On Sunday, the Los Angeles Chargers and the Minnesota Vikings played out a true nail-biter.
The outcome was unfortunate for Minnesota, who suffered their third straight defeat to start the year.
In fact, the Vikings had a chance to win the game late on, but Minnesota’s victory was assured by a costly Kirk Cousins interception.
QB Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings responds to the poorly executed final play.
After the game, Cousins spoke with the media, and in an unexpected turn of events, the veteran quarterback claimed that the Vikings supporters present were largely to blame for the defeat.
The crowd reportedly became so loud that Cousins was unable to hear the head coach, Kevin O’Connell, through his headset.
Cousins stated, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN,
“Just couldn’t hear him with the noise.”.
I just ended up calling a play, and the play I called was the one he was trying to reach.
“.
After their team scored on a fourth-and-goal late in the fourth quarter with LA leading by only four points, Minnesota fans got a little too giddy. They had a great opportunity to score from the six-yard line, but Cousins simply couldn’t hear what his coach was telling him. The four-time Pro Bowler made the disastrous decision to run his own play, which ultimately failed.
Yet some of the blame was borne by cousins. He admitted that he made the decision on his own and that he would simply have to accept the loss.
Cousins remarked,
“I mean, I could do whatever I want. “I am proficient at the quarterback sneak.
I’m free to do as I please, but you’ll have to live with the results as well.
It’s difficult to know whether to take the reins or not until you know the future because against Buffalo last year I snuck it on my own and didn’t get in, but I’ve done it before.
“.
Reiterating Kirk Cousins’ Opinions is Kevin O’Connell.
The same justification was offered by Coach O’Connell for his part following the game.
Additionally, he blamed the insurmountable crowd noise for his inability to reach his quarterback at that crucial time.
O’Connell affirmed,
“That does occur occasionally.” “When we’re in a regular two-minute mode, it’s not always noticed.
But the Minnesota play-caller did add that he, too, could have improved on that decisive play.
For our team, I always have extremely high expectations, so I’m attempting to steal one more play, O’Connell said.
Although I don’t believe that time ultimately played a role in how the game ended, it was obvious that with that much time left on the clock that I had tried to be too aggressive at that particular time.
Looking back, there is no doubt; I just wish I had noticed it sooner. No matter how quickly we were able to achieve our goals, the value of that execution was not immediately understood”.
All of this is now history, and unfortunately for Minnesota, they are currently down badly at 0-3.