Inside The Vikings

National media admits Kirk Cousins is 'clutch' now that he's left the Vikings

"I'm here to tell you, 75 percent of the quarterbacks in the NFL can't do that."

Jonathan Harrison

Oct 3, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins (18) throws against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the second quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images
Oct 3, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins (18) throws against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the second quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images / Brett Davis-Imagn Images
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It appears that all it took for the narrative that 'Kirk Cousins isn't clutch' to wash away was for him to get out of Minnesota.

Cousins threw for 509 yards and four touchdowns in the Falcons' 36-30 overtime win over the Buccaneers on Thursday night. It was the Falcons' third dramatic win in the last four weeks after dropping their season opener, and the second epic comeback win in primetime for Cousins this season. Thursday night's win prompted FOX Sports' Colin Cowherd to proclaim that Kirk has graduated to the 'clutch quarterback class' of the league.

"Kirk's been good for a long time, ten years in the NFL, nobody doubts that. But unless you're really into stats, which I am and I think some of you are, but what are the big moments? ... Do people know that he has 15 game-winning drives in the last four years? Not only is that most in the NFL, including Mahomes, that's four more than any other quarterback," said Cowherd on his radio show Friday. "He also has the greatest comeback in league history for a quarterback, 33 points. He's also the first player in NFL history, after last night, to have 450-yard passing games for three different franchises. Reputations are earned, however, and early in his career, Kirk had a reputation that he would get, in standalone or primetime games, tight and a little anxious.

"Last night, just think about this, think about how long a football field is, he passed for over five of them. It was an all-time performance. By the way, his teammates let him down a little bit. Now they made great plays (but) missed a couple field goals, a Darnell Mooney drop with six minutes left. Like, if they lose the game, (Mooney) was wide open, that wasn't on Captain Kirk. But, he has officially graduated to clutch quarterback class in this league."

So it took Cousins putting on a clutch performance in a non-Vikings jersey to officially graduate to the clutch class, eh? Not any of the record-setting eight game winning drives in 2022. Not any of the 14 fourth-quarter comebacks he led in Minnesota during his six years, which was six more than he had in Washington.

"Last night, a minute fourteen (seconds), no timeouts, driving down, spiking the ball was a masterclass. And I'm here to tell you, 75 percent of the quarterbacks in the NFL can't do that," continued Cowherd.

Calling the final drive a "masterclass" and saying his teammates "let him down" is a pretty convenient way of forgetting the interception he threw on fourth down with 1:52 left in the game. Atlanta was forced to hold Tampa to a three-and-out and burn all three of their timeouts, increasing the difficulty of the final drive even more.

Cowherd wasn't just satisfied saying Cousins was finally clutch. He had to add the sports talk spin on it and put it in GOAT territory.

"Between the quarterbacking with Cousins, and look at the efficiency. That is a well-schooled team. Between the coaching in Atlanta and Kirk Cousins — I mean, we all know, we all watch every weekend, teams butcher the clock. That is literally G.O.A.T stuff. That's Brady. That's Manning. That's Mahomes," Cowherd continued. "What you're watching last night is top of the class stuff. That's a professional quarterback."

It's fair to say that the last bit was a serious stretch on Cowherd's part. The performance is something Vikings fans had grown accustomed to seeing during Cousins' time in Minnesota, especially in later seasons. Cousins has frequently pushed back against the primetime narrative, and he did so again Friday when chatting with Cowherd.

"When you go back and look at it, I had a couple clunkers in primetime when I was a young player. But to be honest, if those games had been played at noon or one o'clock they probably would have been clunkers anyways because of how young of a player I was," Cousins said. "The reality was, I was playing on teams that were .500 teams and in primetime we often got scheduled to play defending Super Bowl champs and division champs and teams that were going to make deep runs in the playoffs. So, it was unlikely we were going to win going into the games and then when we lost, it became a 'Kirk's not great in primetime.' But if you really look at the production, I was pretty much the same player from a statistical standpoint in those primetime games, we just weren't winning. And as of late, we've been able to turn the tide when it comes to finding a way at the end to win."

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Jonathan Harrison
JONATHAN HARRISON

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