Vikings winning puts them in NFC contenders circle

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins has responded to his early-season struggles, and he saved his best performance of the season for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Both the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles have the talent to be contenders in the NFC, but only the Vikings looked like true Super Bowl threats when the two teams went head to head in Week 6.

Carried by incredible performances from Kirk Cousins and Stefon Diggs, who seemed to want a trade out of Minnesota after Cousins’s poor start to the season, the Vikings won 38-20. The win bumps Minnesota up to 4-2, which means they are right there with the Green Bay Packers in the NFC North and can lay claim to being one of the better teams in the NFL as a whole.

Cousins had a strong performance against the New York Giants in Week 5, leading the Vikings to a 28-10 win by completing over 80% of his passes for 300 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions.

While Cousins’s completion percentage fell a bit in Week 6, he dominated a better NFC East team with more passing yards (333) and touchdowns (4) in this victory. Considering three of those touchdowns were big-time plays to Diggs, it’s safe to say that Cousins has used his play on the field to bury the hatchet with a man who is arguably the most talented player on the Vikings on either side of the ball.

The Vikings were seemingly in crisis mode two weeks ago, as they were 2-2, had scored just six points in a loss to the rival Chicago Bears, and were dealing with a potential trade request from Diggs. But now, the Vikings are one of a select group of teams in the NFC with four wins and are flying high, poised to pick up two more wins against Detroit and Washington.

Defeating the Eagles, who won the Super Bowl just two seasons ago and made the playoffs last year, is no short feat. They are beyond loaded with skill position talent on offense, yet they could only muster 20 points and turned the ball over a couple of times against a hungry Vikings defense, which should be the team’s calling card under head coach Mike Zimmer.

But lately, Cousins has been the real story in Minnesota, and, for the first time since being acquired, it seems like he’s become the positive story surrounding the Vikings.

Cousins, of course, will be judged on how he performs in the winter, as these big-time games against the Giants and Eagles will soon become stories of the past. But until then, Cousins has shown that he has what it takes to respond under pressure and make plays for his talented pass-catchers. Thanks to the way he’s responded, the Vikings are in business, and they look like they can achieve their potential as a team with the talent to make a deep playoff run in 2020.