Kirk Cousins Discusses Decision To Take Knee Before Halftime Leaves Fans Scratching Heads

Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins has been through a roller coaster of a season. From taking the starting quarterback job from Robert Griffin lll to screaming “You like that!” after winning a thrilling game against the New Orleans Saints, it has been an eventful season for Cousins. But a certain decision made by the quarterback during Saturday night’s division battle against the Philadelphia Eagles had football fans scratching their heads after the play was executed.

Before halftime, the Redskins were in field goal range and decided to run one more play to see if they could score a last second touchdown. When the ball was snapped, Cousins’ initial throw was covered by the Eagles defense so he elected to take a knee instead of spiking the ball, which could have led to a field goal before the end of the first half. The Redskins still had the lead with a score of 16-10 at halftime.

“There was a lot of confusion with what the play call was,” Cousins said after the game. “For lack of a better word, I just had a lapse in my decision-making and took a knee when I should’ve thrown the ball away to stop the clock. We were fortunate it didn’t end up hurting us.”

The botched play did not hurt the Redskins for they would go on to win the game against the Eagles 38-24 and sealing the NFC East division, their first since 2012. Cousins would finish the game with 365 passing yards and four touchdowns.