Kirk Cousins' two-week daydream came to a crashing end Thursday night in a five-turnover horror.
Washington Redskins first-year coach Jay Gruden used several unflattering adjectives to describe his team's 45-14 loss to the Giants, calling it a "debacle," "total butt-kicking" and "domination" by the Giants.
Gruden, however, wouldn't put the loss squarely on the shoulders of the quarterback.
"By no means can we put the blame on Kirk for this game," he said. "This was a total team debacle. And total domination by the Giants in all phases. We had a chance, we came out in the second half and got a touchdown to cut the lead and then the interceptions started to happen. But uh, unfortunate."
Unfortunate is one way to describe Cousins' play. Ghastly is another. The quarterback who looked so good in two outings this season was equally as disastrous with his reads and forced throws.
It was a narrative-flipping performance -- and not in a good way for Cousins. The past week was spent wondering if Robert Griffin IIIwould get his job back when he's healthy. On Friday, every Redskins fan will be checking to see when RGIII will return -- five or six weeks, for those wondering.
"Sometimes a good slap in the face wakeup call is what you need and hopefully our guys respond, I know the coaches will, I will, we just gotta make sure to get our players to respond from a type of game like this," Gruden said.
Thursday wasn't just a slap -- it was a kick in the pants, too.
We preview and pick every Week 4 game in the latest Around the NFL Podcast.