Much like last week, Dwayne Haskins’ first-half performance against the Carolina Panthers was abysmal.
With three turnovers and an inability to move the football, Washington went to the locker room at halftime trailing 20-3. All of this after a week where the conversation around the team was monopolized by pictures of him breaking COVID protocol that led to questions about his future in Washington and ended his time as team captain.
But at the half, Rivera did not make a change, sticking with Haskins to begin the second half. Why? Well, Rivera told reporters after Washington’s 20-13 loss to Carolina, he was hoping to see marginal improvements from the quarterback in the final two quarters.
“Remember last week, we came out at halftime we moved the ball and put ourselves in position to score,” Rivera said.
The head coach was referring to Haskins’ performance in the third and fourth quarter against Seattle. After a terrible start in that game, the quarterback eventually found his footing and led Washington on two scoring drives, nearly completing a comeback.
Given the somewhat identical display Haskins put out early against the Panthers, Rivera held out with the belief it could happen again, though he did admit that the thought of replacing the quarterback at halftime did cross his mind.
“I did, but as I was thinking about it the one thing I thought was when we came out last week, alright, we were able to move the ball, put points on the board,” Rivera said. “So I was hoping for that same thing.”
The same thing did not happen, as Haskins second half was just like the first. That eventually led to Heinicke entering the contest, as Rivera could no longer wait and see if better play was coming.
‘Well, we didn’t get anything going so I decided to make the change,” Rivera said. “That’s why we made the change.”
