If the San Francisco 49ers want to win the Super Bowl this year, they're going to have to figure out a way to beat Kirk Cousins.
That might sound crazy, especially since the 49ers aren't even playing against Cousins this weekend, but if they lose to the Detroit Lions on Sunday, you can just go ahead and blame it on the "Curse of Kirk Cousins."
If you've never heard about this curse, it's pretty simple: Since Cousins entered the NFL in 2012, no team has ever won the Super Bowl in the same season where they lost to Cousins. If Cousins started a game at any point in his career and you lost to him, that means you didn't go on to win the Super Bowl in the same season where he beat you.
So why is this a big deal right now? Because Cousins beat the 49ers this year.
Although the Vikings QB only started eight games before suffering a season-ending injury, one of those game came against the 49ers. Back in Week 7, Cousins played arguably his best game of the season: He threw for 378 yards and two touchdowns as the Vikings upset the 49ers 22-17.
Cousins also beat the Green Bay Packers this year, and of course, the curse already got them with the 49ers beating Green Bay in the divisional round in a game where it certainly looked like the Packers were a cursed team in the fourth quarter.
Even though Cousins is in the same division as the Lions, he didn't get to play them this year due to his injury, so the only cursed team left in the playoff field is the 49ers.
The fact that San Francisco has gotten this far is impressive because only two teams have even made it to the conference title game in the same year where they lost to Cousins (The 49ers are the third).
Let's check out the curse (Note: From 2012 thru 2015, Cousins didn't beat a single team that even made the playoffs, so we're starting in 2016).
In 2016, Cousins beat the Packers and they ended up getting to the NFC title game before getting destroyed 44-21 by the Falcons (Cousins also beat the Giants that year and they lost in the wild-card round).
In 2017, Cousins beat the Rams, who won the NFC West that year, but they got knocked out in the wild-card round.
In 2018, Cousins beat the Eagles, who finished in second in the NFC East, and although they did end up winning a playoff game that year, they eventually got knocked out in the divisional round.
In 2019, he beat the Eagles again, and although they won the NFC East that year, that didn't translate to any playoff success. The curse of Cousins got them with Philly losing in the wild-card round to the Seahawks.
In 2020, Cousins beat two playoffs teams during the regular season: The Bears and Packers. The crazy thing is that the Packers actually finished the season as the top-seed in the NFC, and although they did get to the NFC title game, the curse did eventually get them when they lost to Tom Brady's Buccaneers. As for the Bears, they lost in the wild-card round.
In 2021, Cousins once again beat two playoff teams during the regular season: The Steelers and the Packers. To be honest, Cousins might only be cursing the Packers, because that seems to be the team that gets impacted the most by this curse. For the second straight year, the Packers were the No. 1 seed in the NFC and for the second straight year, they didn't make it to the Super Bowl. As a matter of fact, they didn't even make it to the NFC title game because they ended up losing to the 49ers, 13-10, in the divisional round. As for the Steelers, they were the AFC's seventh seed and they were knocked out in the wild-card round.
In 2022, Cousins actually beat three playoff teams and one of them (Buffalo) was viewed as the serious Super Bowl contender (The other two were the Dolphins and Giants). However, nothing can overcome the curse of Cousins and none of the three teams even made it out of the divisional round.
This year, Cousins only beat two playoffs teams -- the Packers and 49ers -- and as we mentioned up top, one of them has already been eliminated.
That means it's now up to the 49ers to end the curse. No team that Cousins has ever beaten has ever even MADE it to the Super Bowl in the same season, let alone win the entire thing, but the 49ers will be trying to end that. And Kyle Shanahan might be the perfect person to break the curse considering he was Cousins' offensive coordinator in Washington during the quarterback's first two years in the league.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs will also be trying to break a curse this year and you can read more about it here.