“There was really no mystery,” Kirk Cousins said of his shameful interception that backup safety Sam Franklin Jr. returned 99 yards for a touchdown against the Vikings on Sunday.
Minnesota won the game 21-13 to avoid an 0-4 start, but the margin of victory could’ve been so much greater had Cousins not thrown the pick six at the goal line and another interception later in the first half.
“Very, very frustrating to throw that interception,” Cousins explained afterward. “Very disappointing play by me.”
The pick-six came on the opening drive of the game. Minnesota marched down the field with ease, fueled by a 45-yard pass interference call that set the Vikings up in the red zone with a chance to take the lead. After a touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson was wiped out by a holding penalty on tight end Josh Oliver, Cousins threw to the left flat and Franklin Jr., who was flagged for the 45-yard pass interference penalty, picked it off and sprinted 99 yards for defensive touchdown.
Cousins attempted to make a touchdown saving tackle but wound up getting blown up by D’Shawn Jamison as Franklin eased his way to the end zone for six.
29 saw an opportunity to lay out kirk cousins and ran like he was dk metcalf chasing down budda baker pic.twitter.com/bQo22VxTAN
— Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) October 1, 2023
I know exactly what happened. There was really no mystery. As I’m sprinting to try to go tackle him I’m thinking, ‘I could tell you right now what happened.’ You hate the outcome. You hate how it played out,” Cousins said.
Cousins gave a great effort after his costly mistake. Here’s how he explained what went through his head after the poor decision to throw to that area of the field against that defensive look.
“Yeah, I mean you always say ‘What’s important now? Well I just threw an interception, he’s probably going to take this back for a touchdown so what’s important now is don’t want to let him do that.’ Also you have pride, right? You don’t want to be slow. Set the right angle, try to make him cut back to maybe somebody else. He had a bit of a calvary leading him but I thought maybe I can go low and try to get him out of bounds or whatever, but obviously he made a good play and it was very disappointing.”
Cousins finished the game 12 of 18 for 145 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Both touchdown passes went to Jefferson and the second interception was the result of a defensive lineman running around Vikings right guard Ed Ingram and hitting Cousins as he released the football.
Take away those two turnovers and the Vikings very well could’ve held the Panthers to three points on the day. And instead of a final score of 21-13, the final might’ve been closer to 31-3.
