The Minnesota Vikings may not be currently considering a change at quarterback, but at this point in the season they cannot ignore the interceptions that Kirk Cousins continues to throw.
In fact, Cousins believes that if the troubling trend continues, he won’t be able to finish the season.
“The reality is if the pace I’m on in terms of the interceptions, if that were to continue, I won’t finish the season,” Cousins said, according to ESPN’s Courtney Cronin. “I won’t — you know what I mean? There’s a little bit of, you got to improve. Whether it’s them telling me, ‘Hey, we gotta improve,’ or them pulling me; we got to get better. That’s what the rest of the season will be about for me is trying to protect the football as best I can. Because when you turn the ball over, it really hurts your chances to win. I know that. I just need to improve as we look ahead to the rest of the season.”
Minnesota is invested in Cousins, whom they handed a two-year, $66 million extension in March, and Cousins is signed through the 2022 season, but are they getting a good ROI on their investment in the 32-year old signal caller?
“I need to correct it,” Cousins said. “I need to finish the season with a different story, regarding the interceptions, so that’s something I need to improve with the remaining games we have. I don’t know that I’d limit it to the interceptions. I think it’s just the entire offensive performance. It’s just, I need to be better, we need to be better.”
Cousins interceptions cost the Vikings again on Sunday, as they lost to the previously winless Atlanta Falcons. Cousins threw 3 picks during the game.
“I thought the first one was the worst one, if you will,” Cousins said. “First play of the game and the coverage was not confusing. It was just a zone drop, and I simply forced the football into coverage, tried to do too much. That’s a mistake I may have made in Year 1, but I’m disappointed that I would do that now. The second one, third down, saw Cover 2, felt them squeeze Adam [Thielen], doubled Adam, and wanted to replace the squeeze with throwing it to Justin, and the cloud corner jumped it and made a good play. The third one, was just trying to work the bender to [Chad] Beebe. My arm got hit, and obviously it went up in the air and was intercepted.”
