Sam Howell Reveals Feelings After Washington Commanders' Defeat vs. Seattle Seahawks: 'Every Single Loss Hurts'
For as tumultuous as the season has been for the Washington Commanders, they found themselves right on the outside looking in with the NFC playoff picture.
Those bleak chances took a hit on Sunday though, as the Commanders lost 29-26 to the Seattle Seahawks on a game-winning field goal from Jason Myers at Lumen Field. While a loss to a team that presently holds a wild card spot could hurt more than a loss to another team from a standings standpoint, Sam Howell doesn't care who the team loses to.
"I know this is an NFC opponent, and they're having a good year," Howell said. "They're winning football games, so they're obviously in the playoff conversation, but every game we play, we want to win no matter if they're ahead of us [or] behind us. No matter what it is, every single loss hurts, and we try to treat every single game like it's the most important game of the season."
Sam Howell has thrown for over 300 yards in two of his last three games.
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Howell did his part, completing 29 of 44 passes for 312 yards and three touchdowns. The Commanders quarterback threw two game-tying touchdowns in the fourth quarter, the first of which was an 18-yard pass to Antonio Gibson, and the second was a 35-yard pass to Dyami Brown that tied the game at 26-26 with 52 seconds left in the game.
Commanders head coach Ron Rivera praised Howell for his performance, though he noted there are still areas to improve, particularly with taking care of the ball.
"Everything he did, I thought he gave us an opportunity to win,” Rivera said. “That’s the biggest thing you can ask for the quarterback. To put you in a position to win, he did that. Now, there’s a couple of things he’d like to have back, a couple of decisions that could’ve been better, I’m nitpicking, but those are the things that he’s going to learn and get better with. The only big flop you saw was the fumble.”
The playoffs were always an uphill climb, especially after Washington lost five of six games to drop to 3-5 before the trade deadline. But if Howell can keep playing like he has as of late, not all will be lost from this season for the Commanders if they end this year knowing that they've found the right guy under center for the foreseeable future.
