ANALYSIS/OPINION:
It was almost like an Irish wake Sunday at FedEx Field. Everyone was celebrating and hugging each other — on the Redskins sideline and in the stands — as the clock wound down on Washington’s impressive 41-10 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Yet perhaps we had witnessed the end of Robert Griffin III’s career as a Redskin.
Washington’s starting quarterback when the game began Sunday was knocked out of the game after five minutes of the first quarter, laying on the sideline in pain, his face revealing the implications of what had just happened following a 19-yard pass on the run to DeSean Jackson.
He was hurt — bad, which meant that his rival, Kirk Cousins, would take his place.
No one had touched him, but he wound up with his left ankle dislocated, carted off the field while fans chanted, “R-G-3, R-G-3.”
SEE ALSO: Robert Griffin III resolute in face of ‘excruciating’ injury
The next time we saw him was in the postgame press conference. He sat and waited for his turn to talk to reporters, listening to others try to avoid speaking about him as if it was a eulogy.
“He had high spirits,” said Jackson, who suffered a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder shortly after Griffin was hurt, and sat with him in the locker room — both watching as Griffin’s rival led the struggling offense to 41 points. “At the end of the day, we just have to pray and wish for the best.”
“He’s obviously very disappointed,” said Redskins coach Jay Gruden. “He’s sick. You know, everybody knows what kind of competitor Robert is, and he wants to do great things, and he has his sights set on a great year, a magical year. When you get hurt and your season gets cut short, it’s devastating.”
Nobody was officially willing to say what the long-term implications are for Griffin and the Redskins following the severe ankle injury he suffered. Gruden said Griffin will have more tests Monday.
It could be the rest of the season.
Twitter speculation is often dangerous and reckless. But in the right hands, it is worthy of our attention. Mark Adickes — a former Redskins offensive guard — is the orthopedic surgeon who performed Griffin’s first knee surgery at Baylor in 2009, and so it is worthy of our attention when Dr. Adickes tweeted during the game Sunday that, “RGIII has dislocated left ankle. These generally occur with fracture so I think he is done for year.”
SEE ALSO: SNYDER: Kirk Cousins fans, your wish has been granted
Consider the implications if that proves to be accurate. Cousins showed Sunday that he can run Gruden’s offense, and he can run it well. He completed his first 12 passes and finished the day completing 22 of 33 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns. More importantly, he moved the offense up and down the field and got it into the end zone four times.
“I feel like we can win any game with Kirk Cousins,” Gruden said.
If this team can compete in a weak NFC East with Cousins at the quarterback, and somehow, when all is said and done, come away with 9 or 10 wins, how do you then, come next season, put the team back in the hands of the quarterback who can’t stay healthy?
Even if Griffin misses six to eight games — an optimistic outlook — if this team is rolling with Cousins at quarterback, you can’t turn it back over to Griffin. You have to see it through.
If Cousins is exposed for being a backup as teams prepare for him, week after week, then you just wait and hope for Griffin’s recovery, because that would be the future of this franchise.
Griffin opened the game Sunday like the RG3 of 2012 who led Washington to the NFC East division title. His first play was a 12-yard run, and he was moving the team with confidence, a stark difference from his performance in the season opener in Houston. He had completed two of three passes for 38 yards, and ran the ball twice for 22 yards before he went down.
Griffin said all the right things Sunday. “I’m just trying to stay in a good place,” he told reporters after the game. “We’re always thinking positive. We’ll see what happens tomorrow and whatever information comes out, we’ll know what the timetable is from there. I believe that Kirk is going to go out there and play extremely well. This team is going to win games because we have a very good football team that’s on the field. One guy doesn’t define this team, and that includes me.”
Cousins had his chance to start the final three games of last year, and was inconsistent at best. But leading a 3-10 team in the final days of the Mike Shanahan coaching regime is not the same as taking over a 1-1 team early in the season at the start of Gruden’s coaching career. This will be a better test of whether or not Cousins can be a good NFL starting quarterback.
Griffin talked about how he felt being carted off the field while fans chanted his name. “Obviously this team is always going to be the team for this city and this area, but the city has also embraced me and my family,” he said. “It meant a lot to have them cheering as we were going off the field.”
Just like an Irish wake.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 radio and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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