Washington Redskins: Kirk Cousins Is Not Reliable

The Washington Redskins learned Thursday night that they cannot lean on the shoulders of QB Kirk Cousins to help them win football games. In Washington’s 32-21 loss to the New York Giants, Cousins struggled all night with ball placement and turnovers.

Cousins has started 12 career games now and has played clean-up duty in four other games. In total, Cousins has had 16 opportunities to receive in-game reps. The situations haven’t always been ideal, but that’s the life of what was a back-up Quarterback. In my opinion, it takes about six games for defenses around the NFL to accumulate enough film of a Quarterback to figure out their tendencies. From that point, it’s on the QB to have a rebuttal and that’s really when you begin to learn about a Quarterback. I’ve seen enough from Kirk Cousins now to know who he is. To say he’s lacked in-game experience is assuming he has upside from a pure talent standpoint at the position. I don’t know if he actually does.

The reason Kirk Cousins was ordained starter of this football team is because he’s capable of moving the ball in Gruden’s offense. They want him to be a game manager and there’s nothing wrong with that, especially when your opposing QB plays mediocre like Washington’s first two games. However, the issue with Kirk Cousins is, he doesn’t make the plays that need to be made. Russell Wilson is a game manager and he won a Super Bowl. But the difference is, Wilson makes the plays that need to be made. Sure he has a great team around him. But if Wilson didn’t make those necessary plays in games, Seattle wouldn’t be as good as they’ve been the past few years.

Head Coach Jay Gruden continues to deflect criticism off Kirk Cousins’ play. It comes as no surprise, because the state of Gruden’s job is seemingly hanging onto Cousins’ coattail.

According to Gruden, it’s tough for a lot of Quarterbacks in the NFL to shoulder the weight of a team when the run game isn’t clicking. “It’s too much for a lot of quarterbacks,” said Gruden. “There’s only a handful. I don’t even know how many there are that could overcome a lead like that on the road in a big division game. We have to try to stay balanced. To go down nine to nothing… They controlled the clock.”

Jay Gruden made it sound as if the Giants’ lead was insurmountable. He may be right. For this team, a nine point lead is probably too much to overcome. However, the Redskins were only down two points on their second drive when Cousins threw his first interception. New York went on to do what solid teams do — capitalize on a turnover. In all honesty, the score should’ve been 15-14 at Halftime. But, the Quarterback missed too many opportunities to make a play. Washington finished two of three drives after that first interception, and prior to the end of the first quarter, with field goals.

Tight End Jordan Reed should’ve had two touchdowns in the first half. But poor throws by Kirk Cousins made it extremely difficult for him to do so. Cousins was throwing behind receivers all night. Really, it’s always been an issue for him. However, in the past, an easy excuse would be the fact he didn’t have a lot of reps with the receivers. That excuse can’t be made now. It’s who he is.

Cousins under throws a lot of those deep fade and outside of the number routes. He also often throws behind the receivers on those crossing patterns. I’ve noted in the past, his inaccuracy in that regard has injured a few of his teammates. It could be argued if he doesn’t overthrow DeSean Jackson week one, he may have not pulled a hammy. But I’ll excuse him for that since the two have had limited reps with Jackson’s pre-season shoulder injury.

I asked Kirk Cousins personal QB Coach Jeff Christensen via text about Cousins inaccuracy and he attributed it to several things:

-Vision
-Route running consistency from WR to WR
-Great defensive coverage
-getting caught with feet slightly out of position
-perfect defensive coverage verses certain route structure
-he did a great job protecting his Oline by throwing ball away and avoiding sacks last night.
-his team had a chance if 31 doesn’t fumble on the 1
-he kept his team in the game
49 NFL passes in a game you’re going to throw what appears to be 6 bad passes
The secret is not throwing ints

HE’LL BE FINE. He’s growing quickly.

It’ll be interesting to see if Cousins is able to clean-up that aspect of his game. I personally think it’s a trend that’s become a permanent part of what he brings to the table as a QB.

I guess a bright spot could be that both Kirk Cousins and Jay Gruden are on the same page these days. They’re even answering questions the same now.

When asked about the first interception, here’s what Gruden said: “The first interception was a really great play by the corner. He made a great break on the football. It was a timing throw, bang-bang play. It was a great break.”

Here was Cousins’ response to a similar question: “The first one, I thought the corner made a great play. He jumped the route and it was a bang-bang play. I believe there are some throws in this league that if you don’t let that one go, you’re never going to let a ball go, and you’re never going to be able to complete some of those tight window throws that you’ve got to be able to make in this league to move the football. I would credit the corner more on that one, making a great play and recognizing the route ahead of time.”

They’re like twins. The issue is, Cousins can’t afford to make that throw. Period. You don’t throw that football when there’s a DB sitting on the route. It wasn’t a bang-bang play, it was a dumb-dumb play. The Redskins were simply outsmarted on a route they use every game. I would’ve come back with a counter double move with the same formation look. The DB was biting all night, but Gruden chose not to attack him.

Kirk Cousins and Jay Gruden are in this thing together and it won’t get any easier. Prior to the bye week Washington has to play the Eagles, Falcons, Jets and Buccaneers. Then directly after the bye week they have to face the World Champion New England Patriots. It could get ugly or it could get fixed. But one thing is for sure, the duo has a lot to prove prior to the bye week.