Redskins Week 4 Review – Player ratings Vs Eagles

Oct 4, 2015; Landover, MD, USA; Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) throws the ball as Philadelphia Eagles outside linebacker Connor Barwin (98) chases in the second quarter at FedEx Field. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Five Thoughts from the game:

1.  The game was won when the Eagles couldn’t close the deal. Everyone is going to talk about the final drive, but if the Eagles made one of their first half FGs and the extra point on their first TD, the final drive just sets up an onside kick attempt by the Redskins.

As the great Johnny Holliday used to say: 90% of games are lost, not won. It might seem counter intuitive to say this with the Redskins’ long drive to take the lead late, but the Eagles put themselves in that position.

2. Kirk Cousins had a good game where he didn’t make many mistakes and deserves praise for his final drive to get the go ahead score. However, he looked good against the Eagles last year as well(perhaps better).

It’s hard to get that excited with this past performance in the record. And like this author said two Sundays ago: if this is the best Cousins gets, he’s Mark Sanchez 2.0. And having a QB with that kind of play means that you have very little margin for error.

This isn’t something that the team can build around. It is possible that he takes some dramatic steps forward, but in that unlikely event the Redskins are just marking off time until they replace both him and RG3.

Before you think that this is just looking for the negative, let’s do a quick comparison:

Qb A:

61% completion percentage

1.33 TD to INT ratio

3.5% TD percentage

2.6% INT percentage

7 yards per attempt

6.5 adjusted yards per attempt(which factors in tds and ints)

11.7 yards per completion

82.2 Qb rating

5.93 net yards per attempt(which factors in sacks)

7.7% sack rate

Qb B:

68% completion percentage

1 TD to INT ratio

2.6% TD percentage

2.6% INT percentage

6.6 yards per attempt

5.9 adjusted yards per attempt(which factors in tds and ints)

9.6 yards per completion

84.5 Qb rating

6.2 net yards per attempt(which factors in sacks)

3.2% sack rate

Qb C:

64% completion percentage

1.8 TD to INT ratio

4% TD percentage

2.2% INT percentage

6.8 yards per attempt

6.6 adjusted yards per attempt(which factors in tds and ints)

10.5 yards per completion

87.8 Qb rating

5.9 net yards per attempt(which factors in sacks)

6.9% sack rate

QB A is Robert Griffin III‘s 2013 season

QB B is Kirk Cousins‘ 2015 season so far

QB C is Kyle Orton from 2014 for the Bills

Maybe all this proves is that Cousins, RG3 and Kyle Orton are all mediocre QBs. Maybe that’s the point.

Next: Thoughts 3 and 4 - Secondary an area of concern