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You gotta imagine Kirk Cousins is Stephen Glansberg-ing it in the Vikings cafeteria at the moment.
The $84 million man has led the Vikings offense to very limited success thus far this season, ranking 31st in passing yards per game and dead last in passing first downs per game. Not great when you have weapons like Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs, who are both currently treating him like he farted in the middle of the dance floor (Exhibits A and B).
Cousins apologized to Thielen on a podcast for playing like butt, which pissed off coach Mike Zimmer, who believes a quarterback shouldn’t publicly kowtow to anyone.
Not even being able to apologize correctly has to take a toll on the psyche of Cousins, who has, by design, stayed oblivious to the chatter amongst Vikings fans surrounding his play.
“I’m pretty naive to it,” he said. “You know ignorance is bliss. The only time I’m aware of it is when I have friends or family text me. And the texts they send me you would think somebody died. ‘Hey man, I’m thinking of you.’ Boy, it must not be good out there if that’s what they’re texting me. So I honestly don’t see it so I think that helps.”
Nice, the Bill Burr approach: “Be a man. Hide your feelings, act like you have answers.”
The 2-2 Vikings are seemingly being weighed down by their quarterback, who’s averaging 5.5 pass attempts in their two wins (thanks Dalvin Cook!) and 34.0 per game in losses.
Nonetheless, Kirk is still forging on.
“My confidence is strong,” Cousins said. “I think I’m trying to be self-aware . . . and be honest and say, ‘Hey, when I mess up, I’m going to own it and point to it.’
“On the flip side, I’m not going to go up there and say, ‘I’m awesome!’ So when we have a good play, I’m not going to tell you about it. Sometimes, it can be one-sided. I’ve played a lot of football in this league, and I think you take confidence from the fact that I’ve been through this before. It’s not my first rodeo being in a tough game, a tough loss. You just move forward with confidence.”
The Vikings will head to the Meadowlands this Sunday to take on the 2-2 Giants. It feels like the biggest game of Kirk Cousins’ career.
[h/t Star Tribune]