I thought he kept his composure, especially on a handful of drop backs where Cardinal rushers got a hand on him and others where he was flushed but he kept his eyes downfield and made the right read even if he didn't always make an accurate throw (the 3rd-and-1 where he had Jefferson open but just fired it too high and the other one where he overthrew a wide open Osborne on a route to the sideline). I've seen similar games where Cousins didn't handle the pressure, so while he wasn't perfect, he played the way he needs to play if the offense is going to have success.StumpHunter wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 1:30 pm Not sure about him handling it well though. Cousins averaged 4.8 YPA (19th out f 27) , 0 picks 0 ints and a fumble and had 62 yards passing under pressure yesterday. He did have 2 scrambles in that situation so and I know he ran for a TD so maybe that is what you saw?
I also thought Cousins was excellent inside the 20. Made a great decision to run in the first TD for the offense, and that throw to Osborne on the out route was spectacular.
Also what stands out is his attitude. They showed him after the TDs and he was pumped up. My son said he'd never seen Cousins so hyped and it was great. If the Vikings are going anywhere this year they're going to need leadership and motivation from Cousins, so him showing that does reflect in the way the offense performs.
They still gave up more yardage than I liked (especially the Moore TD and the Ertz TD, both of which should have been stopped if not for sloppy tackling), but in general the DBs showed a lot of pop and came up and made plays on several pass attempts. Mostly, I'm comparing what I saw from that group earlier in the season with what I saw yesterday and based on what I saw yesterday it looked like a group that is growing in confidence and playing more cohesively. Whether the stats support that impression I don't know, but that is my impression.StumpHunter wrote: ↑Mon Oct 31, 2022 1:30 pm PP had a great game, only giving up 2 receptions, with 37 of the 42 yards given up coming as YAC on a 38 yard play I don't remember seeing.
Dantzler gave up 77 yards (12th most), 9 receptions on 10 targets and Sullivan gave up 102 yards (3rd most), 10 receptions on 12 targets.
PFF didn't like Smith's coverage (graded 54th of 68 qualifying safeties) while Bynum had a good grade at 62.4 in coverage.
To be fair, they can improve much more, and I think most of them would agree with that, so I'm not saying it was a lights-out performance across-the-board. Peterson definitely played well, and hopefully he's the leading indicator of the progress we'll see from the rest of them now as they enter the 2nd half of the season.
