Perhaps this was what went into the Washington Commanders’ decision to stay with quarterback Carson Wentz all the way through their eventual 24-10 loss, despite Wentz doing everything he possibly could to hand the game to the Browns with his three interceptions — and almost a fourth near the end of the game. Perhaps this is why head coach Ron Rivera thought better of replacing Wentz with former starter Taylor Heinicke, who was benched last week against the 49ers in favor of Wentz, even after it was clear that Wentz just didn’t have it out there. Heck, put rookie Sam Howell in there, to try and stop the bleeding.
Perhaps Rivera wasn’t aware that the Commanders could be eliminated from the postseason today if the Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings.
That’s certainly what it looked like after the loss.
Here is the video. I wanted to know if Howell is in consideration for next week. Turns out Rivera coached the entire day not knowing that WSH could be eliminated by night’s end.pic.twitter.com/3K2108VKYY.
— Grant Paulsen (@granthpaulsen) January 1, 2023
If the Packers do beat the Vikings, and Rivera really was giving Wentz all that leash thinking that it wouldn’t possibly bump his team out of the postseason… well, that’s about as unforgivable a mistake as a head coach can make.
We can only hope that Rivera was expressing some sort of sarcasm with such an obvious and egregious miss.
