October 02, 2015

If pressured, will Redskins QB Kirk Cousins 'eat it' or get rid of it?

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Kathy Willens/AP

Redskins QB Kirk Cousins throws a lot of passes to the other team.

A week ago against the Jets, the Eagles only had one sack on Ryan Fitzpatrick. However, the Eagles generated all kinds of pressure on him, which led to other mistakes.

ProFootballFocus.com credited the Eagles with 16 pressures. Here were their pressure stats:

Player	Pressures	Hits on QB	Batted passes
Brandon Graham	6	2	0
Fletcher Cox	5	0	0
Vinny Curry	3	1	0
Connor Barwin	1	1	0
Brandon Bair	1	0	3*
DeMeco Ryans	0	1	0

On two of Fitzpatrick's interceptions, he faced pressure from the Eagles' pass rush. The Eagles rush each passer they face differently, according to defensive coordinator Bill Davis, who talked about how his pass rushers are coming along.

"It's looking solid and sound," said Davis. "The guys are doing a great job of executing the plan for the quarterback. What kind of quarterback are we dealing with? We knew Fitzpatrick had the shortest drop, a six‑yard launch point, and we also knew he got the ball out of his hands quicker than anybody in the NFL over the beginning of the season. So we were going to rush different than you would rush a deeper dropper.

"One of the things, and I say this over and over again, sacks and interceptions are attached, and it's the quarterback's choice. We are pressuring the quarterback and he either chooses to eat it and take the sack or he gets rid of it. Fitzpatrick was getting rid of it, and they were turning into interceptions. It won't be long until we have a five‑ or six‑sack game because the quarterback chooses to eat it instead of force it."

Looking ahead, Davis gave his thoughts on the Eagles' Week 4 opponent, Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins.

"Cousins is solid," said Davis. "Cousins is a great decision maker. I know he's thrown a lot of interceptions so far -- and some of those, I think there were just some individual breakdowns -- but as far as running and executing the offense, he efficiently gets his drop, gets his reads and makes his decision."

The only thing that's definitive fact about that last statement is that Cousins has thrown a lot of interceptions. In fact, he has the worst career INT percentage of any Week 1 starter in the NFL. Here's a snapshot of the entire league (with first year starters Tyrod Taylor, Jameis Winston, and Marcus Mariota omitted), listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average number of pass attempts per interception:

Rank	Player	Career attempts	INT	Avg attempt per INT
1	Aaron Rodgers	3566	57	62.6
2	Nick Foles	980	18	54.4
3	Derek Carr	689	13	53.0
4	Tom Brady	7301	143	51.1
5	Russell Wilson	1353	28	48.3
6	Colin Kaepernick	1208	25	48.3
7	Sam Bradford	1877	42	44.7
8	Matt Ryan	4032	93	43.4
9	Alex Smith	3247	79	41.1
10	Joe Flacco	3816	95	40.2
11	Ryan Tannehill	1789	45	39.8
12	Peyton Manning	9176	237	38.7
13	Andrew Luck	1929	50	38.6
14	Drew Brees	7544	196	38.5
15	Tony Romo	4282	112	38.2
16	Ben Roethlisberger	5043	133	37.9
17	Philip Rivers	4780	126	37.9
18	Cam Newton	2022	56	36.1
19	Matthew Stafford	3227	90	35.9
20	Teddy Bridgewater	476	14	34.0
21	Brian Hoyer	664	20	33.2
22	Andy Dalton	2203	67	32.9
23	Carson Palmer	4994	157	31.8
24	Eli Manning	5717	185	30.9
25	Jay Cutler	3916	132	29.7
26	Blake Bortles	581	20	29.1
27	Josh McCown	1721	60	28.7
28	Ryan Fitzpatrick	3027	106	28.6
29	Kirk Cousins	514	23	22.3

To be clear, Cousins throws an interception, on average, every 22.3 pass attempts. That is awful. It's 6.3 fewer attempts than the next-closest quarterback on the list, which happens to be Fitzpatrick.

Meanwhile, Cousins is very difficult is sack. He has the third-best career sack percentage of any Week 1 starter in the NFL:

Rank	Player	Career attempts	Sacks	Avg attempt per sack
1	Peyton Manning	9176	295	31.1
2	Derek Carr	689	25	27.6
3	Kirk Cousins	514	20	25.7
4	Drew Brees	7544	306	24.7
5	Matt Ryan	4032	192	21.0
6	Eli Manning	5717	283	20.2
7	Tom Brady	7301	370	19.7
8	Carson Palmer	4994	254	19.7
9	Matthew Stafford	3227	167	19.3
10	Andrew Luck	1929	105	18.4
11	Andy Dalton	2203	122	18.1
12	Tony Romo	4282	245	17.5
13	Brian Hoyer	664	40	16.6
14	Philip Rivers	4780	295	16.2
15	Ryan Fitzpatrick	3027	188	16.1
16	Nick Foles	980	62	15.8
17	Sam Bradford	1877	122	15.4
18	Joe Flacco	3816	248	15.4
19	Jay Cutler	3916	258	15.2
20	Aaron Rodgers	3566	263	13.6
21	Cam Newton	2022	157	12.9
22	Ryan Tannehill	1789	146	12.3
23	Ben Roethlisberger	5043	424	11.9
24	Josh McCown	1721	153	11.2
25	Alex Smith	3247	293	11.1
26	Teddy Bridgewater	476	45	10.6
27	Colin Kaepernick	1208	115	10.5
28	Russell Wilson	1353	131	10.3
29	Blake Bortles	581	62	9.4

In other words, Cousins is far more apt to get rid of it and have bad things happen on the back end than he is to 'eat it.' Get some extra work in on the JUGS machine this week, defensive backs.

Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski

*ProFootballFocus credited Brandon Bair with 2 batted passes, but he had 3, so I fixed their error.