Despite talking heads like Colin Cowherd and Stephen A. Smith dunking on Kirk Cousins after the Vikings’ loss to the Eagles Thursday night, Cousins completed 70.5% of his 44 attempts for 364 yards and four touchdowns. That didn’t earn him respect from Cowherd and Smith, but it did earn him an 83.1 grade from Pro Football Focus, which is pretty darn good.
Cousins only had three games with a better PFF score last season and it was huge improvement from his 53.3 grade against the Eagles in 2022.
It certainly helped that he was throwing to Justin Jefferson, whose 11 receptions for 159 yards garnered a 90.0 score from PFF. It’s the ninth time in Jefferson’s career that he’s had a PFF grade of 90 or higher.
Check out the comparison between the Eagles and Vikings offensive lines. Philly left tackle Jordan Mailata scored a 96.9 compared to Oli Udoh, who started at left tackle for the Vikings, posting a 53.7 score before suffering a knee injury in the fourth quarter.
Cousins was hit nine times and sacked twice. Ingram allowed three hits while the sacks were charged to Austin Schlottmann and Udoh.
Minnesota rushed for just 28 yards on nine carries in the game, but even though it was a limited sample size the Vikings had three starting linemen score run blocking grades of 50.5 or lower, which is horrible. O’Neill had a solid 74.4 run blocking score and Cleveland was in the meh territory at 62.2.
Defensively, Minnesota had three players stand out with really solid grades: Theo Jackson (93.7), Ivan Pace Jr. (86.3) and Cam Bynum (81.5).
Pace Jr., the undrafted rookie who is starting at inside linebacker, earned a 75.0 grade in the opener against the Bucs and followed up with an even better performance on the road against the Eagles. The rookie had seven tackles, one sack and two hurries.
Jackson earned his high mark based on just 21 plays. His interception proved more valuable than the time he got beat for a 54-yard bomb to Devonta Smith on his second snap of the game when he replaced a banged up Josh Metellus.
Bynum was solid, finishing with eight tackles and two receptions allowed for 14 yards.
Daniel Hunter sacked Jalen Hurts three times but his pass rush win rate was just 11.5 percent. His 46.8 overall score for the game is his sixth worst from PFF since he was a rookie in 2015. That’s probably the craziest stat from the game.
Harrison Smith was given a 51.4 grade, which was a product of team worst three missed tackles and a 28.1 tackling grade. Ouch.
