I was listening to the Northland Fan on my way to the grocery store and I was surprised by what I heard.

Kirk Cousins, the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings said that the defense and the offense were to blame for the atrocious kicking. He said if he and the rest of the offense and the defense had been doing their job, Dan Bailey wouldn't have been put in that spot and missed the kicks.

Here's the way he explained it to Mark Rosen in a segment that was made just for him. Kirk said they could have made a couple of the plays and then they wouldn't have had to rely on Dan to kick a Field Goal at such a long length. He said if the defense had pressured Brady more there might have been some interceptions or less scoring. He said once Dan Bailey got into a funk, he was in for good.

One thing that Cousins explained was that once kickers and quarterbacks get into that funk zone, it's hard to get out. He said if they hadn't gone to him time after time, he wouldn't have survived and it would have been a bad practice. Instead, he said he knows how Bailey thinks. He comes back and in practice, he takes all those kicks over and over so he won't miss them next time.

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Cousins said that he also talked to the holder Britton Colquitt and that he was confident he had good holds and that Bailey made a solid hit and didn't see him shank the kick so it should have been good every time. He also explained that there is timing when Bailey is kicking and if the timing is off all day, the kicks are off.

I know that he shouldn't have missed that many, I don't think he made one. I also know that was pretty cool of Kirk to say that it isn't Dan alone, that Dan Bailey is part of a team and when one thing goes wrong you need someone to step up, but if you are forcing your kicker to make long kicks, it's not always on him. I did gain some respect for Kirk Cousins.

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