Every year, it feels like the Washington Commanders follow a similar script under head coach Ron Rivera. Washington starts slow at the beginning of the season and in the first halves of games and is seemingly finished.
However, each year, the Commanders get on a winning streak, with many believing they could be a playoff team, only to falter in the end — again.
As fans, players and coaches lament the continued slow starts for Washington; another stat shows an ugly truth about the Commanders under Rivera.
Check this out, courtesy of Twitter user “Ref the District,” who is a Washington fan.
In the Ron Rivera era Washington has trailed or been tied at halftime in 41 of 56 games: 73%!!!
Read that again. Ron has coached 56 games in Washington and has led at halftime in only 15 of those games pic.twitter.com/svMgZNX2sE
— RefTheDistrict (@RefTheDistrict) October 6, 2023
Wow. This is alarming. Including the one playoff game, Rivera has coached in 56 games for Washington. He’s either been tied or trailed in 41 of those games. That’s an ugly number.
You could excuse this if it were one season. But we are in year four, and this is a trend. And sometimes, these deficits are big, such has been the case multiple times already this season.
Rivera spoke during halftime of Thursday night’s loss to the Bears and was asked what he said. Washington trailed 27-3 at this juncture. Rivera said he didn’t speak; he let the players talk to each other.