Gary Mihoces

USA TODAY Sports

First-year Coach Jay Gruden will get at least a temporary break from questions about whether Kirk Cousins might supplant Robert Griffin III as the Washington Redskins quarterback even when Griffin returns from an ankle dislocation.

The Redskins, 1-3 and last in the NFC East, have more immediate issues coming off a 45-14 home loss to the New York Giants Thursday night. Cousins had five turnovers (four interceptions and a fumble). Eli Manning had his way with the Redskins defense.

Next up for Washington: a Monday night home game against the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks (2-1), followed by a road game at the Arizona Cardinals (3-0).

Unless the Redskins fix things in a hurry, they are looking at 1-5.

"Now that we're 1-3, the reality check has come in full force," Gruden said in a Friday teleconference. "And we don't have a choice now. There are no wasted (practice) reps. We have to take advantage of all of our reps and all of our time together to get this thing turned around because we have dug ourselves into a hole … and we've got get out of it quickly.''

Whether Cousins can bounce back will be key against the Seattle and Arizona defenses.

"We're not going to hold Kirk's head under the water right now," Gruden said. "We're going to keep him composed and getting better, and he's going to be fine next week."

After Griffin's injury early in a week two game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Redskins issued a timetable of 6-8 weeks for his recovery. The 26-year-old Cousins is the man of the moment.

"He's a young guy playing the position, and young guys playing that position at this level will tend to make mistakes from time to time," Gruden said. "We've got to make sure he's sees his throws a little bit better and his eyes are in the right spot. There was a couple of them (interceptions) where he stared down the receiver, and the safety just came over made an easy pick."

Cousins came off the bench against Jacksonville and led Washington to a 41-10 win. In week three, Cousins racked up big numbers in a loss to the Philadelphia but struggled at the finish with an interceptions and incompletions.

Against the Giants, Cousins lost a fumble on a sack on his first drive. In the second half, he was intercepted four times in a span of eight passes.

"I was trying to get everything back in one play and you can't do that," he said. " … I was trying to force things and trying to do too much and just didn't stay true to my reads and stay patient, so I'm going to learn from it, but it's not a good outing.''

Gruden: "He didn't have a lot of help either. The defense didn't help him out. The offensive line didn't help him out. The receivers didn't help him out.

Defensively, the Redskins had 10 sacks versus Jacksonville, but they've had just one otherwise. Thursday night, Manning threw for four touchdowns. In the first half alone, he was 20-24 for 209 and three touchdowns. Making quick passes to open receivers, he was sacked just once on the night.

Washington safety Ryan Clark called it a "bad" and "awful" performance.

"This one's over," said Clark. "I mean, what can you do? We've got to come back and go to work. Right now, our focus can't be Seattle. Our focus has to be the Washington Redskins. … "How much better can we get? How many things can we fix in the time that we have?"

Fullback Darrel Young: "I don't believe anybody on this team is sitting here saying that we are going 1-15 at this point. We are going to do some good things."