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From Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback

The forgotten rookie quarterback.

On draft weekend, Michigan State's Kirk Cousins thought there were a lot of teams that might pick him. Washington wasn't one of them, not after taking Robert Griffin III in the first round. But the Redskins took him at pick 102. "I was scratching my head too,'' Cousins said Sunday evening, "I think like a lot of people were."

But Cousins settled into a support role for Griffin, and they became good friends. Cousins, a team source told me, has been an excellent guy for Griffin to bounce ideas and frustrations off of. "A football career is a marathon, not a sprint,'' said Cousins. "And I realize how good it is for my career that I'm in a place where the game is taught so well. If I ever want to coach someday, now I know all about the zone-read scheme, and that's something that may grow in the game as the years go on.''

So Cousins was on the sideline -- "with my overcoat on for about three hours'' -- when Griffin hurt his knee against the Ravens. Washington trailed 28-20, and Cousins got to three five or six passes in haste on the sideline, trying to get the blood flowing a little on a raw day at Fedex Field. He hustled onto the field on 3rd-and-6 from the Washington 40 with 1:42 to go; his crossing-pattern pass to Pierre Garcon was on target, but Garcon got mugged by backup cornerback Chris Johnson, and interference was called. Now Griffin came back for four snaps before the knee was just too painful to move, and back came Cousins. Second-and-20, Baltimore 26. Cousins found Leonard Hankerson open for 15. Now 36 seconds left. Timeout. Third-and-5. Offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan called a play with Cousins, in the pocket, instructed to take his time, survey his options, and pick the most open one.

"I didn't like the look I got right away,'' Cousins said. "Something inside me said to take off and try to make a play. That's what you do sometimes as a quarterback. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.''

But how many sometimes come when you're cold off the bench, with your team's playoff life at stake?

Not many sometimes.

"It happened so fast,'' Cousins said. "I definitely didn't want to take a sack. We weren't playing The Little Sisters of the Poor out there. I was out of the pocket, and I just channeled my inner RGIII, and Pierre got open in the corner of the end zone.''

Cousins threw a perfect ball, over one corner and just before the safety came in to hit Garcon. Touchdown.

Now it was 28-26. Two-point conversion. The call was quarterback draw all the way. Cousins saw a hole and made it past the goal line before Ed Reed could blast him. Tie game. Washington got a long punt return and won on Kai Forbath's field goal in overtime.

"One of the things I've learned about being a quarterback,'' said Cousins, and for a minute, he sounded like a Penn professor of Football 101 with a tweed coat on, "is that it's a balance between being a robot and being an artist. On the touchdown to Garcon, that's being an artist; you don't really know how it's going to look, but you've just got to get out of the pocket and create something. On the two-point conversion, you're a robot. You take the play and do what's called, because you know if it's blocked the right way and set up the right way, it'll work -- the quarterback just executes it."

Cousins did his first NFL spike in the end zone after the robot play. When he got to the sideline, Griffin hugged him and said, "Thank you." A region of fans said the same thing.

***

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