Cousins Is The Man

[NickyJ]

i somehow don't think we're going to see Kirk compared to Joe Montana very often.  And certainly not by people who cover the Eagles.  So I figured people might want to bask in it.  For a while. 

 

Not to be too much of a downer, but they pretty much need to paint the Eagles as the victims of brilliant opponents to keep Chip from being thrown in the chipper himself.

 

Okay, fine, I'll go sit in the corner now.

[Warhead36]

Why does game manager get such a bad rap?

 

Big Ben was basically a game manager when he won his superbowls, he is a star QB now but overall his team is worse

 

Brady was basically a game manager in his early years when winning superbowls but in his prime they won less as its to do much without a D

 

All things considered perfect game for what we want from Kirk, we rely on the D & run game but if needed he can step up, still dont want him carrying a team

Yeah I said the same thing.

 

The vast majority of QBs in the league are game managers(if they don't completely suck that is). I mean how many superstar elite QBs are there? Like, 4, 5 tops? And even those guys don't have an insanely higher amount of Super Bowl victories than their game manager counterparts. Rodgers has just one ring. P. Manning one. Brees one. Brady is the exception with four, but his first three he was, as you said, a game manager.

[Larry]

Why does game manager get such a bad rap?

I agree with you.

 

It's like this other thing I've noticed, about Hollywood. This term "Character actor". Seems to be applied to the actors who get called in to play all sorts of different characters. The people who've been in 100 movies, but never starred in any of them. And, to me, I thought that was what actors were supposed to do. Play lots of different characters. When did it become this kind of second-class label?

 

I'll take a "game manager".  I suspect that probably 2/3 of the starting QBs in the NFL are "game managers". 

 

Give us a "game manager", and a team, and I'll be a pig in ****. 

[mikeDinNYC]

Calm down guys. Cousins is the QB version of Rod Gardner. Good overall game today. Gave it away last week. Next week, you confident in him? You shouldn't be.

We don't have an NFL starter on this roster, but good Cousins can get the job done ok most weeks.

a pitiful reply

[ncr2h]

The Redskins have played 269 games since the beginning of 1999.  Our overall record in that span is 119-150 (44%), which over a 16 game season would equate to a 7-9 season.

 

In 67 games since 1999, a Redskins QB has attempted 37 or more passes.  Our record in those games is 10-57 (15%), which over a 16 game season equates to a roughly 2-14 season.  So we're normally a subpar team, but when we throw the ball 45+ times our odds of winning are cut basically in 1/3.

 

Here are our QBs' records in those games with 37+ attempts, ranked by winning percentage:

 

1. Mcnabb 2W, 3L (40%)

2. Johnson 2W, 4L (33%)

3. Matthews 1W, 2L (33%)

4. Cousins 2W, 5L (29%)

5. Grossman 2W, 7L (22%)

6. Ramsey 1W, 5L (17%)

7. Banks 0W, 1L (0%)

8. Hasselbeck 0W, 1L (0%)

9. Mccoy 0W, 1L (0%)

10. Beck 0W, 2L (0%)

11. George 0W, 2L (0%)

12. Brunell 0W, 5L (0%)

13. RG3 0W, 7L (0%)

14. Campbell 0W, 13L (0%)

 

Winning with 45+ attempts is even rarer.  Only 3 Redskins QBs have won games with 45+ attempts in a game since 1999 - McNabb, Cousins, and Brad Johnson.  Sure, Cousins will have some games where we ask him to throw 45 times and he ****s the bed.  But he's shown the capability to carry the team on his back with his arm.  Look what happened today - penalties everywhere, run game completely stymied, special teams mistakes, going up against the #8 pass defense per footballoutsiders.  46 attempts and he pulled it out.

 

The moral of the story is we need more time to evaluate Cousins.  Quit calling for his head every time he has a bad game.  He has shown more than enough promise to warrant an extended look this season, especially considering how injury prone our two backups are.  He's going to have good weeks and bad weeks, but the alternatives are not long term answers given their pocket presence and ability to sustain hits, so give him a long leash and let's see where the cards fall.

[Ghost of]

Yeah I said the same thing.

 

The vast majority of QBs in the league are game managers(if they don't completely suck that is). I mean how many superstar elite QBs are there? Like, 4, 5 tops? And even those guys don't have an insanely higher amount of Super Bowl victories than their game manager counterparts. Rodgers has just one ring. P. Manning one. Brees one. Brady is the exception with four, but his first three he was, as you said, a game manager.

 

He was not a game manager unless by "game manager' now we just mean anyone who doesn't throw for 5,000 yards and 40 TDs, which is insanely stupid.  As someone who saw Brady in person, you could tell he had that magic eye, and for many of those first several years, the offense was undermatched in talent but overperformed because of an elite QB. 

[tshile]

also another criticism, and I don't know if this is gruden or cousins or what...

 

but i can't really remember a time where a team was down by less than a touch down, with 5:30-6 minutes left to go in the game, with all 3 timeouts and I thought to myself:

 

I don't think they have enough time.

 

I'm sure Gruden would say he was trying to run the clock, but I was basing that on how this team has operated all season. Cousins hasn't really made me think he could run a legit 2 minute offense successfully often.

[Burgold]

also another criticism, and I don't know if this is gruden or cousins or what...

 

but i can't really remember a time where a team was down by less than a touch down, with 5:30-6 minutes left to go in the game, with all 3 timeouts and I thought to myself:

 

I don't think they have enough time.

 

I'm sure Gruden would say he was trying to run the clock, but I was basing that on how this team has operated all season. Cousins hasn't really made me think he could run a legit 2 minute offense successfully often.

You may be right, but it was an all but perfect drive.  They murdered the clock, took the lead, and gave the ball back with almost no time left on the clock.  Mind you, it should have been even less because the returner began to run after catching the kickoff and then changed his mind. That indecision should have been worth at least a second or two.

[Larry]

also another criticism, and I don't know if this is gruden or cousins or what...

 

but i can't really remember a time where a team was down by less than a touch down, with 5:30-6 minutes left to go in the game, with all 3 timeouts and I thought to myself:

 

I don't think they have enough time.

 

I'm sure Gruden would say he was trying to run the clock, but I was basing that on how this team has operated all season. Cousins hasn't really made me think he could run a legit 2 minute offense successfully often.

 

Now, if I can rephrase your post a bit, if you're saying "I don;t know if we could have made that drive, if there had been 2:00 left, instead of 6", then I'd say you might have a point. 

 

No doubt when/if that happens, that will be another milestone. 

[DM72]

If he wins next week, he will go a long way to winning a lot of people over.

[The Wicked Wop]

Good game for Kirk and happy for him..........since it was against the Eagles I thought it could be . The bad is he's got 3 really tough tests in the next 4 which can impact the way we view him.  

 

One thing I will say is none of our other QB's ever benefited in the regular season by this improved line.  

[Burgold]

Good game for Kirk and happy for him..........since it was against the Eagles I thought it could be . The bad is he's got 3 really tough tests in the next 4 which can impact the way we view him.  

 

One thing I will say is none of our other QB's ever benefited in the regular season by this improved line.  

He needs to take at least one of them. Two would be amazing.

[Bigmuss1]

Happy for Kirk! Happy for the Skins! Let's pluck another bird next weekend!

[Gibbit]

One thing I will say is none of our other QB's ever benefited in the regular season by this improved line.  

 

so what are you implying? you seem to be implying something......don't want to put words in your mouth. Just say what ya mean man. put your name on it

[santanathegreat]

This was a typical "game manager" type effort—stop making it seem like it was some sort of heroic type performance.  He didn't turn it over (although he was close twice) and he didn't make any boneheaded throws.  That is what you expect out of a game manager and Cousins did it well.

 

But you dudes are ridiculous with the pompoms.  It's pathetic.

[The Wicked Wop]

so what are you implying? you seem to be implying something......don't want to put words in your mouth. Just say what ya mean man. put your name on it

 

I'm implying that I don't know if the other QB's are capable of given the improved line play.  I will say the improved line should improve any our QB's and we are 2 and 2 with the improved lne Kirk

[redskins59]

I'm implying that I don't know if the other QB's are capable of given the improved line play.  I will say the improved line should improve any our QB's and we are 2 and 2 with this Kirk

 

What do you mean by improved offensive line play?  You mean in the running game, or in terms of protection, or both?  

The protection part has a lot to do with the QB.  It was pretty good last when Kirk was the QB.  The other two were getting sacked quite a bit.  Kirk on the other hand, did not take many sacks last year.

Also, look at third down completion by Kirk Cousins. You really think the other two can manage that?  The drives would probably end in three and out more often than not. 

You realize that Kirk has been completing a high percentage of his plays. That's improvement from last year.  The coaches saw a drastic improvement from him, and you can see it on how the O is performing.

Give him some credit.

[Gibbit]

I'm implying that I don't know if the other QB's are capable of given the improved line play.  I will say the improved line should improve any our QB's and we are 2 and 2 with this Kirk

come on....Same line looks terrible if the correct reads and protections at the line aren't called by the QB.

 

he needs time man (im not talking about kirk) Im not counting him out, but this is best thing for him

[The Wicked Wop]

What do you mean by improved offensive line play?  You mean in the running game, or in terms of protection, or both?  

The protection part has a lot to do with the QB.  It was pretty good last when Kirk was the QB.  The other two were getting sacked quite a bit.  Kirk on the other hand, did not take many sacks last year.

Also, look at third down completion by Kirk Cousins. You really think the other two can manage that?  The drives would probably end in three and out more often than not. 

You realize that Kirk has been completing a high percentage of his plays. That's improvement from last year.  The coaches saw a drastic improvement from him, and you can see it on how the O is performing.

Give him some credit.

 

 

Um don't confuse sacks poor pass protection...........Sacks might be higher with a different QB's which affects another QB by more interceptions or incompletions.  If you think our line played well last year please pass me what your drinking

 

As far as the 3rd down completions tell me the yards to go hasn't decreased on 3rd downs from last year to this year and tell me there isn't a correlation.

 

ps I did give him credit see my first sentence.

[ncr2h]

One small thing today that stood out to me as a sign of the leap that Kirk is in the process of taking -

 

2:59 left in Q3, 1st and 10 from the skins' 36.  This is the first play of the drive.  The skins line up with 2 TEs, and based on their tendencies so far this game (and season) this looks like a run.  Cousins gets the team to the LOS with about 15 seconds left on the play clock.  He lines up and gives a hard count.  The eagles defenders react.  He then stands up, slaps his helmet, and says, "Kill, kill!"  

 

Now, from what I've seen of the skins over the last several seasons, none of the QBs seems to have the freedom to audible out of a play that is called in from the sidelines.  The extent of their adjustments appear to be (a) sliding protection (only Cousins appears to do this), and (b ) if it's a running play, the QB is permitted to switch the direction of the play.  So as a skins fan who has been paying attention to these adjustments, I look at this and I say that this play is almost certainly a run.

 

The ball is snapped, and it's play action!  Cousins hits Garcon on a deep out for 19 yards.  Now, the play was called back due to Trent Williams being beyond the LOS (although I thought they typically allow 1 lineman to be 1 or 2 yards past, so it was a pretty picky call IMO), but it showed huge progress.  Either Cousins switched from a run to a play action pass and picked up a big gain, or he recognized our own playcalling tendencies and faked a pre-snap adjustment in order to fool the defense.  Either way I think that's a good sign for a QB stepping into his role as the leader of this offense.

[NastyBoy]

If he wins next week, he will go a long way to winning a lot of people over.

Clearly I agree with this statement, however if he plays well in a loss, that should count for something also.  We'll be going against a team that's hanging 40+ on opponents right now.  If our secondary can't contain that receiving corps, you can hardly hang a loss like that on Cousins.  

 

I'm more concerned about seeing continued progress regardless of wins and losses.  Of course we all want wins, but there's a bigger picture here and that's what's important to me.  Baby steps.  We're headed in the right direction.  (I hope!)

[zCommander]

A win always feels good. Cousins did really well today. No INT's. As the team gels and all of the players start/continue trusting each other and the timing becomes more fluid this team can win the division and beyond if it likes. But, it is a long road until that happens.

 

Is he our QB? Only Cousins can make that decision for us. 

[Bishop Hammer]

Yup, game managed well, but also might some real "QB" plays.

Yep but as I recalled thats how Brady got his start LOL.

[tshile]

You may be right, but it was an all but perfect drive.  They murdered the clock, took the lead, and gave the ball back with almost no time left on the clock.

 

 

Now, if I can rephrase your post a bit, if you're saying "I don;t know if we could have made that drive, if there had been 2:00 left, instead of 6", then I'd say you might have a point. 

 

No doubt when/if that happens, that will be another milestone. 

 

You're both right.

 

I'm not trying to be a downer. I just honestly can't remember ever thinking anything more than 2 minutes wouldn't be enough time, and I definitely thought that when they started the drive (so did the people with me...)

 

It just seemed like they rely on throwing 3-5 yard passes and running too much. But if you win I suppose that doesn't matter.

[Veryoldschool]

Good game for Kirk and happy for him..........since it was against the Eagles I thought it could be . The bad is he's got 3 really tough tests in the next 4 which can impact the way we view him.  

 

One thing I will say is none of our other QB's ever benefited in the regular season by this improved line.

Have you forgotten the line looked awful when Griffin was playing? Kirk is a major part of why the line is performing well. He can read defenses, call audibles, change protections, maneuver well within a pocket and quickly go through his route tree so he is a effective collaborator with the line.