Inside Football: Do 5-6 Redskins look like a playoff team? Hail, yes
Led by suddenly-sensational Kirk Cousins, the Redskins now control the NFC East after a huge win over the Giants. You like that?
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14 min read
Jay Gruden is keeping his job.
Kirk Cousins is going to get paid.
Washington is going to win the NFC East.
What the hell kind of a crazy league is this?
As we enter the final month of the regular season, Washington, of all teams, controls its own destiny to win a division crown for just the second time since 2000. And, assessing the recent play of the rest of the NFC East, and looking at the Redskins’ schedule, you have to kind of like their chances.
All of a sudden Gruden and Cousins are the toast of the town with the arch-rival Cowboys, reeling at 3-8, coming to Washington next Monday night without their starting quarterback again. OK, Gruden probably not so much and some segment of the Redskins’ suffering fan base might still focus on Cousins’ road woes. But, c’mon, you have to wonder if this team has some special mojo going.
So, um, in the words of Cousins: You like that?
“I like it,” Cousins said during his press conference after a huge 20-14 win over the Giants when asked the inevitable question, invoking what’s now become his catch phrase. “You gotta like that, right, if you’re a Redskins fan … I liked it. The coaches liked it. So yes.”
Fact of the matter is, since Cousins executed a miracle comeback over the Bucs at home in Week 7, Washington’s season has turned dramatically. What looked like it would be a third straight loss that October day in Landover, with Tampa taking a 24-7 lead into the second half, ended up sparking Washington to new heights.
The Redskins are 3-2 in their last five games, with the losses coming to the league’s two remaining unbeaten teams: New England and Carolina. Both defeats were marred by rampant turnovers. But, that my friends was the trickiest segment of their schedule. The Redskins do not have a team with a winning record left to face, meeting the Bears, Bills and Eagles sandwiched between their two Dallas games.
Washington remains a flawed team, and one that is, admittedly, rebuilding, refreshingly under new general manager Scot McCloughan. His role in this drastic and unexpected turnaround season cannot be overstated. As McCloughan told me back in July at camp, this year was all about instilling a culture of toughness in the trenches and making the Redskins a feared team to face again.
It could, in fact, turn out to be about much, much more. While I wouldn’t be projecting any deep playoff success for this outfit, this is certainly far better than most could have hoped for. And, in a year with so few dominant teams, well, who the hell knows what could happen should Washington end up hosting a home playoff game?
“To be 5-6 after 11 games in the position we’re in where we control our own destiny, basically, is great,” Gruden said after the game.
The men who stand to benefit most individually for this team are Gruden and Cousins. It was around this time last year that the drama between Gruden’s staff and embattled quarterback Robert Griffin III led some to question Gruden’s job status in just his first season with the team. Then there was all of the preseason intrigue with Griffin’s concussion and if or when he would be cleared, and then the ensuing controversy going back to Cousins for what would turn out to be the season.
And, six weeks into the season, those two men were both under fire again, with Cousins having tossed eight picks on the season at that point, including four games of two picks each (doing so in successive tough losses to Atlanta and the Jets in Weeks 5 and 6). Calls were coming for RG3 from the fans and media, and at 2-4 and the Bucs looming on the schedule, it appeared this might be another lost season in Washington.
Now, “You Like That!” is all the rage, Cousins is one of the hottest passers in the NFL and, with his contract up after the season, his future -- and future payday -- is going to be one of the more interesting subplots to the remainder of this season, and into February, when franchise tags are doled out.
Cousins was plenty efficient on Sunday in what amounted to a playoff game against the Giants, connecting for some early strikes and then clicking for some big passes late to keep the chains moving and bleed the clock. He completed 20 of 29 passes for 302 yards, threw one long TD pass and had no interceptions.
Over the past five weeks, Cousins has been sensational. In that span he has completed 117 of 164 passes (71 percent) for 1,467 yards -- averaging 293 yards per game and a gaudy 8.95 yards per attempt --with 10 touchdowns and just two interceptions. That’s a rating of 114, folks. On the season, he is approaching 3,000 yards with 16 touchdowns, 10 picks, and a solid rating of 91.7.
His representatives have no reason to be in a rush to do a deal at this point, and the Redskins can wait it out as well. But I can assure you if Cousins keeps up anything close to this recent pace, there will be any number of teams eager to express their quiet interest in him as an unrestricted free agent at the combine (Jets, Browns, 49ers, Eagles, Rams, maybe even Broncos), and he’ll have no reason to be hasty signing anything.
It could well end up that Washington slaps the franchise tag on him, even at close to $20M, with Griffin’s projected $16.7M salary coming off the books and no real cash or cap issues looming. Securing his rights and then working out a deal maybe in the range of Alex Smith’s $15M annually might be the end game there, but simply letting him walk for a comp pick won’t make much sense.
Cousins’ ascent has been bolstered by the return of DeSean Jackson, who remains an elite game-breaker downfield and who caught his 19th career TD pass of 50 yards or more Sunday, tying him with Lance Alworth for fourth all-time and well within striking distance of Jerry Rice’s record 23. Tight end Jordan Reed, injured for so much of his brief career, has avoided the training room more than ever before as well, and he is the most vital cog in the passing attack by exploiting Cover-2 with seam routes and eating up the middle of the field.
“He’s an elite tight end,” said Cousins, a fourth-round pick in 2012 who has 19 career starts, with 10 of them coming this season. “He’s the real deal as a receiver, and as long as he’s here we’ll feature him and try to get him the football.”
The Skins’ defense has its issues and the ground game -- both running the ball and stopping the run -- has been streaky at best. And, yes, Washington isn’t even back to .500 yet as a team. And, the Redskins have to play three of the final four games on the road (this team is 0-5 away from home). Maybe this turns out to be the high point of the season, beating the Giants for a fleeting grasp at life atop a patently pedestrian-at-best division. But maybe it’s not, and even having these games to savor this late in the season is an accomplishment for this crew.
“It’s great to be in December and playing for something,” Cousins said. “We have a big one coming up (Monday night), and the nature of winning is it just creates bigger games up ahead. We’re excited about what we did today, but there’s a long ways to go.”
Time for Saints to reboot
The Saints should go ahead and start sniffing around with the Browns and the Colts and the Titans and the Dolphins and any other NFL team that might have interest in Sean Payton. Get the ball rolling about trading that contract. This is a lost season for New Orleans -- another lost season – where neither the offense nor defense can distinguish itself. While Payton is unquestionably one of the best coaches in the NFL, it’s a good time to move on.
Drew Brees likely wont be back, this team is amid a major rebuild, and in a year with no many teams looking for new coaches -- pro and college -- and a limited pool of qualified talent, the draft pick return on Payton could be very substantial. That dreadful loss to the Texans, coming out of a bye and on the heels of firing Rob Ryan, shows exactly how far they have to go, and that 4-7 record isn’t going to get much better, if at all.
Payton is going to want to see what else is out there, and rather than just lose him to an NCAA power, I’d get proactive in the final month of the season and start covertly discerning what the market is for the remaining years on his deal. He’d be coveted, and I’m not sure there is much more he can do in New Orleans where he has already worked miracles.
Dolphins’ disarray
Got a kick out of the report that what amounts to the Dolphins’ interim coaching staff isn’t big on Ryan Tannehill. Heck, I never have been, but those guys are all on their way out, the new football czar, Mike Tannenbaum, gave the QB a new contract last year, and picking a fight with him while seemingly all aspects of the Dolphins’ play on both sides of the ball has suffered all season, save for two weeks in October, is pretty stupid.
There are no winners in this affair, only losers. Tannehill’s $9.3M salary for 2016 is guaranteed and the Dolphins can easily get out of this deal after next season, but he’s their guy until then. At this point, I don’t fancy his chances of sticking around until 2017 to earn another $18M, but it’s not all his fault.
The defense is a joke and the running game is, too, and Sunday’s 38-20 loss to the Jets wasn’t half as close as that score might indicate. The Dolphins (0-5 vs. AFC East) have been out-scored 175-72 in those games. They have yielded at least 27 points in each of those games and scored above 17 in just one of them, today, doing so largely in garbage time. Oh, and their last division game is against the Pats in Week 17, who might be going for an unbeaten season.
How about that Hasselbeck?
He won’t get any MVP votes, but Matt Hasselbeck has done nothing short of save the Colts season. Him going 4-0 as a spot starter is pretty amazing, especially considering Indy is just 2-5 with Andrew Luck under center. Hasselbeck played his best game of the season on Sunday, which is saying something, getting that offense opened up in a game in which it had to play from behind for a spell, and for what it’s worth, his stats are far superior to Luck’s this season.
In seven games, Luck completed 55 percent of his passes for 1,881 yards, 15 TDs, 12 INTs and a 74.9 QB rating.
In his four wins, Hasselbeck has completed 65 percent of his passes for 1,023 yards, seven TDs, two INTs and 94.4 rating.
No controversy here, but also no need to bring Luck back until he is absolutely 100 percent healthy.
More NFL observations from Week 12:
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Buffalo Bills |
| Until the Bills learn some discipline, they are going nowhere. The penalties are staggering and come in all varieties and it’s setting this team back week after week. Sunday it was nine penalties for 91 yards, including crushing special teams penalties that cost field position and negated big plays. The margins are simply to slim for a team this mediocre to continue to do this with such regularity. This was the seventh time this season the Bills had at least 85 penalty yards in a game … It’s also pretty amazing that Sammy Watkins could singularly take over the first half of a football game, repeatedly torching the Chiefs downfield to catch six balls for 158 yards and two scores in the first half, and then being blanked the rest of the game. Truly stunning. He beat constant double coverage in the first half, torched top corners Sean Smith and Marcus Peters and an array of safeties, often with two Chiefs right around the ball, and then got one target in the entire second half as Buffalo’s lead evaporated, leaving them fighting for their playoff lives against the Texans next week. | |
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Houston Texans |
| Brian Hoyer had another highly productive game -- albeit against the Saints -- completing 21 of 27 passes. He threw two touchdown passes and featured his tight ends on a day in which DeAndre Hopkins was finally limited. Hoyer’s resurgence has gone largely unnoticed since his unceremonious benching not three full quarters into Week 1, but in what amounts to a half season (8 games, including six starts) Hoyer has thrown for 1,909 yards with 15 touchdowns, just five interceptions and strong rating of 94.4 despite a very suspect run game. Huge marks to the Texans defense for another stifling performance. Coordinator Romeo Crennel has somehow reinvented that group on the fly with J.J. Watt back to his MVP form. | |
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Kansas City Chiefs |
| If the Chiefs actually continue to take as many shots downfield as they finally did Sunday, to both Travis Kelce and Jeremy Maclin, they might do more than just reach the playoffs. They might actually be a factor. Down early to the Bills, Alex Smith finally starting trying to thread the ball more and lead guys downfield and it ended up changing the game. Smith hit four passes of 30 yards or more -- pretty shocking by Chiefs’ standards -- against a very good secondary and was tremendous with his feet all game as well. Jeremy Maclin was a demon catching nine balls (off 11 targets) for 160 yards and a touchdown, and Kansas City rolled to its fifth straight win. | |
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New York Jets |
| Brandon Marshall was not going to let the Jets lose on Sunday. A third straight loss would have put their playoff hopes in peril, and Marshall took over the contest with Miami from the onset. He was dominant during a critical two-minute drill late in the first half and the Dolphins did not have a corner or safety who could contain him. Marshall tore up and down the sidelines, carrying people on him and reeled in nine catches (on just 11 targets) for a season-high 131 yards and two touchdowns. He has nine TDs in 11 games on the season, including in four straight games. He’s nearing 1,000 yards receiving and if the Jets do reach the postseason, he’ll be willing them there. When Ryan Fitzpatrick really needed a bounce-back game, Marshall and the steadying hand of center Nick Mangold were a big reason why. | |
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Seattle Seahawks |
| The Seahawks still can’t cover tight ends, can they? Heath Miller, hardly the most explosive guy in the league, was among the Steelers to carve up that once-vaunted secondary on Sunday. While the defensive backs the Seahawks have lost in recent years haven’t exactly shined elsewhere, by and large, the compromised depth at that position has clearly made an impact in Seattle. | |
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Oakland Raiders |
| Derek Carr threw for three more touchdowns and led another last-minute fourth quarter drive to save the Raiders’ season. That’s all. Oh and he did it in a torrential rain storm that never really quit. The kid has tossed 24 touchdowns to just six picks all season. | |
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
| Still impressed with Jameis Winston in defeat Sunday. Kept that team in the game much of the day when not much was working for them and was undone in part by field goal kicking and some more bad drops, especially courtesy of Mike Evans, who must find a way to improve the consistency of his hands. Winston is still my preference for Rookie of the Year at this point and the Bucs remain in the playoff hunt. | |
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Tennessee Titans |
| The Titans have now lost 11 straight games at home. They gave one away in the rain Sunday with a late defensive holding penalty to allow the Raiders to come back and win. Add the 2015 Titans to the list of teams that prove the in-season firing -- unless you have a real stud on your staff to take over and groom as a potential head coach -- is an indictment on the organization more than the man. Same team. Same results. Mike Mularkey is Ken Whisenhunt, Light. Oh, add the 2015 Dolphins to that list as well. Tennessee is going to have a great shot at picking in the top two again this season. Better add some receivers and an offensive line for Marcus Mariota. | |
