Ben Standig is a regular bi-weekly guest of Kevin Sheehan’s on our sibling station The Team 980, and he’s as plugged in as it gets with the Commanders.
But when he jumped on with the Junkies Tuesday morning, a little more than 36 hours after their latest deflating loss, EB gave his opinion that Ron Rivera just looks defeated at his press conferences now, and Standig agreed that it’s been about a month now since Rivera pretty much resigned himself to his fate.
“As much as Ron has gotten himself in trouble with some of the things he’s said over the years, he was putting forth his version of the narrative – and I felt like when they lost to the Giants and Tommy DeVito, it felt like his comments postgame were the first time he didn’t have a narrative,” Standig said. “He was asked how the team was still losing games like that four years in, and he said that he could tell a story but people would just view it as an excuse. That to me showed he sees the writing on the wall, that that was it. So it’s definitely been a different version of him talking to us, and I think that’s about when the season started to unravel.”
So, then, what did Standig make of Ron’s explanation for benching Sam Howell and Howell remaining QB1 anyway?
“His original answer was about avoiding something crazy happening, and my initial thought was that it was about sacks – but he only got sacked once and was hit four times, so it maybe felt like it was about a mental toll, and eliminating the chance for him to make another bad play,” Standig said. “I asked him to clarify yesterday, and I read the quote…and the fact that he even said what he said makes the point.”
Take a listen to Standig’s entire call-in, which of course also touches more on Sam Howell vs. Jacoby Brissett and letting Jacoby start this week versus ‘tanking’ for the better pick and much more!
