Gruden Caping Extra Hard for Cousins ("It was windy")

[DontDoIt]

Is Gruden over-defending Cousins? Here are quotes. You decide.

When Kirk Cousins threw an overtime pick-6 that cost the Redskins the game against Atlanta last Sunday, it sounded like head coach Jay Gruden was defending his QB in postgame comments and throughout much of the week leading up to the Jets game. After a second consecutive bad outing from Cousins against the Jets, Gruden again backed up his QB. Here's a sampling of the most relevant quotes.

On the interceptions:

• "His first interception was a simple three-man concept on one side and then a two-man on the left and he looked right, was covered, and he went back to the left and threw a late ball in the flat against a roll-up corner which can't happen, obviously."
• "Unfortunately on that one he didn't see Revis and he made a great play."
• "The second one was 3rd down and long and he took a shot. That one was not as bad."
• "So that was like a long punt, actually, on third and long."

On how much longer the Redskins can live with multiple INTs:

• "I'd like to see what happens when we get our full cast of characters back. But there were some opportunities there for Kirk to make some plays and I think he missed some throws. He threw an interception that, obviously, was a tough throw. But we have invested a lot of time this season in Kirk and we'd like to see the film before we move forward with any kind of crazy decisions. We stand behind Kirk."

More on Cousins' first interception:

• "I'll have to check the film out, and he came back late. That's tough. He's not the only quarterback in history that's made a poor decision or a poor throw and it won't be the last he does it. He's a young quarterback and he'll learn from it. We all will."

Any reasons for Cousins' mistakes?

• "I'll have to look at the film. Like I said, it was also a little windy. Also, he had a lot of pressure on him really. There were a lot of things going on pre-snap that he's got to deal with, getting the formations, the protections, all that."
• "They (Jets) played pretty vanilla today.'
• "I think he hurried on some throws he didn't have to, or maybe he did, but I'll have to look at the film."
• "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 would have had to today."

Is Cousins the starter going forward?

• "Yes. That's the intent."

 

[Lord_Chief_Rocka]

But RGIII just needs to play better.

This type of racism is almost comical... Almost

 

[Bone$]

 

[JLova]

He's at the point of no return right now....He's hitched his wagon to Cousins so he gonna ride him till the wheels fall off. He'll be out of a job shortly.

 

[WaddupDoe!]

fukk the skins.

 

[Miggs]

I just hope they keep losing so that fakkit is out of a job..

 

[Dat916nigga]

jay gruden after RG3's first multiple INT game under him: "he's not even close to good enough"

jay gruden after kirk cousins' sixth multiple INT game under him: "it was windy"

hmm

 

[King Poetic]

fukk him and his brother capin for him

Rg3 and alford morris give u the best chance

U had no running game cause u abandoned the running game and did alford get any carries...

Black coach would be history if he Didn't listen to the owner request to play the qb he wants

 

[DontDoIt]

jay gruden after RG3's first multiple INT game under him: "he's not even close to good enough"

jay gruden after kirk cousins' sixth multiple INT game under him: "it was windy"

hmm

Gruden: RGIII 'not even close to good enough' vs. Bucs - NFL.com

Another Washington Redskins coach appears to be running low on patience for Robert Griffin III.


Jay Gruden was blunt in his assessment of his starting quarterback one day after Griffin struggled mightily in Washington's 27-7 home loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"Robert had some fundamental flaws," Gruden said. "His footwork was below average. He took three-step drops when he should have taken five. He took a one-step drop when he should have taken three on a couple occasions and that can't happen. He stepped up when he didn't have to step up, and he stepped into pressure. He read the wrong side of the field a couple times.

"So, from his basic performance just critiquing Robert, it's not even close to good enough to what we expect from the quarterback position."

Gruden mentioned Griffin missing on multiple deep-ball throws to DeSean Jackson, noting it as a big difference in the game.

"(Josh McCown) hits Mike Evans three times for big, huge plays, and we missed DeSean three times for big, huge plays," said Gruden. "Flip 'em -- if Josh overthrows Mike, and we hit ours, I'm a little happier right now."

Gruden was also asked about postgame comments in which Griffin said a quarterback only plays well if his teammates do their job. Jackson appeared to respond to Griffin's comments with a pointed Instagram message.






"First of all, Robert needs to understand he needs to worry about himself No. 1 and not everybody else," Gruden said. "... It's my job to worry about everybody else. Yes, everybody else needs to improve, but it's not his place. His place is to talk about himself and he knows that. He just elaborated a little too much and he'll learn from it. He's 24 years old."

Gruden's frank comments stuck out to NFL Media analyst Nate Burleson, who was stunned he spoke so candidly about his quarterback in a public forum.

"You know, usually that stuff is said behind closed doors," Burleson said. "He might just get up there and say, 'Our quarterback didn't play well enough today.' But you don't go out there and break it down and actually expose every single thing that the quarterback did wrong."

Brian Baldinger added on NFL Network's The Aftermath: "I've listened to a lot of postgame press conferences over a lot of years, and I've never heard a coach criticize his quarterback like that."

Griffin played poorly against a bad Bucs team, then compounded matters by saying the wrong things to the media. Now Gruden has to clean up the mess -- and he doesn't sound happy about it. RGIIIappears to be on thin ice with the franchise that once saw him as its savior.

The latest Around The NFL Podcast recaps every Sunday game from an action-packed Week 11. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.

 

[The D-List Vet]

@mrken12

 

[HHR]

He's not caping for Cousins so much as he's caping for his decision to make Cousins the starter...and by association, his own job.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

This is shameful. I thought John harbaugh was bad but this is even worse. Clearly just wanted to get rid of griffin and is making any shameless excuse to try painting it as a good choice. He has no business ever being employed by the league again after this season. To make this massive a downgrade at coach when you had mike shanahan before him

 

[JarrodG]

Gruden is making all types of excuses

 

[FaTaL]

rg3 is better off sitting back and not playing at all during this interception session called 2015.

even if he played one game they would find a way to blame him for the whole season

he'll get released and show his azz in philly next year

 

[The D-List Vet]

This is shameful. I thought John harbaugh was bad but this is even worse. Clearly just wanted to get rid of griffin and is making any shameless excuse to try painting it as a good choice. He has no business ever being employed by the league again after this season. To make this massive a downgrade at coach when you had mike shanahan before him

The team owner did not like Shanahan....from what i understand Shanahan was getting salty because the team owner and RG3 were close..... he said RG3 and the owner would have private meetings and talk about how he is a pocket passer. and Shanahan said RG3 came up to him one day talking about how the O needs to change from spread to a pocket pass O so he would not get injured.... Shanahan a fukkboi he sounded mad salty