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How the Commanders Saved Their Season by Not Panicking

Ron Rivera installed Taylor Heinicke as his starting QB and stayed the course everywhere else despite a 1–4 start. Now his team is in playoff contention. Plus, big moves by the Cowboys and Eagles pay off.

A big shift is underway at the game’s most important position for the Commanders—and we’ll get to that in a second—but, interestingly enough, with that going on, Ron Rivera’s leading Washington out of the wilderness is more about staying the course everywhere else than anything else.

Confused? Well, we’ll let Rivera explain why—through a 1–4 start—he wouldn’t waver.

“Even though we got beat, you watched them play and then when you broke the tape down, you went to that little finite mentality that we have as coaches, and we watch certain plays and we say, Goddammit, look how f---ing close we are,” Rivera says.