Washington Redskins three-step formula for success

Less turnovers

Part two of the formula involved figuring out how to stop turning the ball over so frequently. Gruden’s tolerance for turnovers is as close to zero as you can get. Remember Matt Jones? He fumbled the game away a couple of years ago and was never seen or heard from again. I was afraid that Samaje Perine had suffered the same fate. It looks as though he’s getting one more chance but I’m sure every one on the team knows that Samaje’s next fumble will be his last, in a Redskins uniform anyway.

This brings us to, albeit in a round about way, the Kirk Cousins contract fiasco. Dan Snyder, Bruce Allen and Gruden took varying degrees of heat for how that whole situation was handled but to be fair, they were dealing with a very difficult, even impossible scenario.

There was not a snowballs chance in hell the Skins were going to bring Cousins back. The owner, the GM, and the coach had seen far too many fourth quarter fumbles, mindless sacks, and game ending interceptions to sign up for more of the same.

Under the circumstances I think the situation was handled about as well as it could have been. There was the pretense that the team wanted Kirk back but that was nothing more than theatrics. Of course, Kirk made it easier on everyone as he appeared to want out of D.C. as badly as the front office wanted him gone.

Unfortunately, Gruden and Allen, (read: Snyder), could not jettison their turnover machine until they replaced him with something. To complicate matters, the Redskins were not in rebuild mode. They had a roster bursting with talent and were as close as they have been in decades to a win now scenario. They were indeed in a pickle. The fact that they were able to swing the Alex Smith deal was nothing short of miraculous. Yes, they paid a steep price but they really had no choice.

They needed Cousins gone and they needed an experienced quarterback who possessed a talent for not turning the ball over. Some will call it dumb luck, others genius, either way for what Washington needed, there was no better fit than Alex Smith.

This was no magic trick. There were no behind the scenes mad scientists cooking up some secret formula. Jay Gruden told us two years ago exactly what he wanted to do. On defense he said they needed to stop the run and on offense they needed to run the ball and stop turning the ball over. Now that he’s done both he and his team sit in first place in the NFC East.

For some perspective on why an Alex Smith led Redskins team can go places that a Kirk Cousins led Redskins team could never go we need only look at the numbers. Over the past five years only two quarterbacks, (Tom Brady and Russell Wilson), have won more games than Alex Smith.

Through seven weeks of this season only two quarterbacks, (Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees) have thrown fewer interceptions than Alex Smith. Additionally, over the past three and a half years, (since Cousins became a full-time starter), Alex Smith has lost six fumbles and thrown 22 interceptions. During the same time period Kirk Cousins has thrown 39 interceptions and fumbled the ball 38 times.

As fans we could always hold out hope that Kirk was going to somehow stop turning the ball over with such regularity. As the owner, or the GM, or the coach, I suspect the tolerance for those kinds of mistakes had been exhausted.

Considering what needed to happen in Washington the only plausible answer was Alex Smith. The fact that they pulled it off still boggles the mind. But, the standings don’t lie. The Redskins are all alone in first place, two games clear of Dallas and Philly in the loss column. Still, we’re Redskins fans so we have to complain about something.

The target recently seems to be Alex Smith. Some of us just can’t tolerate the fact that he’s not perfect. He’s missed some throws and does not seem completely comfortable all the time. You will hear people talk about the learning curve and that makes sense. Obviously it’s going to take a few minutes to learn a new offense and to get familiar with new teammates.