To bench or not to bench? That has somehow become the question swirling around Robert Griffin III.
Following lackluster performances by his offense in a pair of losses to open the 2013 season, Washington coach Mike Shanahan was asked on Monday if he would consider inserting reserve quarterback Kirk Cousins into the starting lineup as RG3 continued to work his way back from offseason knee surgery.
His answer was clear: "No. No."
“We have a lot of confidence in Robert," Shanahan said. "Anytime you start out a little bit slow, and we’re down as many points as we’ve been down, we get to a two-minute attack earlier than we’d like to. We probably put people in as a tough situation as we can."
As noted by Shanahan, slow starts have plagued RG3. Seventy-five percent of his total passing yards (649) and all of his touchdown passes (5) have come after halftime with the team playing from behind. A dual-threat dynamo in his rookie year, Griffin has only rushed nine times for 25 yards following surgery to repair a torn ACL. Analysts such as former NFL coach Tony Dungy have suggested that Griffin has not yet fully recovered and may even be hindering the team's production.
"They have actually changed the offense, not doing what they did last year," Dungy said on NBC after Green Bay's blowout win over Washington, via DC Sports Blog. "If I were Mike Shanahan sitting there at 0-2, I would go into Daniel Snyder right now and say, ‘Our quarterback is not healthy. In the long run, we may be better off going with Kirk Cousins.'"
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