One of the encouraging themes from Cousins’s performance on Sunday was his patience in the pocket. There were plays that he made against the Vikings that I don’t think he would have made last year or maybe even earlier this season.

On this play, Washington runs a corner-flat route combination with the receiver on the outside clearing space with a go route.

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This type of route combination typically asks the quarterback to read from deep to shallow, meaning Cousins would initially look for tight end Jordan Reed on the deeper corner route before coming back down to his other tight end, Vernon Davis, in the flat. But Reed gets jammed at the line of scrimmage for a significant amount of time. That really disrupted his route, meaning he wasn’t in sync with Cousins’s drop.

Quarterbacks like to throw in rhythm, so Cousins would normally like to be looking to release the throw as his back foot plants at the top of his drop, or after taking a hitch step. But because the Vikings were able to jam Reed for so long, the timing on this play is completely thrown off. Cousins takes a hitch step and appears to look to check it down to Davis, even going as far as to load up his weight on his back foot, ready to drive off of it on his throw.

But then Cousins takes another hitch step and goes back to Reed, noticing that he is even with his defender and has better leverage. Cousins adjusts himself and then delivers a strike to Reed on the corner route for a big completion.

Personally, I think that Cousins doesn’t make that throw last year. Even earlier this season, Cousins often took the check-down option early in the play despite having time in the pocket to allow plays to develop. He displayed this patience later in the game too.

This isn’t too dissimilar from the concept we saw on the last play. Like before, a receiver runs a go route to clear out the defense for an out-flat route combination. On the back side of the play, wide receiver Pierre Garcon runs a dig route. The Vikings line up showing a heavy blitz from the left side of the offensive line.

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Feeling a blitz coming, Cousins works to his right, knowing the flat route is the hot route if the blitz arrives quickly. Despite the Vikings blitzing to the left side of the line, the offensive line picks it up relatively well. Cousins is afforded time to wait for routes to develop.

He reads the out route from Jamison Crowder, but the defender sticks tight to Crowder as he cuts outside. Instead of panicking under the pressure of the blitz and checking it down to the flat, Cousins calmly works back to his left and finds Garcon cutting inside on the dig route for a first down.

In previous games, Cousins has felt the need to get the ball out of his hands as quickly as he could when he senses a blitz coming. But Cousins is now learning to trust his protection and be more patient, allowing routes to develop down the field for bigger completions.

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Another part of that play I want to highlight is the subtle movements in the pocket that helped Cousins buy a little bit of extra time.

As Cousins reaches the top of his drop, notice how he takes his hitch step forward and slightly to his right, away from the blitz. That subtle movement took him maybe a yard or two further inside and away from the rush, but it was needed. As Cousins releases his throw, a Vikings defender breaks through the protection and lands a hit on Cousins, bringing him down to the ground. Had Cousins not taken that step inside, the defender might have been able to disrupt the throw.

That type of subtle movement in the pocket has been a strength of Cousins’s game in recent weeks. He’s done well to step up in the pocket, allowing the tackles to run edge defenders past him. He’s also taken opportunities to break the pocket and extend plays when needed.

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The Vikings blitz the left side of the offensive line again on this play. As Cousins reaches the top of his drop, he feels the pressure arriving, but also a lane developing. Cousins steps up in the pocket and then breaks out of it as he rolls out to his right. He keeps his eyes down the field the whole time, looking for an open receiver. Wide receiver Ryan Grant starts to make a move to give Cousins an option, but is brought down after the ball was thrown.

These are all positive signs for Cousins, but that’s not to say he’s been flawless. He had a throw in the red zone early on that could have drastically changed the game.

Here, Cousins initially looks to his right, but quickly recognizes there is nobody open. He begins to work back to Jordan Reed over the middle, but the pass protection breaks down and pressure arrives. Instead of just throwing the ball away or taking a sack, Cousins makes a terrible decision and lofts up a panicked throw to Reed. Two Vikings defenders converge on the ball and end up running into each other, allowing the pass to fall incomplete.

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It’s a poor decision that could have changed the game entirely. Washington scored a touchdown on the next play, but wouldn’t have been able to do so had that ball been intercepted as it should have been. That play could, and probably should, have taken seven points off the board in a game that was only won by six.

These poor decisions are too much of a common occurrence in Cousins’s game. While he is improving in this aspect at least in my opinion, he still has one or two of these types of throws a game, which is too often.

But overall, Cousins looks much better now than he did at the start of the season. He appears to be more in sync with his receivers and trusting his protection more. He already seems to have a good connection with undrafted free agent wide receiver Maurice Harris, who spent most of the season on the practice squad and is unlikely to have had many repetitions with the starting quarterback.

Harris lines up in the slot on this play and runs a deep out route.

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Many quarterbacks in the league would wait for a receiver to make his cut before delivering the ball to a player that they haven’t had many reps with. But Cousins shows a lot of trust in Harris on this play. He begins his delivery as Harris makes his cut and then fires a perfect throw on a rope to where only Harris can make the catch. Harris repays the faith shown in him by Cousins with a good catch while tapping both feet in bounds to complete the catch.

Being in sync with his receivers means Cousins can take more command of the offense. Back in Week 1, Washington had a run play called but Cousins spotted a cornerback playing off coverage against DeSean Jackson. Cousins gave Jackson a signal to run a route.

Cousins expects Jackson to run a slant route, while Jackson actually runs a hitch route.

That disconnect between Cousins and Jackson nearly results in an interception, as the ball is thrown straight to the corner, but fortunately he drops it.

After nearly throwing an interception, it would be understandable if Cousins was reluctant to make a call at the line of scrimmage like that for a while. But against the Vikings, he gave Pierre Garcon the exact same signal.

Like before, Washington originally called for a run play. The corner is playing press coverage against Garcon, but Cousins still likes the look and gives Garcon the signal.

Garcon was on the same page as Cousins and ran the slant. Cousins puts the ball right on him and allows him to turn up the field and pick up a few extra yards after the catch.

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Those types of plays take some advanced-level quarterbacking, but also complete trust in the receiver to be on the same page. When they do work out, they result in easy yards for the offense that can put them in better positions in second and third downs.

Cousins still has plenty of progress to make before I’m ready to call him a franchise quarterback worthy of a huge contract. But he is showing steady signs of improvement. The key moving forward will be how much he can cut down on those one or two terrible decisions each game. If he can manage to do that without resorting to conservative check-downs, then he’ll put himself in good position for a big contract in the offseason.

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