Minnesota Vikings: Studs and duds from huge Week 9 win vs. Lions

Stud: Kirk Cousins

After some subpar performances throughout the course of the regular season to this point, Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota passing game was relatively solid on Sunday afternoon at US Bank Stadium.

It helps when you have a running back group led by Dalvin Cook going off for 275 yards and two touchdowns on the ground to open things up in the passing game, but Cousins and company did a nice job to balance the offense en route to a win in Week 9.

The veteran quarterback finished the game completing 13 of his 20 pass attempts for 220 yards and three touchdowns. He also didn’t throw any interceptions and was sacked just once under center during the contest.

Cousins most notably connected with tight end Irv Smith Jr. for two touchdowns through the air, but he and the rest of the offense looked pretty solid against Detroit.

Dud: Taking full advantage of turnovers

A minor negative that took place for the Vikings in Week 9 was the lack of taking full advantage of turnovers on the defensive side of the ball.

Ultimately, Minnesota was able to turn the Detroit offense over, which is obviously a bright spot and something that helps throughout the course of the game regardless of if it was able to get points out of those turnovers. But it would have been nice to see the Vikings take better advantage of those opportunities they were given by the defense.

In the contest, Minnesota was able to tally a total of three interceptions, forcing Matthew Stafford into throwing two picks and the other coming out of the hands of backup quarterback Chase Daniel.