Secret Formula for Beating Kirk Cousins?
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The Bears have seen enough of Kirk Cousins over the years to realize he'll have real klinkers every now and then.
They'd like to think their coaching staff has some sort of well-protected secret for defending against the Vikings quarterback based on one past performance against him with Indianapolis, but they realize it's probably not the case.
"Some of the same personnel, but really different," Bears defensive coordinator Alan Williams said. "Different (Vikings) scheme, different run game, so I wouldn't put too much stock into that one. I'm sure they looked at it and that type of thing, but things are—they're different."
What happened was Cousins went against the Colts and Matt Eberflus' defense in 2020 and completed 11 of 26 for 113 yards with three interceptions, three sacks and a career single-game worst passer rating of 15.9.
The Colts won 28-11 in that Week 2 game during the pandemic, in front of no fans.
So was it a case where the cover-2 defense of Eberflus has Cousins' number?
"I don't know if that's the case that he hadn't seen the cover-2," Williams said, chuckling a bit at a ridiculous thought.
There could have been any number of factors leading to Cousins' bad day.
"It was coverage and rush, rush and coverage that game," Williams said. "The guys were in the right place. They were where they're supposed to be, and when you have a quarterback that's under duress—we hit him, we hit him often, we put him down on the ground.
"So when you do that, some quarterbacks, you know, I don't know any quarterbacks that like to be hit. So when you hit them, sometimes they'll do some things out of character."
They had seven quarterback hits besides the three sacks, with defensive tackle DeForest Buckner getting four of those.
"He got rid of the ball way before he needed to, wanted to, and guys were in the right spot to catch the ball," Williams said. "We dropped a few that ballgame and we caught a few.
"Coach Flus would always say that turning the football over will turn a C+ grade into an A. That's what we did that ballgame. We hit him, we turned it over and we stopped the run."
It was a different team in the third year of the Eberflus defense, a team with Shaq Leonard and Buckner up front. It was also only the second game for Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson, and it's certain he and Cousins worked out any problems since then at seeing the type of defense the Bears are playing.
While the Bears are playing the scheme the Colts used that day, they definitely aren't playing with the same effectiveness. Their pass rush has struggled to seven sacks in four games.
Cousins isn't even in the same offense he formerly used.
Coach Kevin O'Conell's offense is similar to what the Vikings ran, but not exactly the same.
"It's very similar to the last system he was in," coach Matt Eberflus said. "I know the verbiage is different and it's a different style, but in terms of the wide zone (run blocking) and the play-action (pass), the basic tree, it's really coming from the same tree.
"I don't think it's that different for him."
So it's up to the Bears to make Sunday's game seem exactly the way it was for him when the Colts played against him in 2020.
Cousins hasn't exactly been perfect this season in this new offense, even if the Vikings are 3-1.
Cousins' 63.1% completions is the worst he's had since he came to Minnesota, and actually the worst since before he was a full-time starter in Washington in 2014. Cousins has four interceptions, six touchdown passes and a sub-par passer rating of 84.1. It's also worse than any of the season-ending passer ratings he's had since he became an NFL starter.
"He's taken some hits about accuracy, being streaky, but I think he's done a good job this year of getting the ball to different people when needed, on time," Williams said. "He's done a great job."
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