Scenario: you are Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins. Your team is trailing the Giants 31–24 in the NFC wild-card game, desperately trying to mount a final drive to save a charmed season.
On fourth and eighth with 1:51 to play, you drop back to pass. And then, this happens.
Cousins’s throw to tight end TJ Hockenson stalled out well short of the sticks and represented an inauspicious end to the 2022 season for Minnesota, as a season lived on the edge—the Vikings closed the regular season with a -3 point differential—ended in defeat.
The loss opened the door for criticism of Cousins by media and fans as New York celebrated its first divisional-round trip since 2011. Some simply expressed awe at the game’s ending.
Some conceded that it would adversely affect Cousins’s reputation.
Some winked at Cousins’s past futility in prime-time games.
Some just laughed as Minnesota’s 63-year championship quest continued.
