescue greyhound to increase morale. If the former, his impact is actively harmful to overall success, and he shouldn't be there.
How many times have kickoffs been taken out of the endzone? Is there any evidence the punt and punt return teams have been coached?
I was (and remain) happy to (have) see(n) the noted bigot Priefer leave; Maalouf was not the right new hire and needs to be replaced.
Zimmers lack of faith in Cousins is really showing. Against a bad pass defense the Vikings should have been airing it out more. This one is all in the head coach