Nobody is more perplexed by the Redskins than their own fans. Dan Steinberg captured that thought perfectly in the first lines of his DC Sports Bog story yesterday.
“Are you confounded by the Redskins? Do you smile when the team strings together victories, but expect them to lose the following week? Putting aside their 4-2 record, or the way they’ve won 8 out of 10 dating to last season, do you still have trouble deciding whether they’re actually any good?
“Breathe easy. You’re not alone.”
~From The Redskins keep winning close games. Pure chance or something more?
They say it takes seven good impressions to overcome a single bad one. It may take 14 games for some fans to get comfortable with these guys.
I get it. The Redskins have crushed our souls since 1993. And these guys are coached by the guy that hired Joe Barry to be defensive coordinator.
It seems there are two camps about the quarterback: RGIII camp followers with nowhere else to go but to pounce on every Kirk Cousins mistake, and those unconvinced that Cousins can ever become an upper-half NFL starter.
Hog Heaven sees little difference between the two. Once faction wants the ‘Skins to fail. The other condemns them to failure if Cousins and Jay Gruden remain here.
Gruden is 13-9 since 2015, by the way.
Their narrow focus blinds them to other facets of this team.
The reputation of the offensive line is slowly rising with their improved performance.
The much-maligned special teams consistently puts the Redskins in a position to win.
The defense is very much a work in progress, but they have made critical plays at key moments.
As for Cousins, please stop comparing him to players with much greater experience. Instead, compare his performance to those other guys at the same point in their career.
Cousins completed his 31st start. Compare his stats to Matthew Stafford’s stats after his 31st game start.
| PLAYER | QB W-L | COMP % | YARDS | TD | INT | P.RATING |
| STAFFORD | 14-17 | 61.8 | 8,425 | 62 | 41 | 85.4 |
| COUSINS | 15-16 | 65.1 | 8,891 | 56 | 36 | 91.0 |
Stats from pro-football-reference.com.
The only comparison for Cousins is the Cousins of late 2015. Hog Heaven expected a faster start by him. We are perplexed at not seeing it right now. But Kirk proved that performance is in him. We’ll see it again. Against Detroit wouldn’t be too soon.
In every way, the Redskins are what we thought they were, a solid NFL team.
The Hog Heaven Magic 8-Ball says “Signs point to Yes” for a win Sunday.
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