Monday, 4 a.m.
Kyler Murray led an upset. Lamar Jackson led a comeback. Trevor Lawrence led a first victory.
But you know who was the best quarterback the NFL had to offer Sunday?
That’s right. It was Kirk Cousins, again. Even in replay, he was the best thing the NFL had to offer.
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Even now, days later, it is hard to express just how badly he embarrassed the Tampa Bay Bucs. Consider this: Of the 28 quarterbacks who played Sunday, not one of them came within 150 yards of Cousins’ 509 on Thursday night. In nine games, both of the starting quarterbacks didn’t add up to Cousins’ yardage.
No one completed 42 passes. No one threw 58 times.
Of course, no one else was playing against the Bucs, were they?
Oh, there were good quarterbacks. C.J. Stroud was a handful. Caleb Williams. Jordan Love.
But Cousins, a quarterback, a man who had struggled for the first month of the season, who couldn’t get his team into the end zone the week before, was a house afire. He made the Bucs’ defenders look like drunks walking on the interstate.
In Cousins’ previous four games, he had a rating of less than seventy twice. Against the Bucs, it was 114.8.
How did the Bucs get this bad? Well, they played without Anthoine Winfield, but that wasn’t new. They didn’t have enough pass rush, but that’s not new, either. Perhaps the years of drafting defensive backs as afterthoughts finally caught up to them.
Regardless, the defensive backs played like they were parking meters. They had no discernible purpose but to try to tackle the latest guy who caught a passes.
You know the scary thing? Look ahead. In order, the Bucs have to play the Saints’ Derek Carr, the Ravens’ Jackson, Cousins again, the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, and the 49ers’ Brock Purdy. How many yards do you think those five quarterbacks will mount up against the Bucs?
Put it this way: The Bucs should play their games under the sound of an Air Alert Siren.
They are 3-2, which isn’t bad.
Still, it feels like it’s third-and-15.
Don’t look now, but the opposing quarterback is about to drop back to pass.
Uh-oh.