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As far as bad losses go in the NFL this year, the Washington Commanders’ 31-19 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday may have been the worst. And, the Commanders have to fire Ron Rivera, right?
First off, the Giants were down to their third-string quarterback on an offense that is already historically awful. There is no way the Commanders, who at 4-6 were on the fringe of playoff contention, should have lost to this Giants team, especially at home.
But, when the Commanders’ offense turns the ball over six times in a game, that’s how a team loses to arguably the worst team in football.
Of course, it doesn’t help when a defense has had huge investments into it, even after trading away Chase Young and Montez Sweat, allows an undrafted rookie quarterback in Tommy DeVito to light them up. DeVito was 18/26 for 246 yards and three touchdowns to go along with no interceptions and an exceptional 137.7 passer rating. Yes, he was sacked a whopping ten times, but the Commanders secondary had an absolutely terrible day.
Attention now turns to head Coach Ron Rivera, who is now 26-34-1 in his career with the Commanders, with the team taking a huge step back this year after three semi-respectable seasons to start his tenure there. This was too talented of a roster coming into the season for the team to play this poorly, and they often seem underprepared compared to opponents, especially weaker opponents.
With new owner Josh Harris having paid $7 Billion for the team this offseason, it seems like he’d want to bring in his guy to be the head coach. The team did hire former Chiefs’ offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy in the offseason, and he seems like he’d be a natural interim fit.
Honestly, I think that Rivera would normally be fired tomorrow. But, the Commanders play against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving, and the short week may save his job. But, after a probable loss to Dallas on national television, it’s hard to see him being the coach of the franchise much longer.