There is a never-ending fountain of Kirk Cousins criticism. Whenever the Redskins quarterback doesn't win a big game, it's easy to point to the fact that, well, he didn't win a big game. Case in point comes from Thursday night, when Cousins and the Redskins struggled badly in a loss to the Cowboys, one that effectively ended the Redskins' hopes for a playoff run.

After the game, a trio of former players on the NFL Network desk -- Marshall Faulk, Steve Smith and Michael Irvin -- went IN on Cousins' performance during the game.

Faulk kicked things off by essentially saying that Cousins wasn't capable of smelling "blood in the water" and going for the jugular on a struggling Cowboys team.

"We talked about it in the pregame as well -- Kirk Cousins, do you pay him or not? There was blood in the water. The Cowboys were a wounded team coming in," Faulk said. "And I'm not talking about just physically but emotionally -- and mentally -- as a quarterback, you come into games like this and you shred that defense.

"Based on what I saw last week against the Los Angeles Chargers, oh my god."

At this point Rich Eisen pointed out, correctly, that Cousins put plenty of balls on the hands of his wideouts. Specifically, some of the criticism came over a first-quarter interception by Jeff Heath.

On the play in question, it was virtually all on Jamison Crowder for not catching the ball.

Eisen pointed out this specific play, noting that if Crowder catches the ball and walks in for a touchdown, the game is completely flipped. Instead, the Cowboys got the ball and flipped the field position. Faulk disagreed, saying that Cousins erred by throwing the ball too high.

"The first interception ... in the red zone as a quarterback, that ball's got to be low, that ball got to be on him. You cannot throw a ball high," Faulk said. "They tell that to rookie quarterbacks."

Crowder, for his part, said the ball "just went through my hands" and took blame for a large portion of the loss because of his play.

Faulk was also concerned about the fact that Cousins didn't go over to his receivers and pat them on the back afterwards.

"As a quarterback, when those things are happening, you go to your wide receivers and you don't shake them, you pat them and let them you know have confidence and let them know 'I'm coming back to you.' I was standing on the sidelines and I was waiting for that to happen, and I never saw him go by his wide receivers and give them a vote of confidence of what we're going to do," Faulk added.

Smith then chimed in saying that Cousins' lack of leadership on the sideline and his performance against the Cowboys probably cost the quarterback between $10 million and $20 million on his next contract.

"Based on what [Faulk's] saying, and you want that leadership, I'm going to say right now, that probably cost him between $10 and $20 million off that contract," Smith said. "Because he showed that he is not a true leader that demands that kind of money. You've got to win these kind of games right here."

Understandably, Cousins did not appreciate the comments. Asked about it on his weekly appearance with the "Grant and Danny" show on CBS Sports Radio affiliate 106.7 the Fan in Washington, Cousins said "unfortunately" people are "rewarded" for "saying inflammatory things."

"I mean, I think those guys are gonna say what they want to say, and I honestly think that in today's world, unfortunately, sometimes saying inflammatory things, you get rewarded for it whether there's a lot of truth behind it or not," Cousins said via Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post. "You know, I didn't go over right away [to Crowder], but I did go over and just try to encourage the guys up and down, the receivers and the O-line and the running backs, let 'em know we're doing a lot of good things, we're fine."

"Crowder and I have a great relationship," Cousins went on. "He's a classy guy. I love playing with him. And we go way back. So I just don't know that he needs to be coddled; he's a kind of guy that I know is mentally tough. And I feel good playing with him. And he came back, he came back and made plays for us the rest of the game like he always does. So people can say what they want to say, and that's fine. I'm sure it drives ratings. It helps [attract] viewership. So be it."

It's OK to question Cousins. The Redskins have not advanced as far as you would like under his stewardship. There is a question as to whether or not he's worth a massive, franchise-altering contract.

But it is odd that these guys would rip his leadership and rip his decision making in this spot. Cousins was under FIRE from the Cowboys defense, primarily because the Redskins were using their 22nd different offensive line combination of the season, after Morgan Moses was carted off. He had no time in the pocket and his receivers did him no favors.

Cousins has said this year that he believes he is playing the best football of his career right now. He's not wrong. This is the best he's looked since he took over as the Redskins starter. He's a viable franchise quarterback. The Redskins can't afford to let him go.

He may not be perfect, but he is absolutely good enough to warrant giving a large contract. It's surprising that, on a night where he was mostly not at fault for some of the Redskins issues, he would be heavily blamed after the game for the problems.