Minnesota Vikings: 3 Players that must shine vs. Lions in Week 7

1. Kirk Cousins

After catching some heat early on in the first handful of weeks to kick off the 2019 season, Kirk Cousins has answered that pressure by putting together two stellar performances in the last two weeks while airing out the ball a bit more within the flow of Minnesota’s offense.

In the first handful of weeks, the Vikings relied heavily on their running game and running back Dalvin Cook, who has been off to a really impressive start to his third year in the league this season.

That meant that Cousins and the passing game was limited in what they were able to do offensively and started to make Minnesota more of a one-dimensional team that resulting in some frustration within personnel on the Vikings’ offense.

In the last two weeks, which have resulted in a pair of wins for Minnesota, Cousins and the passing game have played a huge role in helping the Vikings to a two-game winning streak coming into the seventh week of action this weekend.

Over that two-week stretch, Cousins has recorded back-to-back 300-yard passing games and managed to throw for a combined six touchdowns during that span. More importantly, those performances resulted in two victories.

Specifically, in the Week 7 victory over the Eagles at US Bank Stadium, Cousins and the Minnesota passing game was rolling for a majority of that win. Cousins finished the game converting on 22 of his 29 pass attempts to tally a season-high 333 yards passing and four touchdowns.

While completing 75.9 percent of his passes in the game, Cousins averaged a season-best 11.5 yards per pass while recording a quarterback rating of 138.4 in the contest.

On Sunday against Detroit, if Cousins is able to get things going again within the passing game and the Vikings are still able to utilize Cook and the explosive running game on the ground, that will mean Minnesota will likely see its winning streak extend to three games going into the eighth week of the season following Sunday.