Kirk Cousins said recently that he is at peace with playing under the franchise tag for a second straight year, but he isn’t at peace with the way the Redskins played in their preseason opener against the Ravens.
Cousins played two drives and both were three-and-outs as the team failed to find any traction against the Baltimore defense. He completed one pass to running back Rob Kelley, took a sack and fired an incompletion to Terrelle Pryor on three dropbacks before giving way to Colt McCoy, who wasn’t able to muster much of anything in a 23-3 loss that saw the Redskins gain 138 yards and turn the ball over once.
“It’s a wake-up call,” Cousins said, via the Washington Post. “It showed us, as much as we may have been making some plays in training camp in Richmond and feeling good about what we were doing, it’s a realization that we’ve got a long way to go.”
The team will return to Richmond for two more practices this weekend and then head back to their facility for further work ahead of next Saturday’s game against the Packers. Cousins and the first team should have a longer run in that game and more opportunities to show that the quarterback’s message was received.