Play 5
Situation: 3rd and 11 at WSH 49
Description: Q4 - (11:45) (Shotgun) K.Cousins pass deep left intended for D.Jackson INTERCEPTED by A.Rolle (R.Ayers) at NYG 25. A.Rolle to WAS 20 for 55 yards (R.Helu). PENALTY on NYG-M.Kiwanuka, Offensive Holding, 10 yards, enforced at WAS 36.
Opponent: 4. NYG
Offensive Formation: Shotgun Double TE Slot Left
Offensive Personnel: 02
Defensive Formation: Cover 2
This is Cousins’ 4th interception of the night against the Giants blowout of the Redskins on Thursday night football during Week 4. In this play, the Redskins run three vertical routes - a fade by Jackson, a post by Roberts in the slot, and a fade route by Garcon on the right side - to attack the Cover 2 formation of the Giants defense.
After the snap Cousins locks onto Jackson and starts feeling the pressure and coming from the inside through LG67 Lauvao who gets his feet intertwined with LT68 Compton. Cousins doesn’t fully step into this throw and leaves the ball short. This leads to an interception by FS35 Demps (his 2nd of the night) who took advantage of Cousins staring down Jackson. Really this ball should have gone to Roberts who is open after breaking inside on his post route if Cousins can move on to him after moving the safety completely to the left side of the field in front of Jackson. If he did that this is an easy touchdown for the Redskins and they are only down 17 points with 12 minutes left in the game! Needless to say, this one is on Cousins.
Play 6
Situation: 1st and 10 at ARI 47
Description: Q4 - (8:42) (Shotgun) K.Cousins pass deep middle intended for A.Roberts INTERCEPTED by R.Johnson at ARZ 24. R.Johnson ran ob at WAS 46 for 30 yards (D.Jackson).
Opponent: 6. ARI
Offensive Formation: Shotgun Slot Left Far
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 1
The Cardinals are in Cover 1 defense with bracket coverage on the right side of the field over WR11 Jackson while man-to-man on the Redskins other receivers. Cousins takes the snap and sees that Jackson is covered well so he moves on to his next read. Good. He then realizes that WR12 Roberts is breaking free over the middle of the field on his post route, so he attempts the pass. Unfortunately, Cousins sails the ball deep right into the hands of the free safety. The decision and process were all correct. Just the throw needed to be way shorter and more to the right leading the quick receiver Roberts on his post route over the middle of the field. If he did that this could easily have been a big play.
Play 7
Situation: 3rd and 3 at ARI 42
Description: Q4 - (4:13) (Shotgun) K.Cousins pass short right intended for D.Jackson INTERCEPTED by J.Powers at ARZ 40. J.Powers to ARZ 46 for 6 yards (J.Reed).
Opponent: 6. ARI
Offensive Formation: Shotgun Trips Bunch Right - “Lasso” Call
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 3
Similarly to Play 4 the Redskins bring out their favorite formation lining up their three best receivers on the right side of the field with a lone tight end (Jordan Reed this time) on the left side. This is to create mismatches by splitting Reed wide forcing the defense to focus on the bunch right and giving the Redskins a size/leaping advantage on the opposite side.
This play is a rub route concept where WR11 Jackson slants underneath the congestion caused by Garcon and Roberts. Cousins hesitates and then fires the ball which gets intercepted by J. Powers. The hesitation causes the interception. Without that this is an easy completion and first down by Jackson. Instead the ball goes the other way.
Play 8
Situation: 1st and 10 at WSH 14
Description: Q4 - (:29) (Shotgun) K.Cousins pass deep middle intended for P.Garcon INTERCEPTED by R.Johnson at WAS 28. R.Johnson for 28 yards, TOUCHDOWN. C.Catanzaro extra point is GOOD, Center-M.Leach, Holder-D.Butler.
Opponent: 6. ARI
Offensive Formation: Shotgun Trips Bunch Right
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 4 - Prevent
Outside of Play 4 this is probably my least favorite inteception by Cousins during the 2014 season. Cousins snaps the ball and buys time by moving excellently around the pocket avoiding the pressure coming from the edges. He steps up and releases the ball WR88 Garcon breaking on his in route 5 yards past the first down marker not even seeing the defender sitting underneath in zone coverage waiting for the ball for an easy pick six.
For all the scrambling Cousins does in the pocket to allow his receivers routes to develop he throws it away instantly. Additionally, there are two Redskins plays with at least 15-20 yards of free space underneath on the right side of the field for an easy pass and long run afterwards. Sure there is 29 seconds left, but a deep in route doesn’t exactly help the Redskins set up for final shot late in the game either. This would have been an excellent read if Cousins moved on from them and found Helu or Reed. Really this type of play is what concerns me the most if I was looking at Cousins as a future starting quarterback in the NFL.
Play 9
Situation: 1st and 10 at WSH 42
Description: Q2 - (3:25) (Shotgun) K.Cousins pass short middle intended for A.Roberts INTERCEPTED by W.Woodyard at 50. W.Woodyard to WAS 37 for 13 yards (A.Morris).
Opponent: 7. TEN
Offensive Formation: Pistol Trips Bunch Right - “Lasso”
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 1
For Cousins’ final interception of the 2014 season the Titans are in Cover 1 with three underneath linebacker zones. Cousins takes the snap and finds the deep single safety over top. WR12 Roberts runs a shallow cross behind the linebackers and underneath the safety and Cousins attempts to lob the ball in between them. LB59 Woodyard reads Cousins and jumps to grab the ball out of the air.
First of all, this is an extremely tight window to throw into. Cousins has to have a perfect lob ball in order to fit this in there or else it’s a pick on either side. Second, it’s 1st and 10 with more than 3 minutes left to play in the 2nd quarter. The Redskins were already on their own 42 yard line by this point so all they needed were some additional yards and to kill some extra time off the clock in the 4 minute drill. With that in mind, judging by how deep the linebackers are playing this after the snap the correct target should have been RB46 Morris if Cousins could have moved on from his first read to see him cutting underneath the linebackers. Neither throws would have resulted in a ton of yards, so your goal at this point is to minimize mistakes and gain any yards you can before the half. The blame for this interception rests fully on Cousins.
As you can see in the plays above, Kirk Cousins was directly responsible for at least eight of his nine inteceptions. So what caused these interceptions? Five of them can be blamed on bad decision making while an additional three could be blamed on simply a poor throw where Cousins sailed the ball past his intended target. Going into the 2015 season we need to see Kirk Cousins get better at reading the defense post-snap. Pre-snap Kirk Cousins does a great job of identifying his main target, but he needs to get better at adjusting post-snap to what the defense presents. Consistently throughout his play this season it seemed like he made up his decision pre-snap and stuck to it no matter what even when it wasn’t actually there. This is a tendency he needs to fix going forward. For a complete breakdown of his play throughout the season comparing to the other Redskins quarterbacks Colt McCoy and Rg3 (click here).
