Kirk Cousins leads NFL in passing yards through Week 8

[NoCalMike]

I don't think Kirk played particularly good or bad today.  He hit some very good passes, but also missed on throws he usually makes.  He was under more pressure than usual, but until very late in the game, while there was pressure, it wasn't getting home and he still seemed timid and throwing off his back foot on those 3-4 throws that were short to open WRs.  

 

I think today's performance is a good candidate to not make a final judgement on until Cooley does his film breakdown.  I need to get a really good idea of what Cousins was seeing on the plays that he was under pressure, and if he was throwing off his back foot.  Also at the end of the game, the blitzer is coming free, it sucks, but that is going to happen.  Jackson (or was it Crowder?) is wide open.  Cousins is going to have to get accept getting hit in order to deliver the ball.  If the completion is made Jackson might be running into the endzone. 

[petedaddy]

i feel like we weren't prepared for the blitzing, after watching the replay of the last interception over and over ...

 

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2016120409/2016/REG13/redskins@cardinals#menu=drivechart|contentId%3A0ap3000000751337&tab=videos&pbp=gc-pbp-4

 

kirk had to throw before eye contact with crowder, if crowder can turn earlier, then i feel we have a big completion there

 

not sure who that is "on" - it surely wasn't a great pass from kirk, but i also feel that it could have been executed with better planning

[2006Skins]

6 minutes ago, NoCalMike said:

 Also at the end of the game, the blitzer is coming free, it sucks, but that is going to happen.  Jackson (or was it Crowder?) is wide open.  Cousins is going to have to get accept getting hit in order to deliver the ball.  If the completion is made Jackson might be running into the endzone. 

 

It was Crowder.  If he hits him it's a TD.  He's been hitting those this year.  I think the numerous hits he took today affected him late in the game JMO

[Warhead36]

You can pick at any top notch QB and they'll all have a few bad plays here and there. Nobody is 100% flawless.

 

Overall, Cousins engineered this offense to 23 points against the top ranked pass D in the league in their house without our Pro Bowl LT and possible Pro Bowl TE. We also didn't have the gift of great field position very often(all our scoring drives I believe we're fairly lengthy ones). And a coaching staff that still only ran the ball 14 times. Still, he got us the lead multiple times in the 2nd half including in the 4th quarter.

 

The pressure was intense all day but even then there were quite a few times he dipped the shoulder and made a guy miss, climbed the pocket, and made a throw. His game in totality was more than good and with even an average D we win.

 

I'm not sure what people want from the guy, actually I'm not sure people really even know what it means to be a good QB in this league.

Just now, 2006Skins said:

 

It was Crowder.  If he hits him it's a TD.  He's been hitting those this year.  I think the numerous hits he took today affected him late in the game JMO

Kinda like Tom Brady in the Super Bowl vs. the Giants.

 

Pressure always beats QBs. Its been that way for 100 years and it isn't gonna change.

[2006Skins]

2 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

 

Kinda like Tom Brady in the Super Bowl vs. the Giants.

 

Pressure always beats QBs. Its been that way for 100 years and it isn't gonna change.

 

That's why you run the ball.  Especially when you're averaging five yards a carry.  This coaching staff did not set the offense (especially Cousins) up for success today.  

[Warhead36]

1 minute ago, 2006Skins said:

 

That's why you run the ball.  Especially when you're averaging five yards a carry.  This coaching staff did not set the offense (especially Cousins) up for success today.  

Well we weren't gonna run it down 8 with under 2 to play.

 

People are forgetting the Cards have a damn good D too. Campbell, Peterson, Swearinger etc.

[2006Skins]

2 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

Well we weren't gonna run it down 8 with under 2 to play.

 

People are forgetting the Cards have a damn good D too. Campbell, Peterson, Swearinger etc.

 

Five yards a carry today and 16 (I believe) designed runs.  Last drive, ok.  But going into the 4th it should be closer to 55-60%pass.  It was not today.  

[Spaceman Spiff]

He was fine today.  No issues with his play, including the pick on the final drive.  Not his fault the coaching staff couldn't figure out how to deal with the Cardinals pressure.  Not his fault we were out-coached.  

 

 

[NoCalMike]

It was also 3rd and 4.....its 4 down territory.  If Gruden/McVay are expecting a blitz and/or a blitzer coming free then why not 

 

1) Have Kirk audible for a hot route, possibly Thompson right to the area that the blitzer vacated

 

2) Possible check to a run up the middle or at least fake an audible to see if the Cards adjust their defense to a phony audible

 

I suppose the most disappointing thing was how unprepared they looked on that last drive. 

 

[clskinsfan]

Wasnt a great game by Kirk today. But the number one defense in the league can do that to you. And he was under constant pressure throughout the game. He played well enough to win this game though. Our defense was putrid. And it cost us this one.

[BleedBNG]

10 minutes ago, Spaceman Spiff said:

He was fine today.  No issues with his play, including the pick on the final drive.  Not his fault the coaching staff couldn't figure out how to deal with the Cardinals pressure.  Not his fault we were out-coached.  

 

 

 

I agree, he was wrapped around the neck before the fumble. One thing you can say about him... he's been tough through out the past few years. The pass to DJax was the most accurate long throw I've seen from him all year. 

[wit33]

Cardinal defense as a whole outplayed the Skins offense consistently all game. It was the first game since the Steelers where Kirk appeared surprised by looks and coverages post snap. They have a solid defense with speed all over the field. 

 

The cardinals do a lot of pre snap movement, wonder if this had a negative impact on Kirk and the offense. Thoughts?

 

Unfortunate to lose, but I'm always confident in Kirk learning from games when a defense had his number. 

 

Side not: Pretty amazing how not having the better players active (Reed and Williams) really become an issue against the better teams. Really needed Reed today.

[zCommander]

1 hour ago, wit33 said:

Cardinal defense as a whole outplayed the Skins offense consistently all game. It was the first game since the Steelers where Kirk appeared surprised by looks and coverages post snap. They have a solid defense with speed all over the field. 

 

The cardinals do a lot of pre snap movement, wonder if this had a negative impact on Kirk and the offense. Thoughts?

 

Unfortunate to lose, but I'm always confident in Kirk learning from games when a defense had his number. 

 

Side not: Pretty amazing how not having the better players active (Reed and Williams) really become an issue against the better teams. Really needed Reed today.

 

Really needed the D to bail the O out today. The Cards D have a really good pass rush and we still got 23 on them. If our D does a better job we had the W. 

[mistertim]

4 hours ago, Hail2theSkins24 said:

Kirk balled out today, if you think this **** show is on him, log off. 52 other guys + coaches need to look in the mirror 

I think "balled out" is a bit much. He was ok, and for the most part the loss wasn't on him or the offense (except the red zone play...WTF is going on there? Do we have a high school coach who comes in to call plays just when we're in the red zone or something???) nearly as much as the D. That being said, while he did have pressure coming on that INT, that doesn't change that it was a poor throw. If he makes that pass, Crowder is probably going to the end zone and we'd have a chance of tying.

[William Barbour]

3 hours ago, petedaddy said:

i feel like we weren't prepared for the blitzing, after watching the replay of the last interception over and over ...

 

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2016120409/2016/REG13/redskins@cardinals#menu=drivechart|contentId%3A0ap3000000751337&tab=videos&pbp=gc-pbp-4

 

kirk had to throw before eye contact with crowder, if crowder can turn earlier, then i feel we have a big completion there

 

not sure who that is "on" - it surely wasn't a great pass from kirk, but i also feel that it could have been executed with better planning

 

Kirk confirmed after the game that it was a choice route that Crowder was running. The Blitz forced him to guess what route Crowder was running instead of anticipating it. He needed one more second. He also would of had to throw across his body to the middle of the field to make that throw. Not an ideal scenario, but Kirk has made the throw before so I have no doubt he could of done it. 

 

The pressure was a good call, Kirk said he saw the Blitz presnap, but didn't change to Max Protection because he thought he could get it off in time. He just anticipated Crowder to sit, and not break in. 

 

Just a bad play on the Redskins and a good one from the Cardinals. 

 

We put up the most points against this defense then any team this year without our #1 receiving threat and our starting LT, and C. I can't exactly blame Kirk on a loss, but he shouldn't have to be 40-50 350 3TD every week for us to win.

[Tsailand]

ESPN has his performance today as the 8th best out of 25.  Sunday and Monday nights not included yet. 

 

If you think this wasn't a top-10 performance from Kirk today, please list three other QBs from the below list who you think played better than he did this week.

 

 

 

[NickyJ]

Kirk was overwhelmingly average today, which is completely fine by me. He can't be excellent every game, so as long as he doesn't play like a dumpster fire on his "bad" days, I have no complaints.

[wit33]

1 hour ago, zskins said:

 

Really needed the D to bail the O out today. The Cards D have a really good pass rush and we still got 23 on them. If our D does a better job we had the W. 

 

I agree, the defense was terrible and didn't help matters. 

 

The offense needed to be good today, but we're just solid. This season unfortunately, all the pressure is on the offense. The defense doesn't have the talent to be counted on. Precisely why my focus is generally on the offense and their production each week. It's not entirely fair, but that's where the talent and ability to be elite is. 

[DJHJR86]

7 hours ago, NickyJ said:

Kirk was overwhelmingly average today, which is completely fine by me. He can't be excellent every game, so as long as he doesn't play like a dumpster fire on his "bad" days, I have no complaints.

Pretty much how I feel.  

 

Our defense on the other hand...

[TD_washingtonredskins]

8 hours ago, NickyJ said:

Kirk was overwhelmingly average today, which is completely fine by me. He can't be excellent every game, so as long as he doesn't play like a dumpster fire on his "bad" days, I have no complaints.

 

I agree with this. He hung in there and played fine against a good D and despite a pretty shaky OL performance. He also contributed more to this loss than he has in a long time, so he has to own it too. There were plenty of throws that should have been better and would have improved our chances of scoring a little more. 

 

Unfortunately, given our personnel, the offense is going to need to score 30+ points per game to win most weeks. We can complain about it, get frustrated by it, or whatever...but this team's strength is offense and its weakness is defense. So, that means that Cousins, the OL, Kelley, Crowder, Reed, Garcon, Jackson, etc. are going to have to play great for us to win. They have to understand that and embrace it. It's just who we are. 

 

In the end, I saw nothing from Cousins yesterday that concerns me in the long-term or big-picture. I also really hope that the remaining four games don't play into any type of decision on him. No matter what happens in weeks 14-17, he'll have turned in two of the best QB seasons I've ever witnessed in DC. We need to stop messing around with this, sign him long-term, and begin to focus on how to build a defense to supplement this offense. 

[purbeast]

The play calling in the Redzone is mind boggling at this point.  When they are within the 5 yard line and I see them line up in shotgun I just /facepalm every time.  They never try to just pound the rock into the endzone up the gut.  I'm glad they at least FINALLY tried it yesterday, which got them to 3rd and goal from the 1 and Kirk punched it in with a sneak.  THAT is the kind of Redzone football I want to see and how you do it with this team.  You don't do it by throwing ulcer inducing fade routes to the smallest receiver on our team who is being blanketed by the best defender on the field.  Just stupid play calling, and I can't put that on Kirk down there.  

[TD_washingtonredskins]

4 minutes ago, purbeast said:

The play calling in the Redzone is mind boggling at this point.  When they are within the 5 yard line and I see them line up in shotgun I just /facepalm every time.  They never try to just pound the rock into the endzone up the gut.  I'm glad they at least FINALLY tried it yesterday, which got them to 3rd and goal from the 1 and Kirk punched it in with a sneak.  THAT is the kind of Redzone football I want to see and how you do it with this team.  You don't do it by throwing ulcer inducing fade routes to the smallest receiver on our team who is being blanketed by the best defender on the field.  Just stupid play calling, and I can't put that on Kirk down there.  

I didn't have any huge issues with the play-calling, with the exception of the third-down fade to Jackson. I'm not even one of the "I never want to see a fade again" fans, I just don't like throwing it to a finesse WR. Give Garcon or Davis a shot for a contested ball. Overall though, I think we do better throwing over the middle or on a quick out to the pylon. 

 

Other than that though, the play-action to Kelley was wide open (bad throw, bad hands, and a penalty). 

[purbeast]

12 minutes ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

I didn't have any huge issues with the play-calling, with the exception of the third-down fade to Jackson. I'm not even one of the "I never want to see a fade again" fans, I just don't like throwing it to a finesse WR. Give Garcon or Davis a shot for a contested ball. Overall though, I think we do better throwing over the middle or on a quick out to the pylon. 

 

Other than that though, the play-action to Kelley was wide open (bad throw, bad hands, and a penalty). 

I believe I saw the stat posted on Twitter yesterday that the Redskins have tried the fade 12 times this year in the Redzone and have 0 touchdowns from it.

 

12.  That is 1 attempt per game on average with 0 touchdowns.  So expect to see it 4 more times this season with 0 touchdowns to show for it.

 

Rob Kelly had over 4 yards per carry yesterday on average and we were on the 1 yardline and we didn't try to punch the ball in.  Just makes absolutely no sense to me.  I'll just never understand the thought process behind going shotgun when you are on the 1 yard line.  Instead of falling forward 3 feet to score you are now about 4 yards deep before the play even starts.  I want to see some smash mouth football when down there.  Just punch it in, we don't need any fancy finesse plays.

 

But yes, that 1 play Rob Kelly was wide open and it was a good playcall at that time.  If they are down there, do something different like a play action bootleg or SOMETHING.  They are too predictable down there.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Just now, purbeast said:

I believe I saw the stat posted on Twitter yesterday that the Redskins have tried the fade 12 times this year in the Redzone and have 0 touchdowns from it.

 

12.  That is 1 attempt per game on average with 0 touchdowns.  So expect to see it 4 more times this season with 0 touchdowns to show for it.

 

Rob Kelly had over 4 yards per carry yesterday on average and we were on the 1 yardline and we didn't try to punch the ball in.  Just makes absolutely no sense to me.  I'll just never understand the thought process behind going shotgun when you are on the 1 yard line.  Instead of falling forward 3 feet to score you are now about 4 yards deep before the play even starts.  I want to see some smash mouth football when down there.  Just punch it in, we don't need any fancy finesse plays.

 

But yes, that 1 play Rob Kelly was wide open and it was a good playcall at that time.  If they are down there, do something different like a play action bootleg or SOMETHING.  They are too predictable down there.

Before the season is over, we need to see another red zone zone-read play too. 

[Riggo#44]

18 hours ago, Warhead36 said:

Pure arm strength is overrated. Once you reach the acceptable NFL baseline(which Cousins has)anything more is often unnecessary. Many times the QBs with the strongest arms struggle more because they try to force throws. Stafford is having a great year this year because he hasn't been just rifling it but putting more touch and being more of a precision passer.

Joe Flacco has a cannon and he is an average QB

17 minutes ago, purbeast said:

Rob Kelly had over 4 yards per carry yesterday on average and we were on the 1 yardline and we didn't try to punch the ball in. 

The problem is our OL, with useless turd Shawn Luavao at LG and slightly less useless turd Spencer Long at C, we don't move the pile in general, let alone in the RZ. We don't have the players for "smashmouth football," especially with Trent out.