Since their Week 1 thrashing of the Packers, the Minnesota Vikings failed to play four quality quarters in their loss at Philadelphia and then in three consecutive victories against the Lions, Saints and Bears.
A lot’s been made about Minnesota’s inability to put lesser teams away, but head coach Kevin O’Connell doesn’t care about the public narrative about the opponent.
“That means nothing to me. Every single game is going to be a grind,” O’Connell said Tuesday during a guest appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
Instead of focusing on what the Vikings haven’t done, he’s applauding his team’s moxie and ability to come through in the fourth quarter – and a big part of that is the play of Kirk Cousins.
“It’s just been a positive to know that we’ve trailed in the fourth quarters in games that we’ve ended up winning because of our guys and our ability to make plays and Kirk leading the way,” he said. “We’ve now confirmed we can win a game despite losing a lead in the fourth quarter.”
After the Vikings got behind 24-14 to start the fourth quarter against the Lions, Cousins went 9-of-13 for 125 yards, including back-to-back 28-yard pass plays to K.J. Osborn, the latter being the game-winning touchdown with 45 seconds left in the game. Seven of his nine completions in the fourth quarter went for at least 10 yards.
The next week in London, Cousins rallied the Vikings from down 22-19 with under 10 minutes to go with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that ate up more than five minutes from the clock.
Cousins was 4-of-6 on the drive. That doesn’t include a pair of throws to Adam Thielen that resulted in penalties, one of them a 41-yard penalty that set up Justin Jefferson’s go-ahead touchdown run from the 3-yard line.
When the Saints got a 60-yard field goal to tie the game 25-25 with under 90 seconds to play, Cousins immediately responded with a 39-yard pass to Jefferson that set up Greg Joseph’s game-winning field goal.
Cousins led a third consecutive game-winning drive in the fourth quarter against the Bears after Chicago intercepted Cousins and scored to take an improbable 22-21 lead with 9:26 left in the game.
Minnesota answered with a 17-play, 75-yard drive in which Cousins was 6-of-8 for 57 yards. He also had a five-yard scramble to pick up a first down on 3rd-and-5 and the one-yard touchdown plunge that proved to be the game-winner with 2:26 remaining.
“I think his demonstration of the mental toughness that it takes to play his position,” said O’Connell when asked what’s surprised him about Cousins. “His mental toughness. The ebbs and flows of in a game, to be able to be at his best at the end of some games that quite honestly our consistency hasn’t been at its best as a football team.”
The Vikings would prefer coasting to victories, but responding to adversity early in the season could help take the Vikings a long way when the games really get tough in November and beyond.
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