No coach knows Kirk Cousins better than the Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell.
He coached Cousins out of his precautious, perfectionist tendencies and instilled a winning style of play for the veteran quarterback’s final two years in Minnesota.
Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores hopes to exploit that familiarity this week.
In his Tuesday news conference before Cousins’ Atlanta Falcons visit the Vikings, Flores revealed that he’s prepared extensive talks with O’Connell to understand how Cousins operates.
“I’ve got a list,” Flores said, referring to the questions he has for O’Connell on Cousins. ” ‘How’s he going to respond to this look, this look, this look and this look?’ We plan on giving him a lot of different looks.”
That familiarity is a double-edged sword. No quarterback has had more exposure to Flores’ defense than Cousins. Last offseason, Flores gave the Vikings offense fits in training camp as Cousins struggled to handle the deceptiveness of the scheme, leading to some “tense conversations” in offensive meetings that summer.
Flores isn’t overthinking it when it comes to Cousins, who leads the league with 13 interceptions ahead of his return to U.S. Bank Stadium.
“You know, he spent the whole year going against us defensively so he’s got a lot of familiarity. At the end of the day, to me it always comes down to fundamentals, techniques and communication. Playing disciplined football and making plays,” Flores said. “We know it’s going to be a tough 60-minute ballgame. We know they’ve got a good team. We got a good team. Everyone’s in the hunt these last five weeks to get in the dance. It’s going to be a tough, gritty football game, for sure.”
Flores Calls on Chaos of Home Crowd to Help Rattle Cousins
One of the best studies of the position in the league, Cousins thrived in checking in and out of plays at the line of scrimmage after diagnosing the pre-snap look the defense gave him.
Flores expects the same discernment from Cousins on Sunday.
“I think Kirk’s seen every defense you could possibly throw at him. Anything new that we had, he’s seen that too. Now he’s seen it (on tape),” Flores said. “We’re going to have to do a really great job from a disguise standpoint… from a fundamentals and communication standpoint. Because he can get his team in one call and out of a call, or to another call, with a couple hand signals. It’ll be a challenge. We got to play well.”
Beyond the fundamentals, the remedy is what Flores’ defenses have lived and died over the years: chaos.
He called upon Vikings fans to help in that respect.
“We’re going to need some crowd noise at a very, very high level,” Flores added.
Falcons, Cousins Riding Historically Poor Performance Into Vikings Reunion
Currently 6-6, the Falcons are riding a three-game losing skid entering their road matchup at U.S. Bank Stadium. Atlanta is tied for first in the NFC South with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but Cousins will have to shake off a historically poor performance to keep pace with Tampa Bay.
For the first time in his career, Cousins has gone three consecutive games without a touchdown pass. He threw four interceptions in a Week 13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. It was the second time in his career he’s thrown four interceptions — the last coming a decade ago with the Washington Commanders.
Despite Cousins’ recent struggles, Flores isn’t counting on the veteran quarterback staying in a rut for long.
“I know the, kind of, narrative is he had a tough game last week but he’s played some good football. I think the people in this building know what Kirk can do. I mean he’s a very, very good quarterback,” Flores said. “This is going to be a major challenge… They’ve got a good offense. Kirk’s playing well. He’s a bounce-back type of guy. As we all know. I’m expecting his best. The best version of Kirk, the best version of that offense. It’s going to be a major challenge for us and we’re going to have to prepare the right way to have success against this group.”
