Kirk Cousins has been consistently inconsistent for most of 2015. One week after a poor showing against the New England Patriots, his perfect passer rating in a 47-14 domination of the New Orleans Saints was the pinnacle of his success in a year where it has been difficult to know what to expect from him in each game.
Will the real Kirk Cousins please stand up?
Kirk Cousins is excellent in wins and bad in losses, and it’s hard to know what to expect in any given week.
In four victories, Cousins hasn’t had a passer rating below 90, but in five losses, his rating hasn’t eclipsed 70. If he’s good, Washington wins, and when he’s bad, the team loses. And there’s really no rhyme or reason to predict which Cousins will show up from week to week.
Sure, a stellar day against the Saints isn't too surprising considering the quality of the New Orleans defense, but his other big days came against some of the NFL's top defensive units. The Saints are No. 30 in pass defense, but Cousins completed more than 80 percent of his passes against the respective No. 5 and No. 10 pass defenses of the St. Louis Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as well.
| Cmp. | Att. | Cmp % | Yards | TDs | INTs | Rating | |
| In 4 wins | 107 | 138 | 77.54 | 1,134 | 9 | 0 | 122.6 |
| In 5 losses | 119 | 195 | 61.03 | 1,144 | 5 | 9 | 66.7 |
Against the Saints, Cousins completed 20 of 25 passes for 324 yards and a career-high four touchdowns with no interceptions. The destruction was enough to potentially get Rob Ryan fired as defensive coordinator of the Saints soon, and improved Washington to 4-5 for the year.
Cousins has been the beneficiary of the support of head coach Jay Gruden, who has toed the line of making excuses for the quarterback on his bad days, while Robert Griffin III sits as the third-string quarterback for a team who effectively dismantled his once-promising career.
But Sunday was one of four games that validated Gruden's decision to start Cousins, and it was just the third perfect passer rating recorded in 2015, the most in a season since 2007. Cousins joined Ryan Tannehill and Marcus Mariota as the only quarterbacks to finish a game with the perfect 158.3 mark this year. Both Tannehill and Mariota have been similarly up-and-down.
In six games, Tannehill posted a passer rating over 90 and in three he was under 65. Mariota has two games with four touchdowns each and no interceptions, but in his other five starts he has a total of five touchdowns with six interceptions.
Somehow that is par for the course for players who have managed to reach the vaunted 158.3 rating, though. Since the 2011 season, only seven players have finished a game with the perfect mark and it's an odd list that doesn't feature the usual suspects like Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or Drew Brees:
| QB | Year | Team | Opp. | Result | Yards | TDs | INTs | Cmp. | Att. | Cmp. % |
| Kirk Cousins | 2015 | WAS | NO | W, 47-14 | 324 | 4 | 0 | 20 | 25 | 80 |
| Ryan Tannehill | 2015 | MIA | HOU | W, 44-26 | 282 | 4 | 0 | 18 | 19 | 94.7 |
| Marcus Mariota | 2015 | TEN | TB | W, 42-14 | 209 | 4 | 0 | 13 | 15 | 86.7 |
| Geno Smith | 2014 | NYJ | MIA | W, 37-24 | 358 | 3 | 0 | 20 | 25 | 80 |
| Alex Smith | 2013 | KC | OAK | W, 56-31 | 287 | 5 | 0 | 17 | 20 | 85 |
| Nick Foles | 2013 | PHI | OAK | W, 49-20 | 406 | 7 | 0 | 22 | 28 | 78.6 |
| Robert Griffin III | 2012 | WAS | PHI | W, 31-6 | 200 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 15 | 93.3 |
Washington faces a tall task in a road game against the undefeated Carolina Panthers, but a 4-5 record with seven weeks to play has the team right in the thick of the NFC East race, which is currently led by the 5-5 New York Giants. The question is whether Good Kirk Cousins will show up more often than Bad Cousins in those final weeks.
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