After Howard Jones returned a Kirk Cousins fumble for a touchdown during Sunday’s game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Washington Redskins, the Bucs went up 24-0. The Redskins looked terrible, and the team looked as though it crashed. With eight minutes to go in the first half, the Redskins had 38 minutes to save themselves. A blowout loss to one of the NFL’s worst teams would surely lead to coach Jay Gruden being fired, and Gruden’s replacement would have likely benched Kirk Cousins in favor of Robert Griffin III.
The Redskins have not been a team that has faced adversity well this season, and they seemed to fall apart in the third quarter of nearly every game this season, but not this Sunday. Cousins put together a great drive, and managed to run the ball in himself for a score, and managed to pull a touchdown back before the half.
Heading into the third quarter though, the Redskins still did not look like they had a chance. The team has been awful in the third quarter all season, and were outscored by 43 points in third quarters in their first six games combined. On Sunday the team bent, but didn’t break.
There were some timely performances such as that of the usually quiet Ryan Grant, who scored the first touchdown of the second half. With momentum on their side, the Redskins defense shut down Jameis Winston and the Bucs offense, then turned around and scored yet another touchdown. Cousins finished the third quarter with three touchdowns and was still yet to throw an interception. The very quarter that has been a thorn in the team’s side all season was the one that catapulted them to within four points.
After trading field goals back and forth, the Redskins got the ball down six with a chance to win the game with three minutes to play. For the third time this season, Kirk Cousins managed to rally the team together and drive down field. With 24 seconds left, Cousins found Jordan Reed in the end zone for the tight end’s second touchdown of the game. For the third time this season, Cousins was able to put together a late drive to put the Redskins back in the game.
Coming into the season, the Redskins were seen as the worst team in the NFL, but at almost the halfway point in the season they sit only one game out of the division lead, and only a game behind the NFC’s second wild card spot. The NFC East has been terrible this season, and if a few more games fall the Redskins way they may find themselves in the hunt at the end.
For Kirk Cousins, this game was a statement. He scored four total touchdowns—one on the ground and three in the air, and did not throw an interception. Cousins was under fire all week after an awful showing last week against the Jets, and heading into the bye week he needed to put together a great performance to save his job.
Jay Gruden made a huge decision in the offseason to put Kirk Cousins on the field in the first place. After bringing back Robert Griffin III and then subsequently choosing to bench him, Cousins had to perform to justify Gruden’s choice. Cousins had been playing poorly this season, and next week’s bye week would have been perfect chance to fire their coach and possibly their starting quarterback.
Gruden has been Cousins’ biggest supporter this season, and has steadfastly backed the quarterback. Both quarterback and coach needed each other to hold on to their jobs, and if the Redskins second half was as bad as their first, the headlines this morning would most likely be about a job opening in Washington.
The Redskins will most likely stick with Gruden and Cousins for the rest of the season, and if they can ride the momentum from this win throughout the season, then they have a chance to make some noise come December.
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