MINNEAPOLIS -- There was no real acrimony when Kirk Cousins left Minnesota for Atlanta. Vikings fans booed Cousins' arrival on the field Sunday, but it felt more obligatory than heated. Still, you couldn't help but compare that moment to one that came a few hours later, when the big screen showed Sam Darnold, a huge grin on his face, waving a towel -- those same fans standing and roaring for him.
Cousins returned to Minnesota for the first time and, no, the reunion did not feel so good. Two more interceptions, no touchdown passes, a 42-21 loss for the Falcons, their fourth in a row, which sank them below .500 and out of first place in the NFC South.
It was a raw display of why the Vikings were reluctant to make a longer-term commitment to Cousins, as he was coming off an Achilles tear, last offseason, why they were more comfortable going forward with a one-year flyer on a retread who was teetering dangerously close to journeyman territory. Darnold, with five touchdown passes and a 157.9 quarterback rating, led the Vikings to their sixth straight win, and in the process put on a display of all the things Cousins is not doing, maybe can no longer do, with consistency. On one dazzling touchdown that his agent should put on a loop for suitors this spring, Darnold scrambled to his left to escape pressure, then scrambled to his right to get away from even more. Then he spotted Justin Jefferson standing alone about five yards from the end zone. Darnold heaved the ball, leaving his feet. That a defender fell down is beside the point. Jefferson almost certainly would have scored anyway. Not many quarterbacks can make a throw for a 52-yard touchdown like that. The Vikings have one who can. The Falcons, alas, do not right now.
Cousins was far from the only reason the Falcons lost. In fact, he might not even be first on the list. There were repeated coverage breakdowns, which allowed big play after big play. There were 12 penalties, including one on a Vikings field-goal attempt that allowed the Vikings to continue the drive, which ended with a touchdown. And there was a fumbled kickoff return early in the fourth quarter, which opened the floodgates to the rout.
But it is also becoming clearer that the Falcons have a Kirk Cousins problem, and part of it is of their own making. As soon as they selected Michael Penix Jr. in the first round -- a decision that shocked Cousins and just about everyone outside of the Falcons' draft room -- the questions began about what the Falcons would do if Cousins struggled, not an entirely unexpected possibility considering the severity of his 2023 injury. Well, he is struggling -- during the four-game skid, he hasn't thrown a single touchdown pass but has eight interceptions -- and those questions are only getting more pointed and more insistent.
On Sunday, the answer from head coach Raheem Morris was not yet.
"Everything is always discussed when you go look at the tape," he said. "Kirk Cousins is our quarterback. Kirk played significantly better than he did the week before. We'll do whatever is best to win football games, and Kirk is definitely part of that."
That is almost certainly true. As long as the Falcons are in the playoff race, the bet that Cousins will get himself out of his personal slide is a safer one than the gamble that a rookie, who has never prepared as a starter, could perform consistently better than Cousins in the most high-pressure environment.
Later, Morris said he did not think the Falcons did enough around Cousins to support him Sunday.
That was certainly true, although the Falcons' pass rush did get to Darnold four times and the defense played well enough to keep it close. It was a 21-21 game at one point although, as Cousins noted, by the time he saw the ball again, it was 35-21. And the Vikings, at 11-2, are one of the NFL’s best teams, keeping pressure on the Detroit Lions to keep winning to hold on to the NFC North. This was always going to be a difficult game for the Falcons, Cousins' return aside.
But Cousins was brought to Atlanta to elevate them, not to need the elevation himself. The question that will hang over the final month of the season is whether that can be reversed, whether he is still capable of that.
Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell spoke to Cousins for a few moments after the game, the two of them expressing gratitude for the time they had together. Cousins, of course, said he was disappointed in the day, that he made mistakes on the two interceptions. Cousins is excitable and ebullient when his team is winning, but he is steady when he loses and even on such an emotionally charged day for him, he was analytical and gracious, never raising his voice, but also rarely raising his eyes. When told that Morris had said Cousins had played better than last week -- that was a four-interception nightmare -- Cousins smiled briefly.
"Last week was a low bar," he said. "I felt better today. Felt more like myself."
Later, he added, "I'd love to be playing with a lot more production. Disappointing not to have a touchdown pass."
Cousins demurred when asked what he was thinking watching Darnold play so well when he was not.
"Sam has played great," he said. "He did a great job today. I'm happy for him and the way he's playing."
Part of Cousins' steadiness may come from the knowledge that the Falcons are still very much in control of their future. Because they swept the head-to-head meetings with the Bucs, the Falcons need only finish in a tie with them to win the division. And the Falcons have four winnable games ahead of them. The question that will be answered in those four weeks is a simple one: Are the Falcons the team that was 6-3, or is the one that has since gone 0-4?
"When you're playing well, you usually aren't as good as people are telling you," Cousins replied. "When you're in a rut, you're usually not as bad as people who are leaving you for dead. The reality is usually somewhere in the middle. You just have to keep playing and see where the dust settles."
However it does, whenever it does, the questions the Falcons will face afterward will be more complex. What is Cousins' future? How do he and Penix fit together with the Falcons? Can he still be the quarterback who once enraptured Vikings fans? Or will he be at home, marveling that Darnold made it so easy for them to move on.
