Kirk Cousins is turning back the clock this year and playing his best football since rupturing his Achilles 3 years ago. He ranks 2nd in the NFL with 19 touchdown passes, 3rd with 2,124 passing yards, and has a passer rating of 101.4.
Most importantly, he’s helped the Raiders become the 6th-ranked scoring offense and get off to a surprising 4-4 start.
The combination of Klint Kubiak’s scheme and Cousins’ ability to execute at a high level are driving the offense. That was on display again vs. the Jets in Week 8.
One of the areas where the Raiders have had a ton of success throwing the ball this season is on 1st down. They rank 2nd in the NFL in 1st-down passing frequency, and Cousins has been lights out (67.5 comp %, 8.2 yards per attempt, 7 TDs, 0 INTs, 112.3 passer rating).
Vegas didn’t do it with quite the same frequency against the Jets (46.2% removing kneels) as they have all season, but they had success nonetheless. 6 of their 7 longest completions came on 1st down off of a mix of play-action and straight drop-backs.
Throwing on 1st down gave the Raiders predictable coverages to attack, and the play-action opened up the middle of the field:
Vegas actually leaned into their play-action in general more than they had entering Week 8, calling it on 48% of dropbacks after only doing so 25% of the time through the first 7 weeks. And they had success (10-13, 112 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT):
But 1st down wasn’t the only area where the Raiders thrived in the passing game. In fact, all 3 of Cousins’ touchdown passes came on third down. I should add that he’s been pretty dang good in this area all season too (10 TD, 0 INT, 121.4 passer rating).
3rd down is the quarterback’s down, often more about a quarterback’s ability to execute than the scheme (although not always, calm down).
And here’s where we get into the execution part of Cousins’ game. He has consistently been making precise tight-window throws all season: