“Riverboat Ron” is Sailing Towards the Waterfall

Fans were desperate for something positive to latch onto after almost a half-decade of pure disappointment.

In the years prior to Rivera’s hiring, Washington fans had watched the rise of Kirk Cousins, giving them a playoff birth in 2015, the first since Robert Griffin III’s career was ruined by his knee injuries. Fans watched as Cousins then walked away in free agency a few seasons later. When Cousins’ replacement, Alex Smith went down with a gruesome leg injury that almost ended his life, Washington started six different quarterbacks over the course of a mere two seasons. Fans watched as Jay Gruden started 0-5 in 2019 and was then fired after the abysmal start, and after two measly playoff births since 2008, fans were desperate for something good to watch.

Enter Ron Rivera. Washington also fired longtime GM Bruce Allen, a move that many fans felt was long overdo. The team changed its name, leaving the Washington Redskins behind and instead deciding to start a new era of Washington football with a brand new name. It couldn’t really get much worse for Washington, and fans were thankful that a fresh start had finally happened. A new coach, and new GM, and a new name was exactly what this franchised needed to get back on track.

Rivera’s first season in Washington did nothing but add more hype and excitement for the future.

In 2020, Riverboat Ron lead the Washington Football Team to a 7-9 record, a definite improvement from 3-13, and while it was still a losing season, fans were happy to see improvement. However, the real reason that the 2020 season was such a point of excitement was that since the NFC East was so bad that year, the Football Team somehow managed to win the division with a losing record, becoming only the third team in the 16-game era to make the playoffs with more losses than wins. There was plenty of reason to be excited for the future in Washington.

There were many, many small but wonderful victories for Washington over the course of the 2020 season.

For starters, Washington had the 4^th best team defense, according to Pro Football Reference. The defense singlehandedly kept them in games, not allowing a single team to score more than 20 points after week 11. The Football Team started 2-7 but won five of their last seven games. Washington fans know just how many bright spots there truly were that season. They destroyed the Cowboys 41-16 on Thanksgiving in Dallas, a fantastic win and truly a great feeling to humiliate their arch-rivals. In week 14, a few weeks later, they handed the Steelers their first loss of the season, stunning Pittsburgh 23-17 and starting the downfall of the Steelers that season. Despite losing by a combined 64 points in the first five losses of the season, the Football Team rallied down the stretch and gave fans something to cheer for.

The list of positives don’t end there, however. In a season full of COVID-19 and empty stadiums, Washington was still able to rise above the  difficulties that the pandemic presented and give football-desperate fans something good to watch. Let’s not forget also that Ron Rivera overcame cancer as well. Washington was able to persevere through its head coach battling with cancer, a global pandemic and empty stadiums, and name-change controversy, all to make the playoffs despite a losing record. Washington lost to the eventual Super Bowl champs in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild card round, but that really didn’t matter. What mattered is that there was hope, and Washington fans were excited to see how Rivera and Washington would build off of this first, successful season.

But this is where things start to come off the rails.

Going into the 2021 season, the Football Team made a plethora of moves to try to improve the team. Alex Smith won Comeback Player of the year in 2020 and deservingly so, and retired shortly after the season ended. Washington had released Dwayne Haskins after it was abundantly clear that Haskins was a bust. Washington needed a quarterback, and while it liked Taylor Heinicke after a solid performance against the Bucs in the wildcard round of the playoffs, they viewed him as a good backup. As a result, Washington turned to QB Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Coming off an overall successful stint with the Miami Dolphins, Ryan Fitzpatrick seemed to be a great answer for Washington. A gunslinger quarterback that would give Washington the big play potential it needed after Washington ranked as the 30^th total offense in 2020 according to StatMuse. They also signed WR Curtis Samuel from the Carolina Panthers, WR DeAndre Carter from the Chicago Bears, and WR Adam Humphries from the Tennessee Titans, giving Washington some much-needed receiving help. Along with the additions of rookie LB Jamin Davis and the highest paid free agent acquisition of the offseason for Washington in CB William Jackson, Washington looked ready to take that next step forward.

But it never happened.

In the very first game of the 2021 season, Ryan Fitzpatrick suffered a hip injury that ended up being his career-ending injury. I wrote about the struggles of the 2021 team here, but long story short the defense, and pretty much everything else for that matter, left so much to be desired. Washington’s 2021 defense was horrible, ranking 29^th in the league against the pass, 25^th in the league in scoring defense, and 32^nd in the league in third down conversion percentage, allowing opponents to convert 111 third downs.

The defense was bad, really bad. The offense jumped up from 30^th to 21^st in the league, but it was not good enough to win games on its own. The defense deserves a chunk of the blame for Washington’s recent failure, but Ron Rivera has had his own long list of reasons to blame for Washington’s failures.

Let’s go over some of Rivera’s miscues

First off, Rivera’s decision-making has been extremely poor. River was called Riverboat Ron for his aggressive decisions such as going for it on 4th and short, however the decisions that Riverboat Ron made proved to be just downright stupid. Bad two point conversion decisions, poor game management and so many more issues have plagued this team. Rivera’s decision to stick with OC Scott Turner and DC Jack Del Rio have proved to be ill-advised decisions. Specifically, the decision of sticking with Del Rio after the defense was atrocious last year and off to a horrible start this year has not been the best, at leas that is the way it looks so far.

The decision to draft Jamin Davis instead of Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah looks bad. The decisions to constantly sign former Carolina Panthers rather than going out and getting a veteran player to fill a whole looks bad. The decision to keep Del Rio after last season looks bad. And finally, the bad decisions in the actual football games themselves is the cherry on top.

In summary, bad coaching decisions, mediocre draft decisions, and subpar free-agency decisions have all contributed to Rivera’s falling out with the fans.

Rivera is 15-21 so far in Washington, and fans are at their breaking point. Washington is only 1-2 so far this season, but some fans have already given up on Riverboat Ron. Riverboat Ron is sailing towards the waterfall, and if Washington can not turn it around soon, we’ll be looking at a brand new head coach for the Washington Commanders in 2023.