POLL: Is Kirk Cousins "Fool's Gold?"

[riggofan]

[TexasCowboy]

I say he's real good and desperately needs a defense and special teams to take
the edge off so he can prove he's not a fluke as many of you seem to think

[riggofan]

I say he's real good and desperately needs a defense and special teams to take
the edge off so he can prove he's not a fluke as many of you seem to think

I honestly don't know whether he's real good or not yet. Feel kind of the same as last year. We need to judge him after 16 games this season, not two. People were doing the same thing last year, ripping him after a couple games. My sense is that he's not bad, our QB situation could be much worse (cough cough griffin cough cough).

Yeah better defense would help. We're throwing on 80% of our offensive plays, so a little more balance would help. All that said, Cousins HAS to make those easy throws. We clearly left 14 big points on the field last week when he missed DJax and Crowder. There's no excuse for that, and he can't be our long term QB if he can't be reliable on those plays.

[DaSkinz Baby]

I say he's real good and desperately needs a defense and special teams to take
the edge off so he can prove he's not a fluke as many of you seem to think

I honestly don't know whether he's real good or not yet. Feel kind of the same as last year. We need to judge him after 16 games this season, not two. People were doing the same thing last year, ripping him after a couple games. My sense is that he's not bad, our QB situation could be much worse (cough cough griffin cough cough).

Yeah better defense would help. We're throwing on 80% of our offensive plays, so a little more balance would help. All that said, Cousins HAS to make those easy throws. We clearly left 14 big points on the field last week when he missed DJax and Crowder. There's no excuse for that, and he can't be our long term QB if he can't be reliable on those plays.

Shouldn't professional QB's have high percentage rates when 98% of your throws are 3 yard check downs? He over throws Jackson then Doctson has to slow down to catch a ball. Kirk Cousins is cracking and can't handle the pressure. He alone lost that game last week and sorry for someone to be paid 20 million this year, that is unforgettable in my book. Bench Cousins and let McCoy play.

[StorminMormon86]

Cousin was a kiss ass at MSU. I know a few players on that team. He was the white hope. Cousin is just a good college QB like RGIII. He is just a different race.

Knew this was only a matter of time.

[DarthMonk]

Yeah better defense would help. We're throwing on 80% of our offensive plays, so a little more balance would help. All that said, Cousins HAS to make those easy throws. We clearly left 14 big points on the field last week when he missed DJax and Crowder. There's no excuse for that, and he can't be our long term QB if he can't be reliable on those plays.

Weighing these things is a bit subjective but I agree completely and it's why I say, in spite of the stats, the biggest reason we lost is Kirk leaving those plays out there not to mention the drastic under throw to Doc followed by the end zone pick.

[riggofan]

I still think he's a capable starter, though he hasn't fully proved it yet. I saw enough last season to think this, and he's really not far off from it this year — just a touch more accuracy and we don't leave three touchdowns on the field versus Dallas.

Give the man time to continue to work. I believe in him.

I do too - he's a $15M-$16M QB and hopefully he can play here until we get a really good one

I'd rather give Ryan Fitzpatrick that money.

You mean Ryan 45% CMP, 188 yds, 0 TDs, 6 INTs, 18.2 QBR Fitzpatrick?

[markshark84]

Cousins is currently #1 in the NFL in passing yards this season.

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

Cousins is currently #1 in the NFL in passing yards this season.

That is quite possibly the single worst statistic to use in terms of quarterback performance evaluation.

[mastdark81]

Cousins is currently #1 in the NFL in passing yards this season.

That is quite possibly the single worst statistic to use in terms of quarterback performance evaluation.

I don't know but it is definitely not something to look too unless your playing fantasy in a ppr league lol. From what I see from him thus far he's playing at a C level. At times good and at times not so good. So it kinda averages out. We are moving the ball with consistently and he's hitting on 3rd downs but he's missing the big plays and leaving alot of points off the board. DJax should have 500 yards by now haha he has been in the zone and just like Santana Moss said on tv the other day, if you don't go to him several times a game you must be trying to lose.

It is tough though because we have a conservative offense and a bad defense. That is not a good combination. The offense cannot afford to fumble or throw an interception and we cannot really afford to keep getting in the redzone and coming away with field goals. One of them have to give or we will not win many games like we did against the Giants.

Going into this Browns game what you do is attack their 2nd cb allllllllllll day. I think Kirk will have a big game.

[Irn-Bru]

Cousins is currently #1 in the NFL in passing yards this season.

That is quite possibly the single worst statistic to use in terms of quarterback performance evaluation.

I don't know . . . some people use W-L records. That seems to me to be worse.

But I agree that raw yards is a pretty poor measure by itself, especially with a sample size of three games. We have been throwing the ball a lot.

[riggofan]

Cousins is currently #1 in the NFL in passing yards this season.

That is quite possibly the single worst statistic to use in terms of quarterback performance evaluation.

I don't know . . . some people use W-L records. That seems to me to be worse.

But I agree that raw yards is a pretty poor measure by itself, especially with a sample size of three games. We have been throwing the ball a lot.

Totally agree. The total yards aren't that important, but the fact that he's being asked to throw 42+ times a game and completing 65% of his passes is.

[markshark84]

Cousins is currently #1 in the NFL in passing yards this season.

That is quite possibly the single worst statistic to use in terms of quarterback performance evaluation.

No kidding. I don't see it as a standard for evaluation. Take this stat --- our passing yards per game (340) is over 60+ ypg more than any other season in Redskins history since 1990...... The second best season was 2014.... So yes, it means very little in terms of QB performance. I actually had this long drawn out post about QBR and a bunch of other things, but it deleted when I went to post it and didn't want to rewrite it.

That being said, I really posted it to show more that we are relying on our passing game TOO MUCH. I was VERY happy to see that we ran the ball more yesterday (even when we were down), but we still only averaged 3.5 ypc (with our longest run being 12 yards). I still want to see more and the team to improve drastically on rushing efficiency. If we do, I think a lot of our offensive issues (like redzone) will be worked out. One interesting stat is that we are rushing the ball on a % basis in the redzone less than we have (30.1%) in any year possibly in team history --- that stat only goes back to 1990 so I am not sure but it is less than any year the stat has been recorded.

Regardless, it was more to show that we are getting yards and having some success in passing downfield, but it isn't translating because we don't have a balanced attack.

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

Cousins is currently #1 in the NFL in passing yards this season.

That is quite possibly the single worst statistic to use in terms of quarterback performance evaluation.

No kidding. I don't see it as a standard for evaluation. Take this stat --- our passing yards per game (340) is over 60+ ypg more than any other season in Redskins history since 1990...... The second best season was 2014.... So yes, it means very little in terms of QB performance. I actually had this long drawn out post about QBR and a bunch of other things, but it deleted when I went to post it and didn't want to rewrite it.

That being said, I really posted it to show more that we are relying on our passing game TOO MUCH. I was VERY happy to see that we ran the ball more yesterday (even when we were down), but we still only averaged 3.5 ypc (with our longest run being 12 yards). I still want to see more and the team to improve drastically on rushing efficiency. If we do, I think a lot of our offensive issues (like redzone) will be worked out. One interesting stat is that we are rushing the ball on a % basis in the redzone less than we have (30.1%) in any year possibly in team history --- that stat only goes back to 1990 so I am not sure but it is less than any year the stat has been recorded.

Regardless, it was more to show that we are getting yards and having some success in passing downfield, but it isn't translating because we don't have a balanced attack.

I've read enough of your posts to know you're not using that stat as a defense of Cousins.

Definitely unbalanced, and I think they intended to run the ball 40 times yesterday until both Lauvao and Lichtensteiger went down.

It was actually 3.8 yards per carry. Obviously nowhere near good enough.

The two stats that truly stand out for me are Cousins TD percentage: 2.4 and his Interception Percentage: 2.4. If those are even you're probably losing more games than you're winning.

[markshark84]

That is quite possibly the single worst statistic to use in terms of quarterback performance evaluation.

No kidding. I don't see it as a standard for evaluation. Take this stat --- our passing yards per game (340) is over 60+ ypg more than any other season in Redskins history since 1990...... The second best season was 2014.... So yes, it means very little in terms of QB performance. I actually had this long drawn out post about QBR and a bunch of other things, but it deleted when I went to post it and didn't want to rewrite it.

That being said, I really posted it to show more that we are relying on our passing game TOO MUCH. I was VERY happy to see that we ran the ball more yesterday (even when we were down), but we still only averaged 3.5 ypc (with our longest run being 12 yards). I still want to see more and the team to improve drastically on rushing efficiency. If we do, I think a lot of our offensive issues (like redzone) will be worked out. One interesting stat is that we are rushing the ball on a % basis in the redzone less than we have (30.1%) in any year possibly in team history --- that stat only goes back to 1990 so I am not sure but it is less than any year the stat has been recorded.

Regardless, it was more to show that we are getting yards and having some success in passing downfield, but it isn't translating because we don't have a balanced attack.

I've read enough of your posts to know you're not using that stat as a defense of Cousins.

Definitely unbalanced, and I think they intended to run the ball 40 times yesterday until both Lauvao and Lichtensteiger went down.

It was actually 3.8 yards per carry. Obviously nowhere near good enough.

The two stats that truly stand out for me are Cousins TD percentage: 2.4 and his Interception Percentage: 2.4. If those are even you're probably losing more games than you're winning.

Thanks.

As far as average yards per carry, I determined it this way (I always discount Cousins as this is a "support" stat):

Jones: 17 carry, 65 yds
Thompson: 6 carry, 23 yds
Kelley: 4 carry, 7 yds

Total: 27 carries, 95 yards. 27/95 = 3.5185 ypc

I agree that your INT % and TD% can't be equal.

[riggofan]

That being said, I really posted it to show more that we are relying on our passing game TOO MUCH.

There it is. My question on that point though is: do we have a choice? Is McVay being too pass happy? Or are we ineffective running the ball?

[markshark84]

That being said, I really posted it to show more that we are relying on our passing game TOO MUCH.

There it is. My question on that point though is: do we have a choice? Is McVay being too pass happy? Or are we ineffective running the ball?

IMHO, it is reflection of our OL. Cousins is superfast at getting the ball out, so it makes our Pass Pro look better than it is. However, you can't do that on the run side. Our OL is below average. I am still VERY upset about INDY picking that C from Bama in the 2016 draft. Man was he a need and a talent.

I don't think our HC/OC have as much a choice as they should because they're aware our OL can't create holes for our RBs as well as Cousins can get rid of the ball in 2.5 seconds. We are pass happy (as most teams are), but we some sort of rushing attack in order to become an effective offense. All we have is a QB and WRs. Reed is great as a pass-catching TE, but we don't have anyone else at the position that is even mediocre.

Balance is key and we don't have it.

[riggofan]

IMHO, it is reflection of our OL. Cousins is superfast at getting the ball out, so it makes our Pass Pro look better than it is. However, you can't do that on the run side. Our OL is below average. I am still VERY upset about INDY picking that C from Bama in the 2016 draft. Man was he a need and a talent.

I'm with you 100% man. That was my pick. Pretty sure it was McCloughan's too.

Btw funny that Matt Jones started tearing off 8 yards at a clip when they moved Trent to left guard! hah.

[Bishop Hammer]

Yeeeeaaaahhhh. It's going to take a couple seasons to make the offensive line functional.

[StorminMormon86]

Kirk's going to need to play near perfect and the offense is going to have to put up 30 points to make up for that putrid thing we call a defense.

[riggofan]

Kirk's going to need to play near perfect and the offense is going to have to put up 30 points to make up for that putrid thing we call a defense.

Epically bad. I keep hearing the radio guys talk about how Trent Murphy has been one of our best players on defense so far. Kind of says it all, doesn't it?

[StorminMormon86]

Really need to stay off of Twitter.

Damn they are going hard on Cousins and I have no idea why. He had 2 boneheaded plays yesterday. Big deal.

[oj]

He's the real deal and still learning. He believes he can thread the needle every time he lets go of the ball, after he gets his ass handed to him he'll figure out it isn't the needle he needs to thread, he'll learn to play smarter to force the defence to make the first mistake. Like a runner learning when to make the cut. Give him time to develop, he's a keeper.
Seems to me he broke lots of passing records last year, some of them belonging to Sonny.
I'd say the last real QB we had would be Doug Williams.

[markshark84]

He's the real deal and still learning. He believes he can thread the needle every time he lets go of the ball, after he gets his ass handed to him he'll figure out it isn't the needle he needs to thread, he'll learn to play smarter to force the defence to make the first mistake. Like a runner learning when to make the cut. Give him time to develop, he's a keeper.
Seems to me he broke lots of passing records last year, some of them belonging to Sonny.
I'd say the last real QB we had would be Doug Williams.

Rypien > Williams.

FACT.

Side note: IMHO, best 2 seasons by a QB in skins history over past 30 years. Rypien in 1991 and RGIII in 2012.

[Countertrey]

Cousin's recurrent brain farts in the second half v the Browns darned near cost the game. That worries me.