The Washington Commanders dropped to 4-10 on the season after falling to the Los Angeles Rams 28-20 at SoFi Stadium. Ron Rivera’s club has now suffered five consecutive defeats. While Jacoby Brissett contributed a late surge, the reason he was in the game has become a hot subject. Ron Rivera explained that he benched Howell to “protect” him, but as a result, speculation about who will start the rest of the season is rampant.
Rivera indicated that Howell is still the guy, but Howell himself stated that those discussions had yet to occur. “To be honest, we haven’t even talked about it,” Howell admitted. “But yeah, I mean, just going try to keep doing what I can and taking it one day at a time and keep trying to be the best player I can for this team.”
The Commanders’ offense has failed to score more than 20 points in the last four weeks as things have stalled. They also had nine turnovers over that time period, indicating that things aren’t clicking. Things are quickly deteriorating for Howell, who has thrown for only 127 and 102 yards in his last two outings.
“I mean obviously, it’s hard to say and if we knew what the issue was, we’d fix it,” he added. “But I believe what it comes down to is that we simply need to execute better, and that starts with me.” So it’s been a bad couple of weeks. We obviously wish we could go back and do it again, but the reality is that we can’t, and all we can control is how we proceed from here and finish the year.” The Commanders have three games left in their season, and while the year has been poor generally, they have a chance to salvage something from it.
But it won’t be easy with the New York Jets, San Francisco 49ers, and Dallas Cowboys still in the mix. So, while there are many unanswered concerns around the Washington organization, perhaps none is more important than who will be the starting quarterback in the future.
