Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins proved many doubters wrong by leading Minnesota to an overtime win over the New Orleans Saints in the wild-card round. Often criticized for coming up short in big games throughout his career, Cousins did the exact opposite, dropping a perfectly-placed 43-yard pass into the arms of receiver Adam Thielen to set up the winning score.
Cousins was feeling pretty good after that win, and deservedly so. But his prize is a road date with the 49ers -- on short rest -- in the divisional round Saturday. Despite Cousins' performance against the Saints, NBC Sports' Chris Simms is giving the quarterback advantage to San Francisco.
While conceding the comparative benefit of already having played in the playoffs, Simms still believes Cousins will have to prove more to fully rid himself of his reputation.
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SIGN UP HERE "He at least got to play last week," Simms said of Cousins. "I'm still going to go with [49ers quarterback] Jimmy Garoppolo because I still think the microscope is going to be under Kirk Cousins to go, 'Oh, okay, he delivered in prime time once. Can he do it again?'"
On the other side of the equation, Simms isn't worried about Garoppolo getting rattled in his first playoff start.
"I haven't seen Jimmy Garoppolo fazed by anything yet," Simms said. "I mean, nothing.
"He's kind of unflappable that way. ... The situation never seems too big for him. We saw it up in Seattle in Week 17 -- it doesn't get any bigger than that -- he didn't blink an eye."
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Beyond the mental makeup of each QB, Simms laid out two other factors that he believes favor San Francisco.
"The Minnesota offense is not as creative or talented as Jimmy Garoppolo has in San Francisco," Simms explained. "Plus, Jimmy Garoppolo has Kyle Shanahan. Kyle Shanahan hands-down is one of the two or three best offensive play-callers/play-designers in all of football."
Another potential advantage for the 49ers could be health. While San Francisco had every player on its active roster practice Wednesday, Cousins' top two targets -- Thielen and fellow receiver Stefon Diggs -- had no such luck. Thielen left Wednesday's practice with an ankle injury, and Diggs has missed each of the last two practices with an illness.
While neither Thielen nor Diggs has been ruled out for the NFC Divisional Game at Levi's Stadium on Saturday, if they aren't operating at 100 percent, that could make Cousins' challenge even tougher.