Kirk Cousins can play, and that makes Washington’s season a success already

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/kirk-cousins-can-play-and-that-makes-washingtons-season-a-success-already/2015/12/20/9ec64410-a75d-11e5-bff5-905b92f5f94b_story.html

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Given a chance to reflect on the decision that defines this turnaround Washington season, Jay Gruden balked and opted for bravado. Of course, silly inquisitor, the coach knew Kirk Cousins was going to play quarterback like this. Did he not say “It’s Kirk’s team” clearly enough when he ditched Robert Griffin III for Cousins in late August?

Gruden’s stance won’t change, no matter how implausible his foresight seems. He didn’t make a daring switch four months ago. He swears he simply did the obvious. And to those who doubted, to those who are now surprised at how well it turned out, the coach entrusted to play the best players, regardless of popularity or potential for controversy, will say in his own words what a FedEx Field crowd of 80,124 chanted throughout Washington’s 35-25 victory over Buffalo on Sunday.

“You like that!”

That would be Cousins’s preferred post-victory bellow. It’s a thing now.

Washington (7-7) has a chance to clinch the NFC East title Saturday in Philadelphia, and just as important, it has a quarterback worth committing to for more than the next few weeks. The season began under a cloud of quarterback uncertainty, but the immediate future has become clear. Cousins has seized this opportunity, and as a result, the franchise already has won the most important game of this up-and-down season.

[Cousins’s five TDs lead Redskins past Bills, 35-25. Fans certainly like that.]

Celebrate. Marvel. Stubbornly question it if you must persist. Just don’t expect Gruden and his team to react with any emotion. They claim that this is what they envisioned.

“We had clarity. Everybody else didn’t,” Gruden said. “Nobody else did. We had it. He’s a very talented kid, man, and he’s developing at a very rapid rate, just being around him for the year and a half I’ve been here. Nothing surprises me.”

Translation: “You like that!”

With a little condescending gusto for the most ardent cynics.

Then, after he had grown tired of his “O ye of little faith” shtick, Gruden relented slightly and hinted that Cousins had exceeded some of the coach’s hopeful expectations.

“To what extent, I don’t know what we expected,” Gruden said. “But we expected him to do pretty well.”

Cousins surpassed pretty well about a month ago. This season was supposed to be about simplifying the quarterback’s responsibilities and building around him. Washington has done that but not as impressively as it hoped. With each passing month, Cousins has been given more responsibility, and he has responded well every time.

It’s still too soon to get carried away. Former NFL head coach Mike Holmgren, an acclaimed quarterback guru, used to say it takes 40 starts to know exactly what kind of signal caller you have. Cousins made his 23rd career start Sunday.

The quarterback’s impending free agency will force General Manager Scot McCloughan to be prescient. There’s no way McCloughan will let Cousins leave. The challenge will be to determine the size of the contract (three or four years in the $15 million to $18 million per-year range?), but if an agreement can’t be reached, McCloughan will put the franchise tag on Cousins. He’s not going anywhere. Quarterbacks are too hard to find, especially ones who grow as much as Cousins has this season.

A playoff berth, regardless of the team’s record, would be huge. But for the roster’s development, the emergence of Cousins — and the stability it could provide at the hardest position to play in sports — has made this season a success, no matter how it ends. It gives McCloughan a chance to complete this rebuilding project more quickly than imagined.

[Best and worst moments from Redskins’ victory]

“It’s a very important position,” Gruden said. “It’s no secret. When you get one, you want to take care of him. And you want to surround him with people that can bring out the best in his talents.”

Cousins completed 22 of 28 passes for 319 yards and four touchdowns against Buffalo. That doesn’t include his 13-yard scamper for a score. It’s the sixth time Cousins has thrown for at least 300 yards in a game this season. Washington has a 5-1 record in those games.

When Cousins plays well, this team wins. Has he done it against good teams? No, that’s left to prove. Heck, Washington has played just three games this season against opponents that currently have a winning record, losing all three by a combined score of 105-46. This is the quintessential .500 team: beat the really bad teams, lose to the really good teams, split with the pedestrian ones. But that doesn’t mean you ignore the promising statistics, the influence Cousins has had on winning and his gradual improvement.

For the season, Cousins has thrown for 3,625 yards with twice as many touchdown throws as interceptions (22 to 11) and a passer rating of 97.2. Completion percentage: 69.7. He has four straight weeks with a passer rating of at least 101.4. Over the past six weeks, he has 12 touchdown passes and just two interceptions.

Most important, he has won over a once-divided locker room with his play and his grace.

After the game, Cousins deflected praise. He wanted to talk about DeSean Jackson’s six receptions for 153 yards, which left Buffalo Coach Rex Ryan saying, “I never thought he was Jerry Rice, but I guess I was wrong.” Cousins wanted to talk about Jordan Reed’s seven receptions and two touchdowns, Pierre Garcon’s tough catches and rookie Jamison Crowder’s steady development.

[Photos: Scenes from Redskins’ win over Bills at FedEx Field]

“I’ve said all along it’s my job to be a distributor, and today was no different,” Cousins said. “They kept making me look good.”

There’s a sanity to this team that didn’t exist during Griffin’s last three years as the starter. Controversies don’t pop up every week. The quarterback isn’t burdened with having to live up to a phenomenal rookie season. The expectations are much lower, but that’s healthy for a developing quarterback.

Sunday should have been Griffin’s last regular season home game in Washington. And the fans were serenading Cousins with “You like that!” while Griffin was in a sweatsuit on the sideline, inactive for the 13th time in 14 games. It’s crazy to think it would end like this for Griffin four years after he burst onto the NFL stage. But it’s easier for both sides to move on this way.

It’s Kirk’s team. It might stay that way for a while.

“He’s a special guy,” defensive end Jason Hatcher said. “He’s got this spirit on him, a calm spirit, a confident spirit.

“He’s seizing the moment right now. He’s playing his butt off. At the end of the day, we haven’t done nothing yet, but he’s getting better every day and leading us. We only go as far as he takes us. Right now, my money is on Kirk.”

Soon, a lot of Daniel Snyder’s money will be on Cousins, too.