Soap Opera: QB Haskins Benched As Panthers Handle WFT, 20-13
The NFL isn't just sports; it's also a soap opera, a fact that helps intensify and dramatizes the entertainment value of it all. But even a soap opera is dictated by a script - and that's where this Washington Football Team show went "improv,'' and faced a threat of cancelation.
The original script? WFT coach Ron Rivera was to spend Sunday's Week 16 at FedExField facing the Carolina Panthers, the franchise that fired him last year after nine seasons of service.
Would you not be entertained?
“I don’t want this to be people thinking this is a revenge game,” Rivera said coming in. "We have a chance to get into the playoffs, and that’s why we want to go out and give ourselves the best chance of winning.”
Oh, but it was a 'Revenge Game.'' And it was also a "Dan Snyder Sex-Scandal Game'' and a "Dwayne Haskins Strip-Club Game,'' and toss in the 2020 season's COVID challenges and Rivera's fight against cancer and the opportunity for WFT to clinch the NFC East with a victory and help, and ...
You would be entertained. Kinda.
Carolina 20, WFT 13 stalls Washington at 6-9, now needing a Week 17 win to reach its goal. Even when WFT was 1-3, Rivera was still talking playoffs. Maybe the talk was fueled by the ineptitude of the division.
Or maybe the talk was fueled by Rivera's commitment to converting Washington into a team - and a city - of believers.
It is challenging, however, to believe in Haskins - and thus, the soap opera. No Alex Smith, his strained right calf not allowing him to play, meant the 36-year-old QB watched as immature hero-turned-has-been-turned-"have-to-start-him'' Haskins, heavy with COVID/strip-club fines but lighter without the "C'' on his chest, would be required to survive.
He did not.
Haskins (14 of 28, 154 yards and two interceptions) was tugged from the game with in the second half, having pushed WFT to just six points. WFT was down 20-6 when Taylor Heinicke entered.
Heinicke (12 of 19 for 137 yards) had a TD pass dropped and one called back because of penalty, before he later found J.D. McKissic (eight catches, 77 yards) for a 29-yard scoring toss, closing the gap to seven with just 1:50 left.
But the drama had run out. No more soap opera at FedExField ... just more soap opera in the front office and in the locker room as Washington works to figure out what to with its QB room (even if Alex Smith starts next week) and what do to to beat the Eagles next week in order to clinch.
