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Near same record as last year
Same lingering questions about your quarterback
Same habit of beating bad teams and struggling with competent ones
Same under-talented defense as last year
Last year's squad was basically a 500 team that backdoored its way into the playoffs bullying teams worse than them. It was fool's good, but it also could've served as a huge springboard into a promising future. Instead, the Skins fielded the EXACT same mediocre team - all while their peers in the division got markedly better.
While we openly question whether our fourth round pick quarterback is worth betting on, the Cowboys have one of their own who is a viable MVP candidate in his first year (and, more importantly, an identity of running the ball while we opt for offensive finnesse)
While we openly question why our personnel staff didn't improve our obviously flawed defense, the Giants went out and fixed the glaring problems in their own front seven and drafted in the secondary.
While we openly question how an offense so talented could turn in such uninspired efforts down the stretch, the Eagles sucked and played hard and competitively every week with arguably the worst weapons in the league.
And so, for that, I would clean house of the coaching staff.
With enough talent surrounding Cousins, I do believe you can compete as well as, say,
the Chiefs are competing now. Good weapons, athletes on defense, and a game breaker or two can mask Cousins' occasional warts when they rear their ugly heads. But for failing to better equip this team with enough capable players, Scot McLoughan deserves a heaping pile of blame. His tenure is too early to call a failure, but he has a hand in this year's meltdown and should be held more accountable headed into next season.
Cousins deserves a great deal of blame. With so many opportunities to slam the door on the "does he deserve the money?" debate, he consistently and surprisingly came up
lame at every turn. You must resign him, that's irrefutable. But, more importantly, you must resign him while also covering the team's ass, like Smuts said. If he'll accept a contract of $15-17M per season with incentives and plenty of escape doors, then just do it and immediately start looking to invest resources in other areas of need via free agency. But you must not cave to his demands - I can assure you he knows he needs to stay here more than he'll ever let on.
Gruden and staff deserve the most blame. For never truly committing to the run despite having two Pro Bowlers on your O-line, for asking 4th round journeyman Kirk Cousins to perform like Aaron Rodgers time and again, for his team's repeated committing of costly penalties, for deferring the ball in every game even with a historically bad defense and for them being outscored by an overwhelming margin in every first quarter, and for the general lack of preparation and intensity his team took the field with in repeated "control your own destiny" games...Jay Gruden is the primary culprit for this team's failure.
This team improved in no one area and answered none of its preexisting questions conclusively. That's the result of an over-confident GM, an inconsistent Quarterback, and, most notably, a poor head coach. While our division peers can all head into their respective offseasons feeling there is real momentum leading into their futures, we will only be able to do the same if we recruit an adult to steer this ship. Scot is on notice, and give Kirk one more audition, he's earned at least that. But axe Jay Gruden and company. You've taken their train as far as you can
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