Kirk Cousins Showing the Progress RG3 Didn't Make for Washington Redskins
It's safe to say Kirk Cousins is currently riding the wave of positive buzz after leading the Washington Redskins to a comeback win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 4. While nobody should assume Cousins' late-game heroics are definitive proof he's officially turned the corner from raw, mistake-prone passer into marquee starting quarterback, No. 8 proved one thing against the Eagles.
He showed why he's better for this team than Robert Griffin III ever will be.
Simply put, Cousins is showing the progress RG3 never made under center for the Burgundy and Gold.
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Even taking the small sample sizes offered by their respective recent work helps highlight the stark differences between the two signal-callers. Consider Cousins this season, and you'll see a quarterback with greater awareness and command in the pocket. He knows this offense, where his best matchups will be and what he has to do to get them the ball quickly.
None of those things were on any Griffin checklist the last time he was on the field. Here's a few plays that show the differences between the two men:
Identifying Matchups
When Cousins has excelled this season, it's been because he's quickly identified his best matchup at the line of scrimmage. He's made the right pre-snap reads.
A crucial 29-yard pass to tight end Jordan Reed in the fourth quarter of Week 2's 24-10 win over the St. Louis Rams illustrated how he's doing it.
The play was 3rd-and-5, and Cousins quickly read that the Rams would be playing some sort of man coverage underneath. That meant linebacker Alec Ogletree would be isolated one-on-one with Reed:
A linebacker pitted against a "move" tight end as dynamic as Reed is a matchup win for the Redskins every time. But it wouldn't be as simple as that for Cousins. He also had to account for, and adapt to, a few other key factors.
The first was the Rams showing blitz. Safety T.J. McDonald appeared primed to rush off the edge. So Cousins knew he had to get rid of the ball quickly.
Second, 2012's fourth-rounder also had to account for the deep safety. He needed to freeze that defender and prevent him from rotating down and playing robber on Reed's underneath crossing route.
Dealing with the second part first, Cousins locked onto the deep safety by keeping his eyes focused on the outside vertical receiver:
Knowing he had man coverage underneath, Cousins wanted to ensure the void in the middle behind the linebackers remained free. Middle 'backer James Laurinaitis (55), would vacate the area to pick up running back Chris Thompson in coverage, but Cousins had to make sure a deep safety didn't drop into the spot.
Looking long ensured the safeties in St. Louis' 2-Man coverage stayed deep:
By freezing the safety, Cousins gave Reed time to slip Ogletree and scamper into the vacated middle. So once Reed was free he was wide open, giving Cousins an easy target and throw:
Another thing that really stood out on this play was how Cousins stayed patient in the pocket. He stood up in the face of pressure to give himself time to manipulate the safety, as well as affording Reed precious seconds to shake his coverage.
Even though it meant taking a hit, Cousins released the ball at the perfect time to find Reed on a big play and spark a drive that ended with rookie runner Matt Jones scoring the game-clinching touchdown:
This was a quarterback using his eyes to get the coverage he wanted and give his best pre-snap read the chance to get open. Most important, Cousins knew his best read before the ball was even in his hands.
Griffin displayed none of the same pre-snap awareness and command of the line of scrimmage.
Consider this play during Week 15's road loss to the New York Giants from the 2014 NFL season. Facing 3rd-and-4 in the final period, Griffin failed to diagnose either pressure or coverage.
Here's what the Giants initially showed No. 10:
It looks like man coverage across the board, bar one exception. While one inside linebacker (35), seems designated to cover Thompson, the other, middle 'backer Jameel McClain, is free. He has no coverage assignment. That should have told Griffin he might blitz.
The quarterback should also have identified Reed in the slot as his best matchup. Even in the initial look, Reed against safety Antrel Rolle is a matchup worth betting on.
But things looked more favorable once Rolle backed out pre-snap. Sadly, Griffin missed the rotation:
This now put a linebacker on Reed, an even better matchup for Washington. Griffin should have been ready to quickly fire the ball his tight end's way.
Once Rolle backed out, the Griff' should have read a zone look and known Reed would be in the void underneath. So it proved once the ball was snapped:
With New York playing off in a Cover 2 look, the corner pressed the outside flat after passing the vertical receiver to the deep safety, Reed was open on a hook route in the shallow seam:
This should have been a quick throw and catch for an easy first-down conversion.
Instead, Griffin zeroed in on the wrong side of the field. He looked the way of Andre Roberts and Pierre Garcon because he hadn't identified Reed as his best target:
By the time RG3 got his head around to look Reed's way, the pocket had collapsed. Under heavy pressure, he attempted to scramble free but was felled after just a single yard.
By failing to make the right pre-snap read and pay full attention to how the defense had changed, Griffin ended up wasting a fresh set of downs and needlessly taking a hard hit.
Greater awareness would have solved both problems. That awareness is one reason why the Redskins are converting just shy of half of their third downs this season (29 of 62, according to the league's official site).
While there's room for improvement, that number still represents a better rate than last season's 62 of 197. Smarter choices at the line of scrimmage have keyed the improvement.
Better Mechanics
Decision-making is just one area where Cousins is showing progress, while Griffin stayed stuck in the mud. No. 8 is also starting to display better mechanics—or, at least, more sophisticated mechanics.
On Cousins' strike to Reed, he showed an ability to use his eyes to freeze a defender and manipulate coverage. Cousins was able to disguise where he wanted to go with the ball.
Contrast that with Griffin, who too often practically signposted his intentions. A prime example came in Week 17's heavy defeat to the Dallas Cowboys last season.
Washington's offense was going for it on 4th-and-1. Griffin was in the pistol flanked by Reed and Roy Helu Jr.:
Once again, RG3 failed to make an appropriate read. The Cowboys were in man coverage on each of his outside receivers. They'd also brought the safeties down into the box, naturally thinking run in a short-yardage situation.
The presence of safety J.J. Wilcox at the linebacker level should have told Griffin that linebacker Bruce Carter would be a free man in the middle in the event of a pass.
Griffin wanted to get the ball to Garcon, but he'd misread the coverage. Brandon Carr was playing off, implying he'd get underneath help, in this case from Carter. Griffin needed to draw the linebacker away and prevent him from undercutting the route:
Unfortunately, Griffin stared Garcon down from the moment he received the snap:
Reading the quarterback's eyes, Carter began to drift out that way:
Instead of looking off the linebacker by turning or pump-faking the other way, Griffin now had to contend with Carter dropping into the passing lane:
The result was an easy interception for Carter and a senseless turnover by the Redskins:
Now here's Cousins connecting with Garcon for 12 yards on 2nd-and-10 during the last-gasp, game-winning drive against the Eagles.
The play, run from an empty, spread set, was designed to free Garcon on a shallow crosser underneath two vertical routes on the outside:
Needing to give the play time to develop, Cousins set about manipulating the defense with his eyes. First, he looked to the other side of the field:
He was giving Garcon time to get open underneath:
Next, Cousins utilized mechanics to create space for his primary target's route. He executed a pump fake to freeze the deep coverage and send linebackers backpedalling out of the underneath zones:
Cousins needed to create an open middle for Garcon.
After indulging in some parlour games to sell the deception, No. 8 came all the way back across to the other side of the field to find Garcon:
How often would you see Griffin go through every one of his progressions so quickly in a pressure situation? If you said never, you're spot on.
But thanks to Cousins' awareness in the pocket, along with the mechanics to manipulate the defense, Garcon was now a wide-open target:
Cousins didn't hesitate to connect with his man for another vital gain:
Smarter decisions and better technique from the pocket are leading to big plays in clutch moments from the passing game. Those things are also making life easier for the men in front of Cousins.
Adjusting to Pressure
It can't have escaped anybody's notice how much better Washington's offensive line is performing with Cousins under center. Through four games, the Redskins have yielded just five sacks. To put that into context, Washington had surrendered six after two games last season.
It isn't just new line boss Bill Callahan and fifth-overall pick Brandon Scherff making the difference. The Burgundy and Gold now have a quarterback who is identifying pressure and adjusting protection pre-snap.
Griffin couldn't do those things, and it cost him his job. Against the Detroit Lions in Week 2 of the preseason, No. 10's inability to adjust at the line was made painfully clear.
Facing Detroit's nickel front, Griffin can see safety James Ihedigbo creeping down into the box:
That should tip him a blitz is coming. With a middle linebacker close by, Ihedigbo has no coverage assignment.
In response, RG3 has to assign running back Thompson the responsibility of picking up the blitz:
A safety down in the box means Griffin could target Ryan Grant, one-on-one on the outside, while the rest of the Lions' coverage deals with the trips bunch look on the other side of the formation.
Instead, Thompson released into the flat, oblivious to Ihedigbo's actions. Also oblivious was Griffin, who zeroed in on the three-receiver stack:
Because he failed to read the blitz and adjust protection, Griffin took a needless hit. It's situations like this that head coach Jay Gruden hoped to avoid when he made Cousins the starter.
On the decisive play against the Eagles, Gruden's best intentions played out.
Four yards from the end zone, Philly showed Cousins double A-gap pressure with a linebacker either side of center Kory Lichtensteiger:
Showing excellent and essential command of the line of scrimmage, Cousins instructed Lichtensteiger about how best to adjust protection in the event one or both linebackers blitzed:
He also identified Garcon as his obvious hot read, his quickest route to target behind the blitz:
As he did with Lichtensteiger, Cousins communicated his intentions to Garcon, according to Mike Jones of the Washington Post:
"Seeing all of his receivers in man coverage and the Eagles prepared to bring the house, Cousins alerted Garcon that a defender would blitz with no one to account for him in protection. So the wide receiver had better get open and in a hurry.
"
Knowing some pressure was coming, Cousins had to get rid of the ball quickly. He didn't waste a second flicking a pass Garcon's way:
Garcon did his part by laying out to complete a spectacular catch for the winning points:
While his receiver certainly played his part, the play owed everything to Cousins and the improvements he's made since he took over as starter.
First, his bravado to believe he could fit the ball into such a tight spot really stood out: As Mark Bullock of the Washington Post noted, the placement of the pass was excellent:
"The ball was placed perfectly from Cousins. He forced Garcon to reach out at full stretch, but that meant the safety couldn’t make a play on the ball. Cousins couldn’t afford to have thrown it too far outside, as the outside corner read the play well and broke on the throw. But the placement was perfect and Garcon made an impressive grab for the touchdown.
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Most of all, Cousins commanded the line of scrimmage, from his protection to his skill players, in the way a confident and capable NFL starter is supposed to.
That assurance is inspiring greater confidence from his teammates. After the win over the Eagles, defensive tackle Chris Baker was in no doubt that the credit belonged to the quarterback chosen by his coach to keep a former second-overall pick on the bench, per Jerry Brewer of the Washington Post:
"Give Coach Gruden credit for making a hard decision, but making the right decision. This was the game that showed you why he went to Kirk. We all love Robert, and we hate to see him not getting the chance he worked so hard for. But you see the production with Kirk, and now you see he can lead us to victory in the fourth quarter.
"
Cousins is making the right reads at the line and using some real savvy, both with his eyes and pump fakes, to manipulate defenses to show the looks he wants.
In other words, Cousins is making progress getting to grips with the nuances of the quarterback position at the pro level. That's something RG3 never managed in a trio of seasons as the starter.
All statistics and player information via NFL.com.
All screen shots via Redskins Broadcast Network, Fox Sports and NFL.com Game Pass.
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