Is Cousins too openly analytical? Some people (but not Kirk) might say yes

After a 26-23 loss Sunday in Kansas City in which Kirk Cousins threw three touchdowns but misfired on half his passes and the Vikings offense stalled on two key fourth quarter drives, Cousins offered a lengthy dissection on what led to his uncharacteristic inaccuracy in the game — giving more than just a glimpse, but a pretty long look, into his process, his hips and why he thought passes were sailing high.

Is that too much analysis and detail? Much like Cousins' play in general, the judgment is in the eye of the beholder — with plenty of room for interpretation.

Head coach Mike Zimmer said Monday that he "happened to watch Kirk's news conference after the game, and he gave up way too much information."

In his first full media gathering since Sunday's postgame, Cousins on Wednesday was asked about his consistent ability to self-diagnose and thoroughly analyze his own play.

"Yeah I'm pretty analytical, and some would say to a fault," Cousins said. "But it's a thinking man's game, and the quarterback position is a pretty analytical position to begin with. It's a strength of mine to go back, point to what went wrong and really try to simply and boil it down to what I can fix and fix it."

Zimmer's comments were not relayed to Cousins as part of the question Wednesday, but the QB made it pretty clear he had heard about it.

"It sounds like I may have given you guys a little too much on Sunday," Cousins said. "I try to talk football with you as much as I can. Many times I feel like I have to hold it back and I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about because I really don't want to give away any trade secrets. I guess I may circle the wagons even more. But you're right, I try to really self-evaluate and be hard on myself, listen to what coaches are telling me and apply it. You hope that will fix any errors and not let them continue."

Remember, this isn't the first time there has been a (mostly) innocent and humorous exchange about communication between the two delivered through the media this season. After the Vikings' loss to the Bears in Week 4, Cousins apologized on his radio show/podcast to Adam Thielen for not getting him the ball more.

Zimmer said he wasn't a "fan" of the apology and quipped that maybe Cousins should "get off the podcast."

The sky was falling then at a rate so fast it threatened to flatten the Vikings' season. They responded with four wins in a row, during which Cousins played so well that he earned conference player of the month honors.

The loss at Kansas City was a small blip compared to that, but it won't stop Cousins from thinking about how to get better.