Vikings have a chance to do the funniest thing ever in Kirk Cousins revenge game

Kirk Cousins was once viewed as a potential savior for the Minnesota Vikings. To be sure, he had some great seasons and, as such, so did the team while he resided in Minneapolis. The organization, however, made the tough decision to move on from Cousins this offseason, thus leading to him being dubbed the new savior of the Atlanta Falcons after signing there in free agency.

That hasn't gone to plan for the Falcons, though. While Atlanta is still clinging to the NFC South lead, the club is a middling 6-6 with Cousins looking, to put it bluntly, horrendous down the stretch thus far. Meanwhile, the Vikings have looked genius. Sam Darnold has entered the fray, even with J.J. McCarthy's rookie campaign ending before it ever started, and led the Vikings to a 10-2 start, looking like a lock for a playoff spot.

As fate would have it, these two trains converge in Week 14 as the Falcons visit the Vikings on Sunday afternoon. It could very well be a chance for a Kirk Cousins revenge game — or it could be an opportunity for Minnesota to turn that into the franchise getting the ultimate last laugh regarding their decision to move on from the veteran quarterback.

Vikings getting Kirk Cousins benched in revenge game would be poetic justice

What if Cousins enters this game, faces a Brian Flores-led Vikings defense that has given some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL this season fits, and then lays another egg for the Falcons? Could that lead to Atlanta benching Cousins in favor of rookie Michael Penix Jr.?

Frankly, we might already be trending that direction in Atlanta. As such, it's not inconceivable that the Vikings could deal the final blow to make that happen, a bit of poetic justice to be proven unquestionably right for their timing in moving on from Cousins — a move that initially left fans and analysts with an abundance of questions about Minnesota.

Over his past three games, there's no kind way to frame what Cousins and, by proxy, the Falcons have done. The quarterback has not only failed the eye test with his lack of mobility and poor decision-making but the box score has been worse.

He's completed a middling 62.5% of his passes over this span but for only 724 yards (241.3 per game) with no touchdown passes and six interceptions. Sneakily, he's also fumbled four times but none have been lost (which feels more like luck than anything the signal-caller has actually done. Not shockingly, the Falcons are 0-3 in those games.

Putting a quarterback playing this poorly and who threw four of those picks in last week's game against the Chargers against a Flores defense with the Vikings looks like a recipe for disaster. And frankly, a quarterback change would be called for not just because of Cousins' continued downward trend in play, not just because Penix is a first-rounder in waiting, but also because the Falcons have run out of margin for error.

Atlanta is tied with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the division standings at 6-6 but hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. Yet, the Bucs finish with the Raiders, Chargers, Cowboys, Panthers and Saints over their final five games, only one of which that's likely to make the playoffs. The Falcons, meanwhile, have the Vikings, Raiders, Giants, Commanders and Panthers to finish the season. That's advantage Tampa.

If Cousins doesn't improve and the coaching staff believes Penix is ready, they need the chance to get him in there to save his playoff livelihood. But it would be quite poetic if it ended up being the Vikings that delivered the final blow for the Falcons to make that change.