Through about a quarter of the Vikings' regular season, quarterback Kirk Cousins pointed to the inspiring play of special teams and the overall discipline to limit penalties as two key ingredients for the franchise's 3-1 start, its best since 2016. He saw positive signs for how far the Vikings can go should they become more consistent on offense and defense under head coach Kevin O'Connell.
"You start to look at why you're winning or you're getting to 3-1, you start to see some indications like that," Cousins said. "Offensively, I think we've come out of some games — outside of the Packer game — we've come out of some games feeling like we have to be sharper, we have to be better. There's plays we're leaving out there."
Cousins feels strongly about the talent around him to get there. That didn't look like a guarantee 10 months ago when the Vikings fired their general manager and head coach. The Bears, Sunday's opponent at U.S. Bank Stadium, did the same, but the teams chose drastically different paths to reset.
