We're down to a maximum of 10 quarters remaining in the regular season. The year began with the change of leadership & philosophy, which sparked this year's concept. We've all seen a lot, enjoyed just as many of the moments and yet, today showed how much there still is to figure out about this team.
To put it simply, they are a resilient enigma the likes of which the League has not seen before. In the wake of an all-time comeback in sports history that's an easy statement but the 15th game of the season had it's own flavor & showed yet again that this team can't be counted out until time is up.
This week, as with so many of the previous, the offense hinged on the Cousins to Jefferson connection. Already the leading receiver in the League, Jefferson's next target was to surpass a couple of all-time talents. It took two catches this time for him to surpass Randy Moss for the team's single-season receiving yards record. 10 grabs later he moved past the other HOF, Cris Carter, with the 123rd of the year.
This is happening in year one of a new system, don't forget that.
For all the talk of him acting as the Cooper Kupp of the team, to have that sort of production already is beyond reasonable expectation. Perhaps he could have been putting up these sorts of numbers all along but no doubt that he & the new system are a match made in Heaven! With this week's 133 yards, the 10th time he's hit triple-digits this year, he also moved into first place on the list of players to reach that mark in their first four seasons. With 19 regular season games to go before the end of his fourth he will have the chance to go Wilt Chamberlain & Cal Ripken on that record!
It adds up that he should get a measure of MVP consideration and already be a lock for Offensive Player of the Year. But the biggest knock on WRs has been & will be that they do depend on the guy making the passes. Kirk Cousins far surpassed his draft position years ago and this week added some history as well.
With the latest fourth quarter comeback he tied Matthew Stafford for the most in a single season in League history (8). With the way this team continues to go that mark seems likely to fall as well. That came after he joined Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees & Philip Rivers with his 25th touchdown pass for the eighth year in a row. Rivers is a fringe HOF-caliber player while the rest were stone-cold locks well before they finished. Cousins would have to do many more great things over the time that remains in his career to reach Canton but the comeback would be an achievement mentioned during his induction, which makes it back-to-back weeks with such a happening.
The former cornerstone of the team's offense added to his 1,000 yard season, which is currently sixth-best across the League, while surpassing Chuck Foreman for third place on the team's all-time list as well. There's already some chatter for Cook to be a salary cap casualty after this year, which may happen, but he's put himself into the realm of the Ring of Honor while still only being 27 YO so even bigger things could remain on his horizon.
And the late addition from Detroit came through with a 13/109/2 line - maybe they should keep the end-zone white just for the Norseman's sake!
All the offense in the world doesn't matter without the ability to stop the other team though. It seems there's been an adjustment to the stats since the game but briefly Danielle Hunter & Za'Darius Smith became the third duo in the game with 10+ sacks each. It was the first time since 04 that that had happened on the Purple. Now Z is listed at 9 but the larger point that they have also reached the anticipated level of duel-excellence remains and will be needed all the more over the next month+!
The team also got one of it's most tangible contributions so far from a rookie. Brian Asamoah became just the second rookie this season to force & recover a fumble. That's not a slight at Ed Ingram, who has been on the line all season, other contributions have just been meager by the first-years.
Those came as Patrick Peterson added to his own Canton-bonafides with his 33rd interception & fourth of the season while also getting inches from his fifth sack. It wasn't the best game of his career as Isaiah Hodgins exposed his weakness but Peterson got the last laugh.
There's no better way to end talk of the 12th win than with the one who closed it out. Greg Joseph's 40-yard kick in the second quarter was his 18th-straight make and the next one fittingly also proved to be historic! With the 61-yard kick he became the team record-holder while improving upon his personal best & securing the most wins for a first-year head coach! It was a Christmas wonder and now we all get to wonder what the final two games might include!
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