Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Kirk Cousins - Conference Call with New Orleansl Media - Thursday, October 25, 2018

How has Adam (Thielen) been able to put the numbers that he has this season?
"He's had a great year done a great job. He's an outstanding player and hopefully we can keep it going, but it's week to week. Every week we get back and try to find new creative ways to get him the football and the same goes for some of our other really talented players on offense."

Why do you think you two have had such a great connection there so quickly?
"Well I think it's a combination of factors. It takes the whole team. Coach Flip (John DeFillippo) and our offensive coaching staff has done a great job with the scheme and the play-calling to give them opportunities and to put me in a position to get them the football. The protection has held up and the other receivers had to do their part as well and spread the field and keep pressure off of Adam. So it's a lot of people who are contributing to enable him to have success. And it's not going to get easier from here as teams start to adjust their defensive plan as the season goes.

Does he remind you of anyone that you around to over the years?
"Well I mean a lot of the good players I've played with are going to all have similar traits. They're going to be professionals. They're going to have routines and be detailed in their work and have good movement skills and athleticism. So if you're in the NFL and if you're a great player in the NFL, you're going to look a lot like the other great players. But I think it's the same recipe for success that it is for anybody in this league. And this is Adam imploring all those skills and putting them all together to see the production that he's had."

Has anything stood out about the Saints rush defense in particular and how nice is it to have a guy like Latavius (Murray) to lean on when Dalvin (Cook) hasn't been able to play much this year?
"Depth is very important in this league. You're going to have injuries. Players are going to go down. So when you can have somebody step up who is able to carry the load and not only be good running the football, but can be a complete back as far as catching it and helping in pass protection and understanding all the other parts of playing the position, that's where you feel like you really have a valuable player on your roster and you know the same goes for a lot of other positions as well. Latavius has shown the importance of of depth early in the season and the rush defense is what it is. It's really really good and when you look at their roster, it's not surprising. You see a lot of good players in the front seven who are very capable of stopping the run. It would would make sense that they're doing a good job in that department."

Kirk how fresh is that loss from when you last played the Saints?
"Yeah it was a tough one. You know I've been a part of tough losses before and there will be tough losses in the future, but that one was certainly one that we felt you know we played well and put ourselves in a position to win the game and just didn't close it out."

Do you see many changes on the Saints defense from when you faced them last year in November?
"I think there's always going to be some personnel changes from year to year. They have some players who are going to be difference makers for them on Sunday night that weren't on the roster last year. Being that I'm on a completely different team, I'm sure that there will be different approaches schematically from Coach Allen and their defense that try to stop us and we'll just have to make adjustments as we go."

You've had success against the Saints at least statistically so far. Why do you think that's been the case?
"I do not think there is any specific reason and I think it's a small sample size to be honest. I only played them the two times spread out over a few years. I don't think there's a whole lot of things to point to. I just think that the key for me is going to be trying to put together a good performance on Sunday night. But I don't really see a lot of carryover or correlation from previous years. I think you just got to every week hit the reset button and find a way to play to high level."