ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Jay Gruden walked off the field Sunday afternoon with his arms up, waving to the elated Washington Redskins fans who just witnessed the greatest comeback in franchise history — a 31-30, last-minute win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It was not the pose he expected.
After Gruden’s team walked off the field to a cascade of boos at halftime, down 24-7 to one of the NFL’s bottom-feeding teams, it seemed his arms might have been raised to protect himself — or in surrender.
Thanks to his adopted quarterback son, Kirk Cousins, Gruden walked off the field with arms raised in victory — an improbable but satisfying victory.
“It was quite the emotional roller coaster, to say the least,” Gruden said. “But you know what? You’ve got to have faith in your team, and you have to make sure they understand the importance of each play, of each game. I think they did that.”
SEE ALSO: For once, Redskins use third-quarter performance as springboard to victory
A number of any plays could have been “each play” in the fourth quarter, from Bashaud Breeland running down Doug Martin at the five-yard line after a 49-yard run, holding Tampa Bay to a field goal, to, of course, the Cousins six-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Reed (doesn’t his presence impact the offense a little bit?) to help give Washington the go-ahead points with just 24 seconds left in the game.
And, of course, everyone understood the importance of the game. Gruden made that clear in his “code red” declaration last week.
He downplayed that on Sunday.
“The code red had absolutely nothing to do with anything,” Gruden said. “It was just something I said after the game. These guys knew the importance of this football game. They know the importance of every game. I just like the way that we came out. We laid an egg again in the first quarter, and I liked the fact that nobody blinked.”
Well, nobody in the locker room blinked. Redskins fans were blinking plenty, either from the tears or the anger in their eyes.
Gruden wouldn’t have liked the way his players returned if the outcome hadn’t gone in their favor. No, no, that “wind” he spoke of affecting Cousins’ performance in the loss last week to the New York Jets would have been a full-blown hurricane going into the bye week.
Now they get two weeks to bask in the glow of a 3-4 season — still, yes still, in the race in the NFC East.
SEE ALSO: Already on alert, Redskins recover from early miscues in victory over Buccaneers
“Each day, you read the paper, you do this, somebody’s talking good, somebody’s talking bad,” Gruden said. “This week, hopefully, we’ll have some good things said about us, and hopefully, we can keep it going for more than a week in a row.”
Or, more importantly, there will be good things said about him inside the walls of Redskins Park. A loss, and the conversations could have been like a roller coaster out of control, spiraling downward.
That’s what made this win more satisfying for Gruden — the relief that comes with it. His future is tied to his decision to play Cousins over the owner’s favorite, Robert Griffin III. If Cousins throws the interception that many would have expected of him in that fourth quarter drive (except Tampa Bay coach Lovie Smith, who never tried to pressure Cousins to throw that pick), then you have two weeks of hell at Redskins Park.
In that atmosphere, things sometimes get said in the heat of the moment, and before you know it, there are consultants and advisors showing up at team meetings.
Don’t laugh. A loss to a team like the Buccaneers — your third consecutive loss — would have opened the door to all sorts of possibilities, none of them good. Gruden might not have survived another postgame press conference following another bad Cousins performance and a loss. The narrative, right or wrong, had begun to take on racial overtones because of the stark contrast in his compassionate descriptions of Cousins’ poor performances, compared to his harsh criticism of Griffin last season.
When that happens, things can spin out of control.
Kirk Cousins, with his 33-for-40 performance for 317 yards and three touchdown passes, keeps it all under control.
“He’s going to have his ups and downs as a professional quarterback in the National Football League,” Gruden said. “Everybody does, and you have to fight through that. You have to stay the course, be patient, go through your reads and your progressions and keep your head up, and he’s done that. I’m very happy for Kirk.”
Gruden was happy for himself as well. When he left FedEx Field on Sunday, he wasn’t waving goodbye.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.