Washington got off to a hot start in the 2020 NFL season, shocking the world with an upset win over the Philadelphia Eagles. This caused many media members to second guess what we knew about them, and forced us to ponder if they were actually better than we thought.
It turns out that win was likely an anomaly against a putrid Eagles team that worse than anyone could have imagined. After being ranked No. 13 in the first set of USA TODAY power rankings for this season, Washington has steadily trended downwards, stopping at No. 17 last week, and now at No. 22 this week after losing to the Browns, 34-20.
Here is Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar on the reasoning for the drop:
Dwayne Haskins’ three-interception game against the Browns in a 34-20 embarrassment had head coach Ron Rivera stating that while Haskins is still his guy, there’s a limit to how long the team will be patient with its 2019 first-round pick.
“The truth of the matter is how is [Haskins] going to learn?” Rivera said on Monday. “Is he going to learn while taking the [scout] team snaps? No. The only way we are going to find out where Dwayne is and what he can do is by putting him back out on the football field and let him get exposed. That is how he grows. That is what we did with Cam Newton [Rivera was Newton’s coach early on with the Panthers] and look where he is today. Cam Newton was a league MVP because we trusted him and we took our lumps with him. I am going to take my lumps with Dwayne right now.”
Well. Newton was the Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2011, presenting a combination of throwing and running the NFL found very difficult to deal with. NFL defenses have not had the same issues with whatever Haskins brings to the table.
If you had told fans before the season that Washington would be ranked closer to 20 than 30 at this point in the season, many probably would have taken it. However, there is a disturbing trend that needs to be halted in Washington, and something needs to be done quickly.
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