Reusse: Cousins’ six years with the Vikings were an ultra-expensive failure

The Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota started their fondness for building sports stadiums in 2009, when Gophers football returned to campus with the opening of then-TCF Bank Stadium. The crowds throughout the home schedule were announced at a capacity of 50,805, and it was particularly jammed on Halloween night with Michigan State in town for a 7 p.m. contest.

This was the ninth of 12 regular-season games in coach Tim Brewster’s third season. There had been demands from the public in 2008 that Coach Brew receive a contract extension when the Gophers started 7-1, then a big swing in the other direction as they lost the last five (including 55-0 to Iowa in their last-ever game in the Metrodome).

The Gophers were 4-4 in 2009 entering the Michigan State game. Brewster had changed from a wide-open offense to run-heavy after that Iowa debacle, but on this night, he turned loose quarterback Adam Weber. The junior from Mounds View passed for 416 yards and five touchdowns in the Gophers’ 42-34 victory.

Here’s what makes that game historical, though: This was the first chance we had to watch Kirk Cousins play quarterback in Minneapolis, and it was instructive as to what would occur when he assumed those duties later with the Vikings.

The Spartans were down 14-0 in the first two minutes, then Cousins helped them back to a 31-28 lead at the end of the third quarter. The Gophers went back ahead 35-31. Cousins and his team drove to a first down at the Gophers 4 and, yes, settled for a field goal when Kirk overthrew a receiver in the end zone.

At the end, he was 21-for-35 for 236 yards, two touchdowns, an interception and a fumble lost. Add another 50 yards and that sounds like our guy to me.

The Vikings paid him $185 million for six seasons, they went to the playoffs twice, and won a wild-card game in New Orleans during the 2019 season.

The Vikings had a chance to limp into the playoffs in the final game of the 2018 season with a win over Chicago in the Zygidome. Cousins was 20 for 33 for 132 yards and took four sacks in a 24-10 loss.

The next season, after his one playoff win in New Orleans, the Vikings went to San Francisco and were pounded 27-10. As a juicy target in the pocket, Cousins was sacked six times.

The Vikings started 1-5 and went 7-9 in 2020. Cousins threw 13 interceptions and suffered 39 sacks, in contrast to his 4,265 yards and 39 touchdown passes.

Again in 2021, they had a chance to crawl into the playoffs, and then non-vaxxer Cousins missed Game 16 in Green Bay due to COVID-19 exposure. Results: a 37-10 loss with Sean Mannion starting, and then Kellen Mond (remember him?) at quarterback.

In 2022, Cousins cured his habit of producing down-deep field goals to a degree. The Vikings won an astounding 11 one-score games. They stormed into the playoffs at 13-4, then allowed quarterback Daniel Jones and the New York Giants to carve up the umbrella defense for a 31-24 lead late in the fourth quarter.

And then here it came: That same late break the Vikings and Cousins had been taking advantage of throughout coach Kevin O’Connell’s first season. Giants receiver Darius Slayton was open on a cross, on a free run to a game-clinching first down, and he dropped the pass.

Later, I ran into Bud Grant at the press box elevator and he said: “I told everyone sitting near us. ‘That was the break we needed.’”

No one knew more about the Vikings and taking advantage of breaks than the man nicknamed “Horseshoe Harry” Grant many decades earlier.

Dropped pass. Vikings score. Win in overtime. An even dozen one-score wins!

Nope. Kirk threw under the sticks to tight end T.J. Hockenson on fourth down and that was it. Kirk’s defenders, a group that became louder when he was revealed as a non-vaxxer, tried to tell us that he had no choice … he was about to get mangled.

Or, he could have made an elusive step from the pocket rather than a game-losing throw.

Yet, in retrospect, it was the Vikings who won that day.

The Giants gave Daniel Jones a bundle and he’s now a grossly overpaid bad quarterback on a bad team. And the fact Cousins didn’t follow 13-4 with a playoff run made it easy to dump him after being injured halfway through last season.

One playoff win for $185 million. Good luck in Atlanta, Kirk, and thanks for the generous cap space.