After the Whistle: Season Opener or Repeat?

Any show should be so lucky to find itself in Season 85, and that is precisely what the Washington Redskins are to still find themselves airing live programming. (Shows have been cancelled for far less than what went down in the Steve Spurrier era.)

Last night on The Audible, we put out After the Whistle episode up on Facebook Live. This allowed the masses to comment on our basement punditry in real-time, but mostly it allowed people to get answers to the most pressing questions, like “What kind of whiskey were we drinking?” and “If the camera adds 10 pounds, how many cameras were they using exactly?”

Listen, the loss the Philadelphia Eagles provided fertile ground for a variety of conversations, and without rehashing them all here, I may have taken the lead on being incredibly blunt about Kirk Cousins. Here are some bullet points on that:

• Kirk’s play was a major reason for our loss
• Better quarterback play might not have sealed the victory, but we are talking about a much different fourth quarter
• The high balls he threw (separate from the highballs we were drinking) has to be a correctable thing
• I still have faith in Kirk Cousins, but there are no passes when the franchise quarterback doesn’t play like one

We covered bright spots (Zach Brown, Bashaud Breeland to name a couple), and we looked for areas where we think the team has plenty of capacity to improve. For example, if everyone continues to think so highly of Josh Doctson, perhaps we have something to look forward to there. I know I think he is a player, but until he earns the right to show us, the operative word continues to be “potential.”

We look forward to seeing the 2017 Washington Redskins show up in Los Angeles this weekend and begin playing like the team we know they can be—even in a loss, a more competent effort would be a welcomed and appreciated sight. Bottom line: the Redskins have to stop being the team that falls victim to a handful of soul-crushingly terrible plays that will always prevent you from winning (muffed punts, third-and-long touchdown plays surrendered, ridiculous turnovers for touchdowns and of course red zone interceptions).

Thanks for listening and we’ll see you back in the basement next Tuesday night.