Kirk Cousins' tall task: Being at his best against Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs

The timing of the Twins' first playoff game, in the middle of the afternoon on the Vikings' Tuesday off-day, made it a perfect opportunity for Kirk and Julie Cousins to take their sons Cooper and Turner to Target Field. They bought tickets online, the quarterback donned a baseball cap and sunglasses to keep a low profile, and they planned to be back home in time for their kids' normal bedtime.

They walked into the concourse just in time to see fans at the ballpark erupt as Royce Lewis — whom Cousins met during a visit to Vikings training camp in August — hit his two-run homer in the first inning.

"I looked at my wife and said, 'Is this what U.S. Bank [Stadium] is like when we hit a touchdown to Justin?,'" Cousins said, referring to star receiver Justin Jefferson. "She said, 'Yeah, pretty much.' I said, 'This is great energy. I love this.' It was cool just to be on the other side of it, you know? I'm used to being the one on the field, and to be the one in the stands, you kind of see it from someone else's perspective."

If anything, his afternoon among the fans lent some color to the point coach Kevin O'Connell has been making to Vikings players this week: The team needs to end its home losing streak and win in front of its supporters at U.S. Bank Stadium. Including the Vikings' playoff loss to the Giants last season, they've lost their past three games at home, with their most recent win dating back to Dec. 24, when Greg Joseph hit a 61-yard field goal to win an earlier game against the Giants as time expired.

The Vikings are five-point underdogs on Sunday against the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, who have started 3-1 despite turning the ball over nearly as frequently as the Vikings have through four games. Reigning league MVP Patrick Mahomes has been intercepted four times in as many games, throwing two as the Chiefs held off the Jets 23-20 on Sunday night.

Still, the Vikings know Mahomes' ability to improvise and throw on the run makes him a singular challenge for their young defense. If the Vikings find themselves in a game where they need to outscore the Chiefs, they'll need Cousins at his most efficient.

Cousins talked with Mahomes last summer at the Hollywood premiere of Netflix's "Quarterback" series, in which they were among the three passers the show followed on and off the field through the 2022 season.

"That was the first time we were able to really connect on it," Cousins said. "We were able to say, 'Hey, we kind of went through the same thing.' So that was a positive. And he's just a great person. I think it's good for our league to have a player at the top like that who carries the way he carries himself."

Cousins makes a habit of trying to learn from other quarterbacks, and watched the show with a close eye on clips of how Mahomes operates in practice and handles his bodywork routine during the week. "Certainly, you learn what works for guys. There was a lot there," Cousins said. "I think it was fun. Probably for everybody else, too, just to see things you wouldn't see otherwise."

The two quarterbacks have been in the same stadium three times, but the only time they've played in the same game was in the 2021 preseason finale at Arrowhead Stadium. Mahomes didn't play as a rookie when the Chiefs beat Washington in a 2017 Monday night game, and he missed Kansas City's 2019 win over the Vikings because of a dislocated kneecap.

In a way, Mahomes' rapid development in Kansas City helped bring Cousins to the Vikings. Cousins was in Minnesota before Super Bowl LII when news broke the Chiefs were trading Alex Smith to Washington, turning over their starting job to Mahomes while signaling the Commanders would let Cousins leave in free agency. Cousins, suspecting the Vikings might be interested in signing him, used the week to get a feel for the Twin Cities, and signed with the Vikings a month later.

"To come in and have never played his rookie year, to go in his first year and do what he did and then never really look back — that's hard to do," Cousins said of Mahomes' first MVP year in 2018. "And he did it. So, he's a great player."

If Cousins were to leave their first regular-season meeting as the winning quarterback on Sunday afternoon, he'd help the Vikings get back to 2-3 after losing three to start the season and could claim one of his most significant victories as Minnesota's starter. He'd also deliver a jolt to a fan base the Vikings have grown tired of disappointing in home games.

The Twins game, he said, helped remind him "how these fans are just dying to get behind you and cheer for you. You want to give them something to get excited about. It was good perspective to have."