The Washington Redskins Are Winning More Home Games With Jay Gruden

The Washington Redskins are coming off their most convincing win in years after defeating the New Orleans Saints 47-14. This wasn’t a David vs Goliath match. It was more so David vs David. But you cannot deny the fact that Washington dominated this game from start to finish.

What’s become an interesting development in this Jay Gruden era is, the Redskins are beginning to win games at home. Gruden is 7-13 at home so far with the Washington Redskins. However, when you compare that to previous coaching tenures — progress is being made.

4-5 at home in 2015

3-8 at home in 2014

2-8 at home in 2013

5-8 at home in 2012

2-8 at home in 2011

2-8 at home in 2010

Winning at home has been an issue for the Washington Redskins and you could attribute many of their losing seasons to that fact. Good teams protect their home turf. You have eight games a year in front of your passionate fans. If you’re able to win most, if not all those games — that puts you around the .500 mark. So then you’re only banking on winning a few away games to put yourself in post season contention each year. That’s a formula both the Seahawks and Packers have developed over the years. It would not surprise me if GM Scot McCloughan has taken note of this development.

The Washington Redskins extended their home winning streak to four games for the first time since 2012 (Weeks 11-17), after defeating the Saints. They have now posted four wins in their first five home games this season. The last time that’s happened  was in 2005, when the Redskins sprinted out to a 4-0 mark, won 10 games and ended up with a playoff berth. Jay Gruden is doing something that a Redskins coach hasn’t done since Joe Gibbs. If you needed a sign of hope for Gruden, that’s it.

Not only is Jay Gruden building a team that wins at home, but QB Kirk Cousins appears to enjoy home cooking as well. Kirk Cousins has scored 10 of his 14 touchdowns at FedEx Field and only thrown two interceptions. On Sunday, Cousins had a pretty historic game (via Redskins PR):

• Cousins’ perfect passer rating (158.3) was the Redskins’ first perfect passer rating among quarterbacks with at least 20 attempts in records available dating back to 1950.

• Cousins posted the first perfect passer rating (158.3) of any NFL quarterback this season with a minimum of 20 attempts.

• Cousins finished the first quarter 9-of-9 for 116 yards and two touchdowns for a perfect passer rating of 158.3. He became the first Redskins quarterback to post a perfect passer rating in a first quarter with at least nine attempts in records available dating back to 1991.

• Cousins’ two first-quarter touchdown passes marked the first time the Redskins had thrown two passing touchdowns in the opening frame since Cousins accomplished the feat in Week 3 last season at Philadelphia.

• Cousins opened the game 10-for-10 for 127 yards prior to his first incompletion of the game in the second quarter.

• Cousins completed 17-of-20 passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns in the first half for a perfect passer rating of 158.3. The Redskins have had a quarterback record a perfect first-half passer rating in each of their last two meetings with the Saints (Robert Griffin III, Week 1 in 2012).

• Cousins became the first Redskins quarterback to throw three first-half touchdown passes since Robert Griffin III on Nov. 7, 2013 at Minnesota. He was the first Redskins quarterback to through four touchdowns in a game since Griffin on Thanksgiving Day in 2012 against the Dallas Cowboys.

• Cousins’ 295 first-half passing yards were the most by a Redskins quarterback in the opening two quarters of a game in records available dating back to 1991.

• With the performance, Cousins surpassed 5,000 career passing yards, becoming the 15th Redskins quarterback to throw for 5,000 yards with the team all-time.

“He was obviously very good,” said Gruden when asked about Cousins’ performance. “You have a perfect passer rating you’re going to be pretty good. But really the people around him… I think the offensive line did a good job. I think players took some short passes, turned them into big plays for him. He delivered the ball with efficiency, with great decision making and the results were outstanding obviously. Our running game helped out a little bit also. We were pretty balanced with our attack. I think we had 200 yards running the football and obviously 300-plus passing. It’s a grind. It’s hard to do that. Our offensive line was outstanding and obviously Kirk was the trigger-man.”

The Washington Redskins played one of the worst defenses in NFL History Sunday, but their overall team performance should be applauded. For the first time, you could visibly see an inspired football team for four full quarters. The team was so inspired that you had receivers giving 100% effort blocking 20+ yards down-the-field. It was a total team effort.

Jay Gruden desperately needed something to hang his hat on as a Head Coach. Developing into a team that defends their home turf (or grass) is a strong start.

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