Kirk Cousins vs Monday Night Football

Recently… Or should I say “for too long”… we’ve heard about Kirk Cousins and his now 0-7 record in Monday Night Football. It’s quite hilarious when QB wins/losses only matter for certain QB’s, but that was for another article. People seem to be very selective about when it matters.

Now obviously Kirk isn’t free of blame but a lot more goes into it. Big players show up in big moments, sure. But when those players show up, so does their defense and so does their special teams. You can “out-stat” people and still lose football games. It’s about execution in all 3 phases. I dove into the numbers for each of Kirk’s 7 MNF starts to see any patterns, similarities, or things that need to improve for him to finally breakthrough and get that elusive first Monday night win.

Kirk Cousins MNF Games:

• October 6th 2014

Seahawks – 27 Redskins – 17

Cousins – 21/36 | 283 Yds | 2 TD | 0 INT | 102.0 rating — Seahawks (225 rushing yards/403 total yards)

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• December 7th 2015

Cowboys – 19 Redskins – 16

Cousins – 22/31 | 219 Yds | 1 TD | 0 INT | 101.4 rating

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• September 12th 2016

Steelers – 38 Redskins – 16

Cousins – 30/43 | 329 Yds | 0 TD | 2 INT | 72.7 rating

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• December 19th 2016

Panthers – 26 Redskins – 15

Cousins – 32/47 | 315 yds |  0 TD | 1 INT | 77.9 rating

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• October 2nd 2017

Chiefs – 29 Redskins – 20

Cousins – 14/24 | 220 yds | 2 TD | 0 INT | 116.7 rating — (Chiefs 168 yards rushing, 8/13 on 3rd Down)

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• October 23rd 2017

Eagles – 34 Redskins – 24

Cousins – 30/40 | 303 yds | 3 TD | 1 INT | 110.7 rating — (Eagles offense 377 yards. 4 TDs)

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• December 10th 2018

Seahawks – 21 Vikings – 7

Cousins – 20/33 | 208 yds | 1 TD | 0 INT | 89.0 rating — (Seattle rushes for 214 yards)

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Record: (0-7)

(Via Pro-Football-Reference.com)

As the stats point out, there are games where Kirk could have done more to win, and others when he did more than enough to earn a W. The fact is, week-in and week-out, success in the NFL goes back to all 3 phases. Cousins needs to improve his consistency when it comes to MNF, but to say he’s been flat out terrible is a bad take.

His teams were 0-6 in Washington, and they are 0-1 in Minnesota thus far. Come 2019, we know there will be one game at the very least that says (MNF) and we’ll be talking about 0-7 again. Another year, another chance to capture that 1st MNF win. Will this be the year the stars align, things go right, and it happens? It’s going to take a total team effort. As WINS tend to do in the national football league.

Brian Heintz | Minnesota Sports Fan