The Minnesota Vikings' Kirk Cousins is looking forward to his upcoming matchup against the New Orleans Saints.
The NFL announced its 2020 season schedule on Thursday and the Vikings will play the Saints for the fourth consecutive season. Not only will Minnesota play New Orleans on Christmas, they'll do so on a Friday night. Needless to say, Cousins reacted to the news of the notable rematch between the two rivals.
#Vikings QB Kirk Cousins on ESPN on Christmas game at New Orleans: "I haven't played on a Friday since high school. That will be interesting.''
— Chris Tomasson (@christomasson) May 8, 2020
Although the Vikings and Saints aren't in the same division, they've matched up twice in the postseason in the past three years. On both of those occasions, Minnesota emerged victorious, including last season's 26-20 victory. The Vikings also defeated the Saints behind the “Minneapolis Miracle,” when they defeated New Orleans 29-24 on a last-second touchdown pass.
This time around, the two teams will face off in late regular season matchup that will surely have playoff implications. New Orleans will return its core along with offseason additions Emmanuel Sanders and Malcolm Jenkins. Meanwhile, the Vikings will return its same core — minus Stefon Diggs — along with rookie wide receiver Justin Jefferson.
Cousins will enter his third season in Minnesota. After getting the “monkey off his back” by winning a playoff game last season, the next step will be to actually lead the Vikings deep into the postseason — if not a Super Bowl.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the prospect of playing the NFL season in empty stadiums is a realistic possibility. Cousins didn't seem too bothered by the idea of playing in front of no fans.
Via ESPN:
“Honestly, we practice every day in an empty grass area and pump in fake crowd noise for away games,” Cousins said on a recent media call, via ESPN. “But more often than not, you're used to it. OTA practices don't have a lot of pomp and circumstance to them. So honestly, to go out and just play the game would kind of be refreshing, a breath of fresh air, to just let us know that we don't have to have all the smoke and the fire.
“We can just play football. So as long as we're playing the game, I won't have a lot of complaints, and hopefully if it's still not returned to normal, we can find a way to make it work.”
Maybe the idea of no fans at games will lead to more winning success for Cousins.
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