This Washington team is no longer beyond belief

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/this-washington-team-is-no-longer-beyond-belief/2015/12/20/b6a3ba44-a75e-11e5-bff5-905b92f5f94b_story.html

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As a rule, restraint is proper, perspective is wise and the lessons of history, especially when they are recent and painful, should never be ignored. Every Washington pro football fan of the last 20-plus years knows the experience, repeatedly, of believing in shadows, of embracing the ghosts of better long-ago days, then vowing after each fresh disappointment, “Next time, I’m going to make ’em prove it to me.”

But that’s not how following sports with a personal passion actually works, now or ever. Waiting until after the goal is reached — or not — is contrary to the nature of the thing itself. If you eliminate the emotional risk, you also erase most of the joy.

So go ahead, Washington, after watching your team build a 25-point lead and coast to a 35-25 win over Buffalo on Sunday, after watching this team that had won seven games in the previous two years combined (7-25) reach 7-7 this year. Are you ready for a leap of faith?

That’s not a leading question. This team, improved as it is, could go either way. But the time has come to ask: Is this team, this quarterback, this coach, this fast-improving group in its entirety, not only better than expected but on the verge of becoming just plain good?

[Game recap: Cousins has five TDs in win]

Make your decision between now and Saturday night when the Redskins face the Eagles in Philadelphia: How much do you want to believe? Do you want to believe that an NFC East title is about to be won, perhaps with a 9-7 record? By a team with a future as good as or better than the rest of its division’s? Do you want to hope for a home playoff game in the first round, even if the foe is Seattle? Do you want to risk the notion that this long-lost franchise is sort of, kind of, back on course?

Such niceties of judgment require, first of all, an evaluation of Kirk Cousins. How much do you believe in a fourth-round pick in 2012 who is now on an eight-week scalding hot streak — with 16 touchdown passes to just three interceptions, plus three scoring runs? On Sunday he had four scoring passes, no picks, his sixth 300-yard game of the season (a franchise record) and a 13-yard improvised scoring run. But he has won just one game on the road this year. And the last two are away.

Do you want to believe in goal-line stands, such as the one that stonewalled the Bills just before halftime when Washington led 21-0? “A huge turning point,” Coach Jay Gruden said. This team allowed 452 yards, some of its late-game fluff. But the Bills had a 60-yard run and a 48-yard scoring bomb, too.

Do you want to believe that DeSean Jackson, who has missed six games this year to injury, can spin the defensive backs of his former team, the Eagles, like holiday tops the way he did the Bills? How many want to be as brash or perhaps foolish as Jackson who, after 153 yards receiving, said: “I don’t want to make headlines [in Philadelphia]. But I’ll definitely be going crazy in my mind. . . . Can’t get no better than going back to Philly on a Saturday night. Let’s get it!”

Perhaps one person has the balance just about right. At least for now. It’s Gruden, who spoke calmly, as if holding Buffalo at arm’s length in an important game was expected.

“First-place teams have a responsibility,” he said, simply. To what? “To be flying around the football. Protect the ball. To playing good, sound football.”

Your lips to Santa’s ear. Following what Gruden’s preached, his team recorded no offensive turnovers and only six yards in penalties. Has the congregation started to listen? “We’re talented. But we’re not talented enough to overcome a lot of turnovers and penalties,” Gruden said.

[Best and worst moments from the 35-25 win]

As for that 7-7 record — which means job security and includes wins over teams coached by Rex Ryan, Tom Coughlin, John Fox, Sean Payton and Chip Kelly — well, that didn’t seem to make him giddy, either.

This day did contain one sneaky test: one of confidence, of true base-line attitude. During Gruden’s news conference, a television 20 feet away showed the unbeaten Carolina Panthers kicking a field goal as time expired for a 38-35 win over the New York Giants. Would Gruden peek? Would he break the rules he has set for his team — “We control our own destiny, so let the others worry”?

If Gruden noticed, he disguised it. If he cared, he hid it. “Didn’t see it,” Gruden said, shrugging as he headed for his locker room. “If we win, we’re okay.”

That is the real present under Washington’s tree — the gift few even dared to ask for: The NFC East crown is in this team’s hands to hold if it can.

As extra holiday candy, this team is getting the breaks, too. Buffalo lost a heartbreaker, 23-20, to the Eagles last week, virtually killing its playoff hopes. For its final game of the season, Washington gets to visit the Cowboys, whose season has already been interred and who are using their fourth quarterback. Does “no hope” deflate foes in December? The Bills practically proved it.

With its first back-to-back wins of the season, Washington has tempted, just a little, to leave a bit of its modesty behind. The crowd’s chants of “You Like That!” for every Cousins success have become a rallying cry.

“The whole city is behind Kirk. He has the keys to the city right now,” defensive lineman Ricky Jean Francois said. “Once, we gave up [field goal] and we didn’t even have time to go over what we did wrong before Kirk had ’em back scoring again.”

That was on a 77-yard heave to Jackson — a one-play “drive” — on what Cousins called an “opportunity ball,” meaning he saw Jackson deep in man-to-man coverage and gave him an “opportunity” to show why he now has 20 career touchdowns of 60 yards or more, tying Bobby Mitchell for third most in NFL history.

Until this game, Cousins had never mentioned or raised an eyebrow about the fact that he never got to practice with established star receivers until Gruden, on the verge of the season, announced that Cousins, not Robert Griffin III, would be the starting quarterback all season.

[Brewer: Finding Cousins already makes 2015-16 a success]

“I was going with twos and threes [in practices and exhibition games] until a week before the season,” said Cousins, who added that he has been developing in-season rapport with his receivers. “I wasn’t exactly working with those ‘ones.’ ”

Now he’s learning what to say to each.

With Jackson “I tell him, ‘You’re the best, man. You’re electric. You’re making me look so good,’ ” Cousins said, laughing.

What’s making this team as a whole look so good? And for how long? How much is due to playing in the NFC (L)east? How much is playing two wonderful teams — Carolina and New England — but nobody else special? Washington could win nine games and, in theory, never beat a winning team.

Fans are curious. But the players themselves are ravenous to find out about themselves as well. “In ’12, Robert [Griffin] just took everybody by storm,” tackle Trent Williams said. “This feels different. Now we have guys who didn’t even know if they’d make the team who’re playing pivotal roles in going for the playoffs.”

This is a spunky but jerry-rigged team, patched together in places. Is it worth the emotional risk?

Good luck with that restraint and perspective.

For more by Thomas Boswell, visit washingtonpost.com/boswell.