The Commanders are 4-6, and even in a wide-open NFC, may have trouble getting to the playoffs – and two of those losses have seen Ron Rivera choose to kick the PAT to tie, and not go for two and the win, in games where his offense has scored a touchdown late, only to go on to lose.
Beyond that, the offense has played well of late on the whole, while it’s still the defense – Rivera’s specialty – that is disappointing everyone.
“This was a mist-win game if you wanted to have any playoff hopes at all, you want to have a playoff sweat,” EB said.
“You had to win that game, and now, they're mucking around with teams of the likes of the Falcons on the bubble, on the outside looking in,” Cakes replied.
So that led the Junkies (minus Bish) to ask this on a Misery Monday: JP has said he doesn’t see the reason to keep Rivera around any longer, let alone waiting for the bye, so should Josh Harris bite the bullet and just give Eric Bieniemy a chance to be the head coach for the final seven games – and maybe even in 2024?
“I'm not a fool, but I like the fact that the Raiders are giving Antonio Pierce a chance because you might like that,” JP said. “He’s a leader of men, and people say that the locker room is different. The players’ attitudes are different, and I think that you can give Eric Bieniemy a shot this year, but should he be given a shot next year?”
JP laid out Scott Turner’s 2022 stats vs. Bieniemy’s 2023 stats as Commanders OC, and, yeah, EB is marginally better in most categories (at least in the Junks’ EB’s mind), although the script has flipped in terms of ranks with passing vs. rushing.
“I don’t know what you have in Eric in terms of being a head coach,” JP said. “A couple weeks ago you were praising his attention to detail, you liked his energy by comparison to Ron, who has his arms folded on the sideline, but I can see the demeanor is different. I don't know if the results would be any different with him as the head coach, but I'm willing to take a swing now to see if I like it.”
“The problem is you’re setting him up to fail; he’s gonna take over and he’s not going to win a lot of games,” EB replied.
“You know what it would show you? How well he handles adversity,” Cakes shot back.
EB is skeptical because of the defense, and maybe Jack Del Rio is fired in JP’s mind?
“If he lopped Jack’s head off, is it possible the defense gets any worse?” Cakes laughed.
“We’ve been having this sort of dream scenario for a while where we’re playing this sounder that they’ve fired Ron and Jack, but what if they just fired Jack?” EB said. “The thing is, I don't think Ron would do that.
I think if they said you had to fire Jack, I think Ron would walk. Ron wouldn’t go out that way, they’re old-school guys, same generation, and there’s half a season left.”
“I said this a couple of weeks ago, if he wanted to show that he really cared, he would fire Jack and take over the defensive play calling,” JP shot back, “but I agree with you, he's not going to do it.”
Take a listen above as the guys take a deep dive into Bieniemy’s effect on the offense, and how it might translate if he was head coach!
