This whole Gruden can't win openers thing. Is it really that? Or is it really that Cousins was a spaz during openers?
Because those two go hand in hand, they're correlated, and you have to ask which was the bigger cause.
Cousins was notoriously jumpy in Week 1 games when he was here. This was the writeup from PFF on his Week 1 performance last year against the Eagles:
Quote:
Looking at his complete game, Cousins dropped back 47 times. He was sacked four times and ran three times. That leaves 40 pass attempts. The following data comes from Pro Football Focus:
When Cousins faced no pressure, he completed 68 percent of his passes. That falls in line with his completion percentage the last two seasons.
When there was pressure, and against the Eagles there was plenty, Cousins' completion percentage dropped significantly. He completed just six of 15 passes, good for 40 percent, and threw a red zone interception under pressure.
Not all pressure comes from blitzing, as the Philadelphia defensive line was able to generate push on the pocket sometimes without extra defenders.
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The red zone interception was a killer, and I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a total spaz brain fart under pressure.
I think performance in openers had more to do with Cousins than it did Gruden, personally.