Why is Kirk Cousins an Interception Machine?

[SkinsManNJ]

Kirks biggest problem to me is he can't handle pressure. 4th qtr in Philly he pressed to hard to make it happen. 4th and 10 if he was accurate PG probably takes that to the endzone and we win.

Last night instead of forcing the pick dump it and it would have been 3rd and 4 at worst. Could have gave us a better chance going into the 4th.

Till Griff gets back Kirk needs to act and play like he did in the 1st half against Philly. Stop pressing so hard.

[mAshparie36]

Cause he stares down his receivers??? And now Defense's have enough film on him to see that and pick up on his tendencies.

[Destino]

In the NFL "pocket passer" is just another way of saying quarterback. It's simple, pass the ball well in an NFL offense and stay healthy or the redskins need to cut their losses and move on. RG3 has what he can save of this season and next to show he's worth a 5th. So far he has one good season, one bad season, and one in which he's missing at least 6 games.

If he's a franchise QB he'll show it. If he's not cut out for the NFL, that will become evident as well. Worst case scenario is that the redskins hold on too long and waste too much time hoping for something that isn't there.

[Redskins3D]

When did Jay quit on Robert?

 

Where the hell do you get fair weather coach from

[MustangSteve]

He had a piss poor game like every QB in this league has, and the same people lose their minds after every loss. I believe Kirk will rebound quickly, and I also believe it won't matter a bit because of how pathetic our Defense is.

[P007]

According to a chris Cooley, Kirk was staring down receivers all night. He didn't go through his reads and played like a backup.

Also according to Giants defenders he was staring down receivers, they saw it on game film from the Philly game.  Really all Cousins is, is a backup qb.  The one good thing is that the Cousins hype is not being heard today.  I am listening to Cowherd, right now and he has been touting Cousins and has always been an RGIII basher isn't saying a damn thing about Cousins horrid performance from last night.

[Garcon More Wine]

because hes rex grossman.  flashes of greatness, and flashes of grossman.  look at the bears game log from 2006, its what kirk is capable of.  some gorgeous games, some games worse than imaginable.  

 

but our defense is a bigger problem than who is playing QB.  80+ points in two weeks against the division.  100% unacceptable.

[Bantu]

It's because he isn't that good. He can be serviceable, but he'd have to take a giant leap in his development for me to think he's anything special.

[nemocystem]

I don't see what's the big deal...He did exactly what I thought he would if given enough time, & I had been saying as much for over a year now.

This game was a confluence of all the things any ordinary QB talent observer could easily deduce about Kirk's flaws. He is overconfident in his pre-snap reads, & so he locks onto his 1st option too often. While his 1st option has leaned towards a better decision than some other QB's, this is easy to defend against once you understand this. The Giants had film...end of story. He also relies on what he believes is arm "strength," & much like gunslingin' Rexy, he doesn't actually have any. Balls tend to float, or carry high on him, & he WILL ABSOLUTELY throw about 6-7 noodle-arm balls. He's not very good at adjusting on the fly, & once the play starts, he fails to keep reading the defense, & instead relies on his mental picture of the routes vs. his pre-snap assessment.

Oh...& the "it" factor. When pressure is atmospheric (I.e. crunchtime), or simply comes up the middle, he gets rattled & seems to try to rely even more on his arm, & timing on routes. He trusts his preparation more than his evaluation in real time, & when teams press-man, & feint blitzes or coverages, he's going to do exactly what he did last night...unless he improves at his real-time assessments.

Can he improve? Sure...but to me, his ceiling is that he throws 1 or 2 less picks than last night...& we end up with the same result. For all the love, the reality is 1-6 as a starter, & a propensity to do the opposite of what you you want your QB to do....not LOSE the game for your team.

[clarkskin]

Maybe he just had a bad game.  3 days ago people on here were going on and on about how great he was, and now he's "showed his true colors" and all that.  Why do we have to have such collective knee-jerk reactions to everything?  Hopefully he bounces back as Coach said good QB's have to do (obviously) and we'll go from there.  Everybody has bad games.  And he certainly wasn't the only one last night. 

[EvilMonkeyBoy]

Maybe he just had a bad game.  3 days ago people on here were going on and on about how great he was, and now he's "showed his true colors" and all that.  

Yes some people were doing that, but most of us here in this thread have been consistent on thinking Cousins was exactly this kind of player to begin with and haven't wavered on that.

[SkinsFTW]

It's looks like the Giants figured out that Gruden is using the same 2-3 routes where Cousins is throwing to the same spots every time those same routes are run so why not disrupt those routes? Once Paul went down apparently they stopped using the middle of the field and we don't have anything for our 3 great receivers besides those same 2-3 routes. No screens, nothing deep, no crossing, nothing.

 

It's not too hard for the Giants to just knock the receivers off the route and be in that position because our guys weren't going to fight for that ball and yeah Cousins needs to open his eyes because im sure he did throw the ball where he was supposed to most of the time but the receivers weren't even there. Who are you throwing to dude?

 

What it really means is that with everybody on the line banged up or out and no TE to throw to and the Giants knowing that Cousins is just going to let it rip to a predetermined spot in less than 2 seconds under pressure, Cousins really had no chance so why not just RUN THE BALL MORE? We were still in the game at 24-14 after the first INT and the REFS hooked us up with the ball at the 1 but after that all we did was keep on expecting those same pass plays to work.

 

In the 2nd half our receivers caught 2 passes, the Giants DB's caught 1 each, all 4 of them had an INT and each of those ints were on Garcon, Grant, Roberts, and Jackson. All 4 of their DB's got 1 and all 4 of those receivers got knocked off their route or didnt fight for the ball or Cousins just missed them completely. Meanwhile Morris, Helu had 14 total carries.

 

Now I remember, I actually expected this a few months ago though lol.

[MartinC]

Frankly, I think some of it is the o-line.  He's looking to unload the ball just before getting hit.  A lot of that seemed to happen yesterday.  The pressure was coming.  He thought... that must mean one on one deep and just heaved it as far as he could somewhere in the vicinity of where the deep receiver might be.

 

If thats what he was doing (and it wasn't IMO) he has no business playing QB in the NFL.

 

On the turnovers only one was the result of actual pressure. In general he just got rattled, lost composure and folded. Some of that might have been him anticipating pressure but again you cant do that and play QB in the NFL (see Gabbert, Blaine). Even on throws that were not picked he was late and off target. He just lost it.

 

Now one game does not define any player - either this one or the one last week against the Eagles. I suspect the real Kirk Cousins will be found somewhere between these two poles. Lets see how the next few weeks play out and how he bounces back - but turnovers and his tendency to force throws has always been a worry for me with Kirk.

[NoCalMike]

For people who are saying "It's just one game." I'm sorry but this was the scouting report on Cousins.  Does it mean he is going to go out and throw 4 INTs every game from now on? Of course not, but he is much like Rex Grossman in the sense of Good Rex/Bad Rex. 

 

His game against the NYG was the sort of games he was having in 2013 once the NFL had film on him.  He got worse each game, that is what backups QB's tend to do when they are asked to do more than fill in. They will show glimpses of being capable but the longer their tenure the more they expose themselves as backups.

 

Who can remember Grossman and how "smooth" he ran the Kyle Shanahan offense on a limited basis, then came the untimely turnovers, the "scratch your heard, why was that thrown" INTs......sound familiar?

[No_Pressure]

The top interception machine in the league threw for 4 TDs and ran for one *shudder* against us last night. The only thing is he's been starting in New York for 10 years, even when he sucks, because he doesn't get injured, the coaching staff hasn't really changed much, and the ownership isn't fickle and stupid.

 

Which is pretty much the opposite of us in every way. Which is why the Giants, in spite of being a dreadful team, have won the superbowl twice in the past decade.

[ZRagone]

For people who are saying "It's just one game." I'm sorry but this was the scouting report on Cousins.

His scouting report also suggested he could have games like the last two weeks....but people were also saying then "It's just a two game sample size".

His scouting report basically suggests he can have some solid to very good games, but has a penchant to make poor decisions or think too highly of his arm.

The last two weeks, and this week, are the extreme ends of both of those things. Neither the last two weeks or this week should be thought of as "normal", as they both are at those extreme ends.

The reality of Kirk is probably something in between the two on most days, with the penchant for a really good game like the other weeks or a really poor game like this week to crop up at times.

I'm one of those guys saying "it's just one game"...but unlike a lot of others, I was also the one saying "it's just a two game sample size" after the past two games.

[Taylor703]

He had a piss poor game like every QB in this league has, and the same people lose their minds after every loss. I believe Kirk will rebound quickly, and I also believe it won't matter a bit because of how pathetic our Defense is.

Considering Seattle and Arizona are up next, he ain't rebounding anytime soon.

[moondog]

Shrugs, should have run the read option a lot more???

[NoCalMike]

His scouting report also suggested he could have games like the last two weeks....but people were also saying then "It's just a two game sample size".

His scouting report basically suggests he can have some solid to very good games, but has a penchant to make poor decisions or think too highly of his arm.

The last two weeks, and this week, are the extreme ends of both of those things. Neither the last two weeks or this week should be thought of as "normal", as they both are at those extreme ends.

The reality of Kirk is probably something in between the two on most days, with the penchant for a really good game like the other weeks or a really poor game like this week to crop up at times.

I'm one of those guys saying "it's just one game"...but unlike a lot of others, I was also the one saying "it's just a two game sample size" after the past two games.

 

Right, which is why I said I don't expect him to go out and throw 4 INT every game, just because he had a game where he did.  But not all INTs are equal, and the ones Kirk threw were a variety of reasons but all 4 of them can be pinned on him. He sailed the ball, he threw deep off his back foot, he failed to see defenders blanketing the WR etc etc......

 

Kirk is developing a pattern, and it's one that is showing why he was drafted to be a backup in case of injury to the starting QB. 

[paloosa]

These kind of threads are going to keep coming up because this team and organization keeps a hold of average to mediocre players. Yes they have talent but they also make the same mistakes over and over again. Why do you think these players weren't drafted or kept by other teams? Look at Tyler Polumbus for example, he was let go and we picked him up. He keeps getting beat like a drum and puts our QB's in a situation that could find them on the injure list or out of football. I can understand rookies making these mistakes but not veterans that have at least 4 to 10 years in the league. So why does Cousins throw so many picks? Let's think about this. Consistent pressure from the right side of the line and poor recognition by WR's of blitzes which makes it impossible to throw it to a hot read. Plus as a WR you don't wait for the ball to come to you when you know that the defenser can cut in front of you and pick it off. Too many times I see that happen and it is an easy pick for the defender.

 

Kurt Cousins has not had enough time under his belt with the first team as RGIII has and it shows. Did Peyton Manning play perfectly his first season? No. But he was the starter and was thrown into the fire to learn from his mistakes. Cousins will take his lumps also but he can be very good if given time in the pocket and to play more games. Get a different RT and get better depth behind the OLine because good teams find a way to play with backups. Prime example was the Philly game. They were playing with backups towards the end of the ball game and they held together. So why can't this team? Cousins will be fine and given the proper amount of protection and games he can be a solid starter. Whoever QB's this team will only do as good as the OLine and Wr's allow them to be.

[RiverboatGambler]

This is a result of Defensive coordinator taking away what you like to do.

 

When I saw Kirk in the last 2 games, I was skeptical. Some of those throws (although nice) were very close in double coverage.

 

If I saw it from my Samsung, you better believe the team saw it on film and keyed in on it.

I noticed this as well. It's like the corners were playing man and the safeties were just sitting on the routes longer developing routes..

[The Trashman]

It doesn't concern me so much that a QB with less than a half season of playing experience throws too many INTs. What points to probable bust is that his performance invariably degrades in the 2nd half. To me this indicates an inability to adjust and a lack of the "it" factor to win when the game is on the line.

Andrew Luck threw too many INTs his rookie year, but also made a number of 4th qtr comebacks. Eli makes some boneheaded errors, but is better than his brother when it comes to pulling out a last minute win. Cousins, by contrast, is a terrible 2nd half QB.

It's not so much he's a terrible 2nd half QB. He is a terrible CLOSER and does not know how to execute. Folks at the game said it looked like the Giants knew what he was doing and jumped his routes on quite a few occasions.

 

Watch the powerhouses like Seattle and Arizona study him, then run up the score in the 1st half, sit back in the 2nd half and dare him to throw against them knowing he's a basketcase trying to chase an opponent's lead.

[mjfadeaway]

I forget what NFL writer I was listening to, but he said something made sense. Some QBs throw their guys open, some QBs throw to an open guy.

 

If you throw to the open guy, you need to have an insane arm. Cutler throws to the open guy. Kaepernick does. I think Eli does to some degree though I think he actually makes his reads before doing it. (Cutler just waits for one of his monster receivers to box out a defenisve back and wings it and then takes a drag on a cigarette).

 

RGIII probably does this.

 

I think Cousins may do this to some degree. But he doesn't have the kind of arm to get away with it. He is at his best when the guy comes up right away. Because he does not hesitate and is accurate. We really is great at hit TEs on seam routes and anything involving a bootleg. And if he gets time, he will hit that long drag route to Jackson constantly.

 

The rest of the time, I think he is late and late throws get intercepted. Especially if you don't have a howitzer on your shoulder.

 

Granted, I'm not very smart when it comes to quarterbacking and am just making stuff up.....

This is exactly what robert does. When people complain about him holding the ball too long. The dig on him is getting the ball out fast and anticipating where his guy will get open and throw him open. He holds on until they are open because he has the arm strength to get away with it and thus he is a bit more conservative in how he makes plays and then isnt throwing many INTs.  Cousins doesn't. Cousins relies on anticipating that a guy will be open it shows on the ints etc. 

[Hail4Life]

I bet Robert took a big sigh of relief last night.  In the locker room I'm sure he offered Kirk some motivational one-liner like "what matters is how you get back up/no pressure no diamonds" and upon turning his back and walking away he clinched his fist and whispered quietly to himself "yessssssssssss"!

[The Trashman]

This is exactly what robert does. When people complain about him holding the ball too long. The dig on him is getting the ball out fast and anticipating where his guy will get open and throw him open. He holds on until they are open because he has the arm strength to get away with it and thus he is a bit more conservative in how he makes plays and then isnt throwing many INTs.  Cousins doesn't. Cousins relies on anticipating that a guy will be open it shows on the ints etc. 

look, let's be very REAL, ok? He threw a lot of INTs last night because he was staring down his receivers. They studied him very well and executed based on observation. That's not to say he throws based on anticipation on where his receivers should be BUT if we have to blame something in his game, let's start with his staring down the receiver problem. Once he fixes this, he will be better.

 

Breese and Montana, for example, had/have average arm strength but they avoid many INTs with accuracy, concentration and great body mechanics. Cousins needs to work on all three areas. Did you see his last INT? he threw it flat-footed. You just can't do that and survive out there.