Cousins era at a crossroads

Tomorrow worries me.

Not so much the game itself. I feel like the parallels folks are insisting on making to last year's Bills game are inaccurate. The Bills appeared to be one if the absolute worst teams in football last year, whereas this Raiders team is alright.

But after a week packed with vicious, ugly hate being spewed at all angles towards Kirk Cousins, I'm worried about the vibe at the purple palace tomorrow.

Put it this way. I seriously would.not feel comfortable wearing my Cousins jersey there tomorrow, in case he makes big mistakes and the Vikes lose.

I equate this possible powderkeg to week 3 of 2013. That season began with a lot of hope and promise. Coming off the Adrian MVP season, and with "Ponder Progression" being my most heavily used term. But then after a couple of gut punch losses to start the season, that home opener against Cleveland had a bad vibe. And I wore my Ponder shirsey to the game, cause I still believed in him.

The Vikings had a bad first half. Ponder was not playing well. I was practically accosted in the mens room at halftime by a fan who was mad that I had on a Ponder shirt. After the game, another last second defeat(which was the fault of the defense, mind you), I got a bunch more heckling and vitriol thrown my way leaving the stadium. This was from other Vikings fans. But at this point the fanbase had so thoroughly, viciously turned on Ponder that anyone still supportive of him was essentially the enemy. Needless to say I never would wear that shirt to another game.

We've never had the fanbase turn on a QB like that since, until now. Last week's loss has officially made Cousins the symbol of misery and disappointment for this fanbase.

No, I'm not equating Ponder and Cousins as players. Cousins is much better than Ponder ever was, although both are seemingly good guys. But in the fog of hate these things don't matter. No insult towards Cousins has been too harsh this week. He's been called a choke artist, a bum, greedy, that he doesn't care, that he's mentally ill. All cause he threw a stupid pass at a key moment of a game.

A chunk of this fanbase hated him immediately due to the contract, just like many hated drafting Ponder. And those folks are immovable. But I think we have now passed the threshold where a lot of the wait and see crowd are done with Cousins forever.

We should have kept Teddy. We should have kept Keenum. We should have kept Sloter. We should trade him or release him or bench him. The insanity is endless.

It will ALWAYS be a fact that, after the 2017 season, that signing Cousins was the best move available. Keenum was a half season fluke. You couldn't just blindly trust that Teddy was ready to step back in. If you draft a random rookie, you have no idea what you get(already some of those 2018 1st rounders look like bust material, and I don't mean Canton). Cousins was a good QB at an age where franchise QBs just don't become available. I would do that deal again in a heartbeat. The money has not prevented the Vikings from doing anything.

Will Kirk Cousins win us a super bowl? The geniuses say no, he never could, but that's true of almost all QBs. Most QBs don't win super bowls. Most GOOD QBs don't win super bowls. Cousins may not, but almost every QB who has won one did so after a bunch of geniuses said he couldn't.

Problem now is that I don't think anything short of winning a Lombardi trophy will ever win back this fanbase for Kirk. If they go on a run to the NFC title game and lose, all anyone is gonna say is "see he choked in the big game like always." NFL observers cling to their narratives like no others.

I hope Kirk balls out tomorrow, and for the next 2 years. Don't let the haters win.