Jay Gruden Has High Expectations For QB Kirk Cousins
Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns brought the Washington Redskins to 2-2 on the season. With a tough schedule ahead, Jay Gruden has high expectations for QB Kirk Cousins.
Playing under a $19.95 million franchise tag this season, Jay Gruden and the entire Redskins offense is leaning on QB Kirk Cousins to lead the team to a division title.
Cousins has a lot to prove in 2016 and Gruden is not afraid of making that public. After Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns, Gruden addressed his quarterback’s play in Week 4. Cousins came into the game under scrutiny after a handful of costly errors in previous weeks. While he appears to be back on track, Gruden reinforced the fact that expectations are high for Cousins moving forward.
There’s always going to be high expectations for the quarterback, but he was 21 of 27 with three touchdowns and got the victory. So he did some good things. If I talked about all the good things he did, I’d be up here for a while. If I talked about the bad things, it’s only going to be a couple — which is good. Expectations are going to be high for him.
It’s easy to take the pressure off the quarterback when his top receiving options also beat the defense. TE Jordan Reed came to life against the Browns, catching 9 of 10 targets for 2 TDs. The overall balance and rhythm of the offense has improved after back-to-back wins.
Oct 2, 2016; Landover, MD, USA; Washington Redskins tight end Jordan Reed (86) runs with the ball as Cleveland Browns defensive back Briean Boddy-Calhoun (20) chases in the third quarter at FedEx Field. The Redskins won 31-20. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
As the injury riddled defense continues to struggle, Gruden acknowledged that the offense, lead by Cousins, is critical. Cousins is not perfect, but Gruden sees what needs to be done to help the quarterback continue to improve.
This offense has very high expectations we have on each other, and it’s never going to change. But I think he played pretty well, good enough to get the win, but there are some things that we have to fix with Kirk.
The strong play of star CB Josh Norman was one of the few highlights on defense Sunday against the Browns. Gruden stressed the need for the defense to step up on third downs.
We have to get better on third down. These teams that we play are very good coming up.
A two game winning streak is what the Redskins needed, but the schedule only gets tougher from here. Defensive lapses on big third down plays cannot happen against upcoming opponents. Gruden and the Skins head up the road to face the 3-1 Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. Cousins will have to deliver a strong performance and that will only be made easier by the defense finding some kind of stride.
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