The Commanders benched quarterback Sam Howell for veteran Jacoby Brissett in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Rams.
But while Brissett provided a clear spark and tossed two touchdown passes to make things interesting, head coach Ron Rivera said after the game that Howell remains Washington’s QB1.
“Well, [we were] just really trying to take care of him a little bit,” Rivera said in his postgame press conference. “He got into a situation and then the ears pinned back like that. Didn’t want to see anything crazy.”
The Rams were up 28-7 when Howell was replaced. He finished the game 11-of-26 for 102 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Rivera said it was his decision to bench Howell.
“I think it’s more of just a game flow. It is one of those things you get to this point and when teams are just putting their ears back,” Rivera said. “And we got a lot of faith that Jacoby is for us.”
Brissett rewarded that faith by going 8-of-10 for 124 yards with two touchdown passes. The Commanders could have made things more interesting by scoring faster when they got the ball down to the 1-yard line on Brissett’s second drive. But even after reaching the 1-yard line with 4:47, they didn’t score again until there was 1:46 left in the contest.
Rivera noted Brissett did some “veteran” things with the offense.
“You saw some of the decisions he made were very quick and he got rid of the ball quickly,” Rivera said.
But it will still be Howell behind center when the Commanders play the Jets in Week 16.