Haskins’ humiliation par for the course in Washington
In the wake of Josh Allen’s 10th NFL start in December 2018, it was observed of the Buffalo Bills’ then-rookie quarterback that he looked overwhelmed in a loss to a New England Patriots team that a season earlier reached the Super Bowl.
Allen completed less than half his 41 pass attempts. He managed one touchdown toss, threw two interceptions.
“He is learning and gaining experience each week,” wrote longtime Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Bills’ beat writer Sal Maiorana, “but he remains a raw, unmolded talent who has been put in a difficult situation because he is surrounded with such incompetence on offence.”
But Allen kept his starting job.
Lucky for Allen — and the now- undefeated Bills, and their fans — that he didn’t get jobbed, which is exactly what happened to Dwayne Haskins this week after just his 11th start at quarterback for a Washington team in as direful a situation as exists in the NFL.
Allen got all 16 starts in 2019, a season that ended in a wild- card loss. And this season, he’s a top- five quarterback in the league, sandwiched between Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes in a few key measurements.
Haskins not only was benched Wednesday, but was doused with humiliation to boot — either by owner Daniel Snyder, whose franchise has the NFL’S fifth- worst winning percentage over his 21- plus seasons, or by Snyder’s newest coach, Ron Rivera. How else can you describe being dropped to third on the depth chart behind the unremarkable Kyle Allen and Alex Smith, who is remarkably recovered from what was a life- threatening injury?
Neither Haskins, his teammates nor whatever fans remain of this all but moribund franchise deserved what just happened. Consider: Last Sunday, Haskins only passed for more than 300 yards for the first time. He didn’t manage a touchdown throw against a Ravens’ defence that is the fourth stingiest in the game, but he didn’t turn over the football either, facing a pass defence featuring two of the best cornerbacks in the league.
Furthermore, Haskins answered his coach’s challenge, after Rivera announced going into the Ravens’ game that Haskins needed to bounce back from what may have been his worst outing, a loss at Cleveland during which he was picked off three times. So Haskins completed 32 of 45 passes for a 90.4 passing rate, his best of the season and third highest of his career. He ran for a score against the Ravens, too. All it earned him was a demotion two rungs down, which meant one thing for certain: He was lied to by either Snyder or Rivera.
That is potentially the most damaging outcome from the sidelining of the 21st starting quarterback
for this team in the 21st century. It raised the spectre in the locker- room of the new coach’s honesty. After all, if you meet his demands only to be relegated, how can you maintain trust in him going forward?
Rivera said he pulled the plug on Haskins because the NFC East is so bad that he thinks this team, a mere 3-13 a year ago, has a chance to steal enough wins to make the playoffs. Well, if that is the case, why didn’t he play to win against the Ravens rather than use the sort of test normally reserved for the pre-season?
For on a fourth quarter fourth and goal at the Baltimore 13- yard line, Rivera opted not for a short kick to potentially cut the lead to two scores. Instead, he ordered Haskins to run a play as a test of the quarterback’s “situational awareness.” Haskins didn’t get the ball into the end zone and failed Rivera’s pop quiz. Hence,
Haskins was deemed unfit to continue as a starter.
In his first 10 starts, Josh Allen completed 48.8 per cent of his passes with seven TDS and 11 interceptions. Even before Haskins finally broke the 300- yard mark last Sunday, he had completed 58.2 per cent of his attempts for 11 TDS against six picks over his first 10 starts. Buffalo was 4- 6 in Allen’s first 10 starts. In its first 10 games under Haskins, Washington went 3-7. That one game evidently made the difference.
“I felt like we had four games if we could come out 2- 2, I could stay with Dwayne,” Rivera explained. “But we’re 1- 3. Watching the games, Dwayne needs some more work. With the division is where it is right now, I’d be stupid not to try to put the ball in the hands of someone who’s been in the system and a guy who knows it.”
Never mind that Haskins doesn’t play defence for a side that surrendered 30 points or more in each of the past three outings, all of which resulted in losses. Never mind that only four quarterbacks have been sacked more than Haskins, who is playing behind an offensive line rated 25th going into the Ravens game by Pro Football Focus. Never mind that Haskins doesn’t have veteran running back Adrian Peterson anymore, although rookie running back Antonio Gibson is proving to be a find, and that he doesn’t have a reliable veteran receiver teamed with emergent Terry Mclaurin.