What is the Kirk Cousins curse? Explaining viral fan theory predicting 49ers' downfall in NFL playoffs

Kirk Cousins was on his way to lead the league is passing touchdowns this season before his Achilles gave way but his voodoo might yet take down the 49ers in their Super Bowl pursuit. San Francisco are in the NFC Championship game and will be looking to avenge their defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles at this stage last year.

This time they are at home and the top seed in the conference. They are favorites against the Detroit Lions, who have been phenomenal this year but are away from home and untested at this level before. However, the Minnesota quarterback looms large over the discussion.

Earlier this season, Kirk Cousins and the Vikings defeated the 49ers 17-22 in a close game. The curse suggests that so far no team has gone on to appear in the Super Bowl, let alone win it, after being defeated by him. Based on that alone, Brock Purdy might fail to lead them past Jared Goff in the NFC conference finals.

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Is the Kirk Cousins curse real? Revisiting past matchups

After such a claim was made, we had to check if the curse was real or not. Fortunately for us, Jonathan Harrison of Sports Illustrated has put in the hard yards and we decided to collect the data in a tabular form.

Season	Super Bowl teams (NFC - AFC)	Teams defeated by Kirk Cousins	Curse holds?
2012-13	49ers - Ravens	Browns	YES
2013-14	Seahawks - Broncos	None	YES
2014-15	Seahawks - Patriots	Titans	YES
2015-16	Panthers - Broncos	Rams, Eagles x 2, Buccaneers, Saint, Giants, Bears, Bills, Cowboys	YES
2016-17	Falcons - Patriots	Giants, Browns, Ravens, Eagles x 2, Vikings, Packers, Bears	YES
2017-18	Eagles - Patriots	Rams, Raiders, 49ers, Seahawks, Giants, Cardinals, Broncos	YES
2018-19	Rams - Patriots	49ers, Eagles, Cardinals, Jets, Lions x 2, Packers, Dolphins	YES
2019-20	49ers - Chiefs	Falcons, Raiders, Giants, Eagles, Lions x 2, Commanders, Cowboys, Broncos, Chargers	YES
2020-21	Buccaneers - Chiefs	Texans, Packers, Lions x 2, Bears, Panthers, Jaguars	YES
2021-22	Rams - Bengals	Seahawks, Lions, Panthers, Chargers, Packers, Steelers, Bears x 2	YES
2022-23	Eagles - Chiefs	Packers, Lions, Saints, Bears x 2, Dolphins, Cardinals, Commanders, Bills, Patriots, Jets, Colts, Giants	YES

As we can see, Kirk Cousins is the master of dark magic. Therefore, if the curse holds this year, the San Francisco 49ers will fall to the Detroit Lions.

On the AFC side, it does not apply as the Baltimore Ravens did not face the Vikings this year and the Kansas City Chiefs defeated Minnesota in Week 5. So, either of those teams can make it to the Super Bowl and still retain the curse.

But if there is something Brock Purdy can lean on, it is that curses are meant to be broken. Until last year, Kurt Warner was the last person to win the league MVP and Super Bowl MVP before Patrick Mahomes changed the narrative by winning both.

The 49ers quarterback has to do something similar. By beating the curse, he can elevate his standing among the elite quarterbacks in the NFL. He has been constantly underestimated by pundits throughout the season, from Cam Newton calling him a system quarterback to Ryan Clark saying he is not at the level of the other quarterbacks in the conference championships.

Now, is the time to prove all of them wrong and win San Francisco its first Super Bowl this century.

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