It was a terrible day for Washington’s offense, but head coach Ron Rivera says he will not be making another quarterback change.
Rivera told reporters that as long as Kyle Allen is healthy he will be the starting quarterback next Sunday against the New York Giants.
“If Kyle is ready to go, Kyle will be our starter,” Rivera said about Allen, who left Sunday’s 30-10 defeat to the Los Angeles Rams at FedEx Field in the 2nd quarter with an arm injury.
Rivera added the plan is for Allen to remain the starter and Alex Smith to continue to be the backup.
Despite playing just four drives, Rivera said saw enough from Allen to stick with him.
"I thought Kyle Allen settled pretty well,” Rivera said. “He took us down, we scored a touchdown, we moved the ball, he made some good decisions, and it’s unfortunate that he took the shot that he did. I would have loved to see him finish the game.”
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Alen was named the starter this week after Rivera decided to bench Dwayne Haskins, who was not at FedEx Field becuase he was ill. But a hit to the helmet area from Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey sent Allen to the locker room before the half. Smith, who had not played in the NFL since he suffered a brutal leg injury in November 2018, played quarterback the rest of the way.
The team announced at the start of the second half Allen was cleared to return to the game, but Rivera said he held him out “a little bit of caution.”
“I just thought, why risk putting him out there and taking another big shot that might have caused a little bit of damage?” Rivera said about Allen. “Yes, he was cleared. I took it as I was going to use him only if we needed to put him back out there because I didn’t want to risk taking another shot.”
The head coach said he wanted to put Allen back in, but “If I put him back in and he takes another big shot, now we don’t have him going forward.”
“There was concern on my part,” Rivera added.
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However, no matter who played under center for Washington the offensive production was terrible. Washington passed for just 111 yards with Allen going 9-for-13 for 74 yards and Smith 9-for-17 for 37 yards. And the QB duo was sacked eight times and lost 41 yards.
On the ground, they got no help as Washington had just 38 yards rushing with 27 of them coming from Antonio Gibson on 11 carries. In total, Rivera’s offense managed just 108 yards on 52 plays for a pitiful 2.1 yards per play.
The concern for Smith playing his first game in nearly two years was whether he could take a hit and be alright. Rivera said Smith “handled it very well” when he got hit.
“Well that was good to see, to be honest, cause now you know he can handle it,” Rivera said. “He’s done a great job (to return to play) and its a hell of a story.”