The Washington Commanders squeaked out a road win over the Chicago Bears on Thursday night, but by no means did that put head coach Ron Rivera in a celebratory mood following the game.
Maybe it was the dark cloud hovering over the Commanders following the negative news about owner Dan Snyder, but Rivera lost his cool when a reporter asked him about a report that Snyder had chosen quarterback Carson Wentz to lead the team and not Rivera. It’s a report that seems believable, especially after Rivera threw the struggling Wentz under the bus last week.
And all the question did was set Rivera off.
“They played their asses off. They have. They’ve played their asses off for everybody,” Rivera told reporters, per ESPN’s Michelle Steele. “They come out and they show up. They work hard. They don’t complain. They hear all the stuff and they got to deal with it. I get that. I respect that for them because they’re resilient and come back.
“Everybody keeps wanting to say I don’t want anything to do with Carson. Well, (expletive). I’m the (expletive) guy that pulled out the sheets of paper, that looked at the analytics, that watched the tape of when we’re in Indianapolis. And that’s what pisses me off because the young man doesn’t deserve to have that all the time.”
Rivera’s press conference ended there as he stormed off the podium. It appears Rivera is trying to backpedal on his previous stance about Wentz when he said the Commanders failures this season are due in part to quarterback play.
He really isn’t wrong as Wentz had another subpar night against the Bears, which is putting it nicely. The veteran signal-caller completed 12-of-22 passes for only 99 yards and no touchdowns.
But Rivera surely isn’t happy heading back to Washington despite the Commanders improving to 2-4.
