I'm with Cooley and Om on this.
I think it's unreasonable to expect a QB to not throw any interceptions at all. Problem with Kirk is the rate is too high.
(Although.... this season is probably the only time we get to say..."Well he's no Tom Brady (1 int), but at least he ain't Peyton Manning!! (10 ints) hehe)
My view on his interceptions is that I think he's about average to be honest. He's on 8 ints in 7 games, that's more or less one a game.
Here comes the science bit!!!
Taking the top 28 QB's (taking only those that have attempted at least 150 passes) you get a total played games of 184 and over those games the QB's have thrown 156 Interceptions.
Works out at about 0.85 Interceptions per game. So just under 1.
Through 7 games the average QB should have thrown 6 interceptions. Kirk is on 8.
Now we have the rest of the year to see if he's always gonna be below average in that respect. Or if he regresses to the mean.
My personal view is that he is going to end up around the average by seasons end, about 1 a game. Which I can deal with. I also think with more playing time and experience and when we get our injured offensive line players and receivers back, he'll be less prone to the silly throws. I think we saw a good example this week of what Reed provides for him.
I can live with 1 interception a game because he's crazy low in the other REALLY important stat. Sacks.
While an interception can snuff out a drive I'll accept one of those in a game.
What is a killer (and was a big problem the last couple of years with RGIII) is sacks on first or second down.
If we can get our running game jump started again so we can move the ball on first down, we can start being more unpredictable on 2nd and 3rd. That's HUGE.
Our problem last year with RGIII was the sacks. Going from a 2nd and 5 to a 3nd and 10 because of a sack on 2nd down was bad and left us in bad positions all year with long 3rd downs and we were off the field. I feel that's why we're struggling at the moment, because we can't run the ball on first down, meaning the opposition knows that we're gonna have to throw on 2nd and 3rd.
In this regards Cousins is doing great.
(I know this brings up the old nutshell of 'What would RGIII have been like behind this O-Line?' and I'm as curious as anyone. But I'm just commenting on Kirk here and what he's doing well, not trying to dredge up that debate.)
I do believe a lot of our struggles lately are O-Line and injury related. I'm hoping we'll see the offense get better as the season goes on and as we get personnel back.
Reeds back and he provides a really handy weapon for Kirk and a measure of confidence. When DJax is back hopefully we'll finally be able to stretch the field a bit again. And if we can get our O-Line healthy and run the ball again everything will loosen up. I also feel that the more time goes on, the less Kirk will be looking over his shoulder at the bench to see who's up next. I'd imagine early in the year there was always a niggle in the back of his brain that said 'you play a bad game and RGIII is back...', it's human nature. But as the season goes on and he gets more comfortable and the fact that RGIII is not coming off the bench I really hope that he starts to forget about the bench and feels more at home.
I know some of you will disagree with me in that respect but I think the fact that Gruden and McCloughan have been steadfast in their support of Kirk this year is one of the best management things they could have done. I think this is McCloughans influence. I'd imagine at some point he probably talked to Gruden and said "Look Coach, if we put a QB behind centre we have to support him all the way, none of that sniping from previous years. These three are all we have and we do NOT want a QB controversy derailing our rebuild year!"
Like most of you I don't much like how RGIII was treated last year and how he's steadfast in his protection of Cousins this year. BUT I do feel it's MUCH better for the team and the QB and I'm glad he's doing it.
The most noticable thing about the first 7 weeks for the 2015 Redskins? A distinct lack of off field drama and controversy. I like it that way. I think that stuff has been a MAJOR problem for our team over the past couple of decades and I'm happy to see it stamped out as much as possible.
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