ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Redskins have made a quarterback change: Kirk Cousins will be the starter this season, not Robert Griffin III.
“We feel like at this time, Kirk Cousins gives us the best chance to win,” coach Jay Gruden said, unseating Griffin, the 2012 Offensive Rookie of the Year. “It’s Kirk’s team.”
Although Gruden said that it’s Cousins’ job for the season, not just the Sept. 13 opener against Miami, the quarterback is not overconfident.
“It’s a step in the process,” Cousins said. “It doesn’t feel like a finish line by any means. Time will tell. It’s going to be an interesting ride.”
Griffin, who has struggled since tearing his right ACL and MCL in a January 2013 playoff loss to Seattle, was scheduled to start last Saturday’s preseason game at Baltimore before being scratched the previous day in the wake of a concussion suffered on Aug. 20 against Detroit.
Griffin participated in non-contact drills on Monday but remains in the NFL’s concussion protocol and won’t play in Thursday’s preseason finale against Jacksonville.
Cousins is expected to sit out that night with Colt McCoy playing the entire game.
Cousins, taken in the fourth round in the same draft that Griffin was chosen No. 2 overall, took over and led Washington’s starting offense to its first two touchdowns of the preseason. Those two drives seem to have clinched the starting job for Cousins.
Cubs’ Arrieta notches first no-hitter
LOS ANGELES — Jake Arrieta had been building toward this moment. He’d come achingly close to holding opponents hitless three times last year in a breakout season with the Chicago Cubs.
Finally, it happened. And near Hollywood, no less.
Arrieta threw the second no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 10 days, leading the Cubs to a 2-0 victory Sunday night.
He struck out a season-high 12 and walked one, becoming just the third opposing pitcher to achieve a no-hitter at Dodger Stadium.
“He’s starting to create more buzz around him,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “To do it under these circumstances, in this ballpark, against this team, with a pretty good audience, that should pretty much put him on everybody’s radar.”
With 46,679 in attendance — including his wife and two kids — and a national television audience looking in, Arrieta became the first 17-game winner in the majors this season by throwing the 14th no-hitter in Cubs history.
“It’s something that everybody wants,” he said. “It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time. I’ve been close on a couple of occasions, and tonight I was just fortunate that everything aligned right.”
Last year, Arrieta (17-6) became the first Cubs pitcher since 1950 to take a no-hitter into the seventh inning three times in one season. He tossed a one-hit shutout against Cincinnati last Sept. 16 at Wrigley Feld, allowing his first hit to Brandon Phillips with one out in the eighth.
At 29, he’s blossoming a little later than some big league pitchers.
“Right now, he’s pitching at a different level, and he deserves it,” Maddon said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody work any harder. He has come a long way from Baltimore, where he really had command issues with the fastball but always had good stuff.”
The right-hander was sharp early against the Dodgers, retiring the first seven batters he faced before he got some help toward his no-hitter from the official scorer.
Jerry White charged Starlin Castro with an error when Kike Hernandez reached on a one-hopper hit right at the second baseman in the third, although several players on both sides believed it should have been ruled a hit.
Steelers WR Martavis Bryant suspended for 4 games
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant has been suspended by the NFL for the first four games of the regular season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
The second-year player’s appeal of the suspension was denied by the NFL on Monday.
Bryant became a key target for Ben Roethlisberger toward the end of the 2014 season, making 26 receptions for 549 yards and eight touchdowns. He was a fourth-round draft pick out of Clemson last year and was expected to be a strong complement to All-Pro receiver Antonio Brown.
Pittsburgh already was going to be missing All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell for its opener on Sept. 10 at New England. Bell also is serving a suspension under the same policy.
