The Washington Commanders turned in a much better performance at Philadelphia than against Buffalo the week prior. In trying to put the finger on what changed, Ron Rivera was asked if that came down to the gameplan – that was "quick game, more running involved," as Kevin Sheehan said – put together by offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy or was it quarterback Sam Howell's decision-making during the game?
Here is how Rivera answered: "I think it was a very big compliment to what they were doing. It was a little bit of both. I think some of the game-planning stuff was outstanding and we really did take advantage of some things that EB was looking for. But then part of it too was the way it was operated. The execution was really good, I thought at times and so I think that really spoke well to the guys practicing, preparing all week coming off of the Buffalo game. I thought the guys came in and had a really good Wednesday,"
Sheehan said Bieniemy had an A+ in his game plan recognizing the Commanders can't be just a drop-back team because they can't protect the quarterback that well and the young quarterback is still learning on the job and they need to make things easier for him and involve the run game more.
On Bieniemy's week-to-week adjustments, the head coach said, "I think a lot of what's happening is everybody's kind of still learning. We're still in that phase... now with the actual games itself, now you know exactly what you got, what you're doing out there and you feel as if everything's coming together. It's really kind of cool to watch because especially last week, I thought in EB's play calling, you could see he's just routin' it off, going from one play to the next, understanding exactly what he wants and how he wants to attack. I mean, it's been really cool to watch."
When Howell was asked about the run-pass balance he had this to say about the playcalling and game plan from Bieniemy on Tuesday: "I think we always want to have more of a balanced attack. I think it's just kind of a flow-of-the-game thing and I think we were running the ball well and we were doing a good job on first and second down that allowed us to continue to keep that balance. I think that's part of EB's plan every week is to try to have balance.
"Every good offense has balance and that's definitely something we want to have and it's just more of how the game is going type of thing. Whether you're running the ball well or not, and if you want to get away from running the ball. It all depends week to week on how the game is going, but I think the plan every week is to have a balanced game plan."
To hear Sheehan's full take on the Commanders' offense and striking the right run-pass balance, hit the audio player above.
