The Minnesota Vikings and quarterback Kirk Cousins have been off to a rocky start, finishing September, the first month of the 2019 NFL season, at 2-2. With the first quarter of the season in the books, head coach Mike Zimmer is preaching airing it out from the 31-year-old Cousins.

Per Mike Florio of NBC Sports' ProFootballTalk:

“There’s times you’ve just to pull the trigger,” Zimmer told reporters a day after the Vikings lost to the Bears in Chicago, 16-6. “And you’ve just got to believe that you’re gonna make the throw.”

“I think there were some times he might have gotten rid of it a little bit too soon,” Zimmer said regarding Cousins. “But you know when you’re getting pounded a few times, sometimes you’ve got to take the quick throw.”

The Vikings handed the one-time Pro-Bowl signal-caller Cousins a massive three-year, $84 million deal in the offseason before last year. In the middle of his contract for Minnesota, Cousins, originally a fourth-round pick of the Washington Redskins in the 2012 NFL Draft out of Michigan State, needs to rise above the noise to put the Vikings back on track. The NFC North franchise finished 8-7-1 last season, failing to make a postseason berth. With a mediocre start facing the Vikings in 2019, they will have four consecutive in-conference games against the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Detroit Lions, and Redskins to round out their next quarter.

Cousins threw 27/36 in the 16-6 Week 4 loss to the division rival Chicago Bears. Throwing for 233 total passing yards and zero touchdowns, Cousins averaged approximately 8.6 yards per completion on Sunday.