Jay Gruden is stuck in no man’s land, without any parachute or rescue team in sight. He’s bailed on Robert Griffin III, hitching his wagon to Kirk Cousins.
Cousins has been anything but good, leaving many to wonder if it’s time for Colt McCoy. Benching Cousins would expose Gruden to the wrath of GM Scot McCloughan, likely costing him his job.
For the fourth time this season, Cousins threw two interceptions in a game, this time a 34-20 loss to the New York Jets on Sunday. Cousins now has eight picks in just six games. Afterwards, many in the media and those who analyze the game felt Gruden was making excuses for Cousins.
“Yeah I don’t know. I’ll have to look at the film. Like I said – also, it was little windy. But, and also, [there was] a lot of pressure on him. There’s a lot of things going on pre-snap that he’s got to deal with, getting the formations and protections and all that. You know last week the Jets had about 15 cover-zeroes [all-out blitzes] against Miami, so we’re always looking out for those and making sure he’s aware of those. They played pretty vanilla today, and I think he hurried in some throws he didn’t have to, or maybe he did. But I’ll have to look at the film. But overall, you hate to pin this game on Kirk.”
Asked if Cousins was still the starter, Gruden said he’d have to assess the film, before finally stating that Kirk was his guy.
“Yeah,” Gruden said. “That’s the intent.
"Overall you hate to pin this game on Kirk. I know he could have played better, but we had no running game whatsoever and Kirk’s not in that stage of his career right now, nor is anybody on our roster, to carry our team throwing the ball as much as we had to.
“We stand behind Kirk."
This will end ugly.
By Glenn Erby
