Kirk Cousins sent an open invitation this offseason to Scott Kuhn, the Vikings’ pro scout who has the title of Director of Analytics.
The Vikings quarterback wanted to know if there was a trend — data about his fumbles, performances in prime-time games or effectiveness off play-action passes.
Over Memorial Day weekend, Kuhn sent him a summary that spit out a simple answer for why Cousins’ quarterback rating spiked last season from a 99.7 on average to 116.1 on play-action throws.
“Play action is just effective, period,” said Cousins, ranked 28th in play-action ratings last season.