Welcome to the Week 14 grades!
This was supposed to be the week where Kirk Cousins got revenge on his old team. Instead, the Vikings proved they made the smart decision to move on from their former quarterback. Sam Darnold was the quarterback who replaced Cousins in Minnesota, and he went off on Sunday, throwing for five touchdowns in the Vikings’ 42-21 win over the Falcons.
In the win, Darnold accomplished multiple things that Cousins never did during his six years in Minnesota:
- Darnold was the first Vikings QB with five or more passing touchdowns in a game since Daunte Culpepper in 2004.
- Darnold now has four straight games with at least two touchdown passes and zero interceptions, which is the longest single-season streak in franchise history.
- Darnold is now the first QB to start 11-2 or better in his first season after changing teams since Brett Favre in 2009. Favre also did it with the Vikings. In his first 13 games with the Falcons, Cousins has Atlanta at 6-7.
With that in mind, let’s get to the grades, starting with the Bengals’ wild win on Monday night:
