It wasn’t pretty, but Cousins & Co. win
LANDOVER, Md. — In one particularly embarrassing fourth-quarter sequence that drew boos from the home crowd, Kirk Cousins and Washington went from planning to punt on fourth-and-1 to calling a timeout and deciding to go for it, to drawing a delay-of-game penalty and, in the end, punting anyway.
Which, naturally, elicited more jeers.
By the end, Cousins was hearing cheers, because he made up for a pick-6 by showing the patience to produce a pair of secondhalf touchdown passes on slow-developing plays, helping Washington beat the New York Giants 2010 on Thursday night on a drab field in a drab game between two injury-depleted teams that did not look ready for prime time.
“There were several plays that I would chalk up to the fact that they were sloppy because it was a short week. We just didn’t have the reps that we needed to,” said Cousins, who was 19-for-31 passing for 242 yards. “I’m just glad we found a way to win.”
The two NFC East rivals combined for more punts (nine) than points (six) in the first half, which ended tied at 3 on a pair of short field goals — from 30 yards by New York’s Aldrick Rosas and 28 by Washington’s Nick Rose. The big play on Washington’s lone scoring “drive” of the half? A 37yard flag for pass interference on New York’s Ross Cockrell; the entire possession covered 38 yards.
But Cousins, for whom every game is seemingly a referendum on whether Washington (5-6) should sign him to a long-term deal, connected with Jamison Crowder on a 15yard pass in the third quarter that broke a 3-all tie and with Josh Doctson on a 14-yarder with 3½ minutes remaining in the game.
On the Crowder play, Cousins was flushed out of the pocket and bought time by moving to his right before throwing into the end zone, where his receiver was “pretty wide open,” according to the quarterback. On the one to Doctson, Cousins looked for another receiver but eventually came back to last year’s first-round draft pick, saying, “He got separation and made a great catch.”
In between, cornerback Janoris Jenkins intercepted Cousins’ pass and returned the ball 53 yards to tie it at 10.
That one play involved more yardage than Eli Manning and the Giants (2-9) generated in the entire second half.
“Not very good,” coach Ben McAdoo summed up.
They gained 47 yards and one solitary first down over the last two quarters. One possession ended with an interception by Manning, four ended with punts, and another dissolved when they turned the ball over on downs.