Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins almost helped the Redskins pull off the upset Monday night. It was a big step for the franchise signal-caller.
After a rough first week, Washington Redskins‘ quarterback Kirk Cousins has put together three consecutive strong performances. Against the Rams in Week 2, Cousins didn’t do anything special down the field. However, when it mattered the most, Cousins led his team down the field and finished it off with a touchdown pass to win the game.
In Week 3, Cousins arguably had the league’s top performance by a quarterback through the first quarter of the season. Sure, Tom Brady and Deshaun Watson may have something to say about that, but Cousins completed 25 of 30 passes for 365 yards and three scores in a dominating win over the Raiders. Cousins was flawless.
The biggest test of Cousins’ season thus far, came on Monday night in a game at undefeated Kansas City. The sixth-year quarterback helped Washington get out to a 10-0 lead that lasted late into the second quarter. Unfortunately, a dropped pass by Terrelle Pryor and a fumble by rookie running back Samaje Perine stalled two promising Washington drives.
But when things began to look bleak for the Redskins in the third quarter, Cousins marched his team right down the field to give Washington the lead again. Cousins hit Vernon Davis in stride for a beautiful 69-yard gain, before throwing a dart to Ryan Grant for the touchdown. The cornerback Cousins picked on for the touchdown was none other than Marcus Peters. In fact, both of his touchdown passes came against Peters.
This here, is a thing of beauty, as Cousins does so many things right.
Few notes on Q3 scoring drive. 4 verts play to Davis - Think Cousins knew he was going to Davis whole time, looked left off snap to hold FS pic.twitter.com/jesMqwfIt7
— Mark Bullock (@MarkBullockNFL) October 3, 2017
The Chiefs once again regained the lead after a tired Washington defense failed to stop them. What did Cousins do? He took the Redskins right down the field again, using his legs when things broke down in the pocket. This is an element of his game he wanted to improve upon. So far this season, he’s doing so.
The biggest area of Cousins’ growth could be his decision-making. The quarterback had all-world tight end Jordan Reed open for an easy first down with under one minute remaining. If he hits Reed, the drive stays alive and the clock continues ticking. Instead of taking the easy play, Cousins went for it. He threw a strike to a blanketed Josh Doctson in the back corner of the end zone. Doctson appears to catch it, but the ball squirted loose after Doctson hit the ground.
Redskins WR Josh Doctson drops potential go-ahead TD. #WASvsKC https://t.co/kadiVKEEJL
— NFL (@NFL) October 3, 2017
What most fans didn’t see was that Cousins did exactly what many said he isn’t capable of doing, which is come up big when the game is on the line. Cousins, in many respects, looks like a franchise quarterback this season. His first-quarter touchdown pass to Pryor was terrific because Cousins showed tremendous pocket awareness avoiding the sack, stepping up and firing a dart to Pryor for the score.
https://twitter.com/BovadaLV/status/915014974677946370
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It’s time for Washington fans to start appreciating Kirk Cousins. He has taken his game to another level in 2017. Now, he must continue doing these things in the final 12 weeks, meaning the Redskins are going to be forced to give Cousins anything and everything he wants in the offseason to keep him around.