The Kirk Cousins record in primetime games has been a running meme but, after a loss to Cooper Rush and the Cowboys, there’s a ton of truth to the meme.
Whenever Kirk Cousins is on the field under the bright lights of primetime, the jokes on social media start flowing before he’s ever taken the field. It’s a reputation that has, at times, been unfair.
However, the numbers don’t lie for the Minnesota Vikings quarterback, nor does the fact that he went on Sunday Night Football in Week 8 and was outplayed by Cowboys backup signal-caller Cooper Rush as Dallas used a late touchdown to get the win.
Now, the meme-ification of Kirk Cousins in primetime is actually just the truth about what he’s done when in those situations.
Kirk Cousins record in primetime games keeps getting worse
With the loss to Dallas, Cousins is now an abysmal 8-17 in primetime games, good for a winning percentage of 32.
It should be said that the Vikings quarterback didn’t get much help from his coaching staff on Sunday night.
The play-calling was absolutely terrible throughout the night with head-scratching decisions made throughout the game. Having said that, some of this still comes back to the quarterback whenever he gets put in the spotlight games.
At some point, the quarterback being paid like Kirk Cousins has to go out there and make plays. Cooper Rush did that on Sunday night, but Cousins did not, which led to the go-ahead field goal that the Cowboys answered with the game-winning touchdown.
If these performances keep up, the Vikings are going to push NFL schedule-makers to keep them away from primetime as long as Cousins is under center.