He found a groove against the Eagles, in short, and it showed from one of his first throws of the game.

On third and 10, Washington has wide receiver DeSean Jackson run a comeback route. Jackson is particularly effective on comeback and hitch routes because cornerbacks are always wary of his deep speed.

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There are two key things to note from this play. First, Cousins is on the near hashmark, so he’s throwing to the far side of the field. That means he really has to drive the ball to get it to Jackson on time. The other crucial point is the time of the release from Cousins. He lets go of the ball before Jackson begins to break to the sideline. That maximizes the separation from Jackson’s cut and gives the corner practically no chance of breaking up the pass. Jackson pulls it in and converts the third and long.

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The anticipation on that throw was just about perfect, and it’s something Cousins does well when playing at his best. He threw with anticipation down the stretch that led Washington to the playoffs last season, but it’s been lacking at times this year.

Pocket awareness is also a trait Cousins has largely lacked this season. Sometimes he has felt pressure when it wasn’t there, leading to throws off the back foot. At other times, he has failed to step up in the pocket despite a clear lane developing. But against the Eagles, Cousins had no such issues.

Here, the Eagles bring four pass-rushers, while the rest drop into coverage. Tight end Vernon Davis runs a crossing route, while wide receiver Jamison Crowder runs a dig route from the slot.

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Cousins appears to look to Davis crossing the middle of the field initially, but despite starting his wind-up, he opts against the throw. Perhaps he was put off by the zone defender sinking underneath Davis, or maybe he saw safety Rodney McLeod breaking on the route. Either way, Cousins pulls the ball back down and begins to move on to his next read. As he does that, pressure begins to arrive, as left tackle Trent Williams is driven back into him. Williams shoves the defender back inside, clearing a lane for Cousins to scramble to the edge.

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As Cousins scrambles, he does a good job keeping his eyes down the field, looking for open receivers. He remains patient, waiting for a receiver to come open instead of just tucking and running instantly. Eventually, Crowder works over from the far side of the field, and Cousins does an excellent job to spot him and adjust his body while on the run to make an accurate throw. Crowder makes the catch in stride and picks up the first down.

The poise and patience to extend the play and buy time for Crowder to cross the field were fantastic from Cousins. A few series later, he had another play that tested his pocket presence.

This time, Cousins has three receivers bunched to his right, with Pierre Garcon running a dig route on the back side of the play.

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As he takes the snap, Cousins appears to look to his right, reading the three-receiver side of the field. But before he has the chance to allow those routes to develop, the Eagles’ pass rush arrives. Cousins steps up into the pocket, allowing his offensive linemen to run the interior pressure past him, and keeps his eyes down the field. He spots Garcon breaking inside on his dig route, makes another strong throw on the move and hits Garcon, who picks up the first down and more.

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Those types of plays have been lacking from Cousins this season. Too often, he’s been quick to check it down or throw off the back foot when feeling pressure. But by stepping up in the pocket, he buys his receivers time to develop their routes and get open.

While there were clearly plenty of positive signs from Cousins’s performance, he did still have one or two errors. Every quarterback is prone to them but the two Cousins made against the Eagles could have cost Washington the game. The first was his interception that Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins returned for a touchdown.

It came on a play-action bootleg, a staple of the Washington offense and one that has been incredibly successful in recent years. But the Eagles play Washington twice a year and know how often they like to run it. Two key players for the Eagles are the back-side defensive end, Connor Barwin, and the safety Jenkins.

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Washington runs a “naked” bootleg, meaning it leaves the back-side defensive end unblocked, hoping he’ll bite on the run fake and leave the quarterback to roll out. But the Eagles are well prepared and have their defensive end prioritize the quarterback over the run. He quickly pressures Cousins, forcing him to make a quick decision on his throw, jumping to get it off because he doesn’t have time to correct his feet after executing the play fake. The jump means his throw lacks velocity and floats on its way to Davis on the crossing route.

This is where Jenkins comes in. He reads the play perfectly, knowing exactly where the ball is going. The lack of velocity on the throw gives Jenkins a chance to undercut the route and intercept the pass. I’m not sure Cousins would even have seen him, because he made up a lot of ground to make the play. Washington has no other player in the area, and Jenkins takes it all the way back for a 64-yard touchdown return.

Last year, Cousins got away with that throw multiple times because teams weren’t as well prepared for the bootleg. But the Eagles were and took full advantage of Cousins’s floating pass.

Later in the game, Cousins nearly made another crucial error.

In the red zone, Washington looks to attack the Eagles vertically. Jackson runs a post route, while Davis works out and up on a wheel route.

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Cousins appears to lock in on Jackson from the snap. Jenkins reads Jackson’s route the whole way and quickly transitions his eyes into the backfield. He jumps the route almost before it’s thrown and gets both his hands on the ball, the interception prevented only because Jackson managed to knock the ball out of Jenkins’s grasp.

It’s clearly a bad throw from Cousins, but I do wonder whether he was expecting Jackson to make more of a defined cut across Jenkins. Cousins delivers the ball before the cut, so perhaps he was expecting more from Jackson. Either way, it was still a poor throw into a tight window.

But Cousins didn’t let those mistakes get to him. Later in the game, he delivered the two best deep throws he has produced this season.

The first came on a simple go route to Jackson. They were looking to get Jackson matched up in obvious man coverage against rookie cornerback Jalen Mills all game and finally got it here. Washington then went after that matchup.

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Cousins takes his drop and quickly pulls the trigger on the shot to Jackson. As he releases the ball, Jackson isn’t even level with the corner, but Cousins trusts Jackson to run past him down the field. Jackson does just that and is a step ahead of Mills as the ball arrives. It’s a perfectly placed ball from Cousins, dropping in over Jackson’s shoulder in stride. Jackson gets both hands to the ball but makes a rare drop.

Jackson doesn’t drop too many passes, particularly on deep throws. But it does happen to every receiver from time to time. Cousins, however, deserves credit for what was perhaps his best deep throw of the season. That was, until the fourth quarter, when he topped it with another.

This throw came on a variation of one of Washington’s more basic concepts. Normally, Washington likes to combine an out route with a receiver running to the flat as a quick and easy throw for the quarterback for a short gain. Here’s how it looked two years ago against the Eagles:

Washington stacks two receivers and has one run straight out to the flat while the other runs up the field a few yards before breaking outside.

It’s a basic concept that usually gets the receiver open in the flat for an easy completion. But this has been in Washington’s playbook for a few years now, and the Eagles have seen it multiple times. So Washington sets a trap by running a variation.

Instead of having Davis just run out into the flat, they have him run a wheel route, designed to bait the defender into biting on the flat route and allowing Davis to run past him.

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The play works perfectly, as the safety falls for the trap and Davis runs right past him. Cousins does a good job of anticipating the throw, again delivering it before Davis is past the defender. The pass hits Davis perfectly in stride down the sideline and allows him to pick up extra yards after the catch before being shoved out of bounds.

It’s no surprise that Cousins’s best throw coincided with his best performance of the season. He’s been inconsistent to start the season, but signs of positive traits such as anticipation and pocket awareness are starting to show up. Sunday’s outing gives Cousins a solid foundation on which to build ahead of trips to Detroit to face the Lions and London to face the Bengals in the international series before the Week 9 bye week.

Mark Bullock is The Insider’s Outsider, sharing his Redskins impressions without the benefit of access to the team. For more, click here.