After a lot of angst, Kirk Cousins wins NFC Offensive Player of the Month

Frank Schwab
·NFL writer
Updated

On Sept. 29, the Chicago Bears embarrassed the Minnesota Vikings offense, and specifically Kirk Cousins.

Cousins struggled badly in a 16-6 loss. Adam Thielen complained. Stefon Diggs didn’t shoot down rumors that he wanted to be traded.

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At that point, the thought of Cousins being the best offensive player in the NFC in October was laughable. And yet, that’s what happened. Cousins was named NFC Offensive Player of the Month for October.

Didn’t expect that, did you?

Kirk Cousins has been on fire

One good month won’t completely change the Cousins story. But he has been pretty good.

In four October games, Cousins completed 78.4 percent of his passes for 1,262 yards, 10 touchdowns and one interception. He had a 137.1 passer rating. It’s hard to argue against him getting the player of the month award.

The Vikings have established themselves as a championship contender. They aren’t getting a lot of attention, perhaps because they’re still behind the Green Bay Packers in the division, but Minnesota has good balance on offense with Cousins playing better, and the defense is still good.

Of course, part of the reason the Vikings aren’t getting too much attention is the skepticism over Cousins, which isn’t going away anytime soon.

Vikings went 4-0 in October

Here are the four defenses Cousins faced in October: Giants, Eagles, Lions, Redskins. The best team in that group might be the Lions, and they’ve allowed the most passing yards per game this season. The Eagles are solid too, but they had major cornerback injuries for the Vikings game.

The knock on Cousins is that he plays well against bad teams and disappears in big moments. The Vikings’ 4-0 October was great, but there’s a long way to go before people stop ripping Cousins and his $84 million contract. He’ll need to play well against some of the NFL’s top teams for that to happen.

But at least a stellar October has gotten everyone off Cousins’ back. For now.

Kirk Cousins was named NFC player of the month for October. (Getty Images)
Kirk Cousins was named NFC player of the month for October. (Getty Images)

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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab