This team was never going to win a playoff game this year regardless of who they played. The Minnesota Vikings stayed true to their history and blew another close playoff game, though this time might have been even more painful as they lost to the 6th seeded Giants.
I’ve been saying this about the Vikings all season long: that team was a pretender of the highest order and would be lucky to win a playoff game.
Clearly, the Vikings couldn’t even do that as despite going 11-0 in one score games in the regular season this year, they lost 31-24 to the Giants in their first playoff game because Kirk Cousins forget that it was 4th down. You really can’t make this stuff up.
Okay, maybe I’m not giving Cousins enough credit and he knew it was 4th down, but that still doesn’t excuse his decision making on the Vikings final play of 2022/23 season.
With the clock running out and the Vikings needing 8 yards to keep the drive alive, what does Kirk Cousins do with the ball? He tossed it to T.J. Hockenson 6 yards behind the line to gain, easily giving the Giants defenders the chance to gang up and bring down Hockenson and the Vikings playoff hopes with him.
I know Cousins had a decent game with 31/39 completions for 273 yards and 2 TDs, yet those stats are meaningless when he constantly is the partly to blame for his team’s early playoff exits. With this early exit, he now has failed to get his teams (whether its Washington or the Vikings) into the Conference Championships in all of his 11 years as a quarterback.
Moreover, the only time he won a playoff game was in 2020 against the New Orleans Saints on that infamous Kyle Rudolph TD catch in the back of the endzone in OT. If it wasn’t for a controversial catch, Cousins would most likely be 0-5 in the playoffs as a starter. Yet, people still expect and say that he is a guy who can lead the Vikings to a championship? I don’t think so.
Anywho, I can’t blame Cousins completely as the Vikings defense NEEDS to get the lion’s share of the criticism for that horrid performance.
No offense to the Giants offense, but how do you give up 431 total offensive scrimmage yards, 28 First Downs, and nearly 70 (68) plays of offense against them? I get giving up 142 rushing yards to Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones as Barkley is a legit superstar and Jones is one of the best running quarterbacks in the league, but everything else is an embarrassment to the Vikings defense.
Daniel Jones, although a fantastic runner, is a rather limited passer and his receiving options are the worst of all the playoff teams.
You can’t be 13-4 and the 3rd best seed in the NFC and nearly get ran off the field with 430+ offensive scrimmage yards if you are the Vikings defense and coaching staff. It’s just flat out disgraceful and all but ensures major changes will be made to that unit’s personnel and coaching staff this offseason.
And that’s honestly for the best as if the Vikings won yesterday, they would be facing off against the 49ers in Santa Clara this weekend.
Yeah, the makings for a bloodbath of epic proportions.
So, as Vikings fans are accustomed to hearing given the franchise is the oldest in NFL history yet to have won a Super Bowl, maybe next year is your year, Vikings fans.
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