Kevin O'Connell praises Kirk Cousins being clutch in 4th quarter
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.
Related: Pat McAfee raves about Vikings' stadium, tough MN fans
Related: Brian Murphy: Take a lesson from that close call, Vikings
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.