“It’s hard to play when you know your coach is gone,” said former Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley as a guest on the “Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast Friday.
Indeed the Commanders have now lost five of their last six games. In their last game, the defense at times offered no resistance.
“I didn’t feel like they were going to fire Jack Del Rio this week,” Cooley said. “I didn’t know or have an expectation that they were going to fire Ron Rivera this week. I am just telling you, you have a dead coach, and you just don’t play well. Go back to the Jim Zorn era, the end of (Jay) Gruden and (Bill) Callahan.”
Cooley said he has noticed that the first time out, a team often will play much better after a coach has been fired. He said he thought Washington would play better this week against Miami and then suggested, “If you want a better draft spot, you keep Ron Rivera in place.”
The former Washington Redskins radio analyst then joked, “I really don’t care if they make Craig Hoffman the coach, they are going to win the next game if they hire an interim head coach.”
Sheehan was in stitches at this point. Cooley added (you could imagine him smiling), “It was the first name I came up with.”
Cooley said he recognized players had been repeatedly trying to say the right things the last few weeks. He said when they say things like, “The players just have to do better,” or “It is just not working,” or “Something has to change,” that it was a clear indictment of the coaches.
Cooley pointed out how Rivera insisted that soon after last season, they were committed to running the football as their main identity and controlling the clock.
Then they hired Eric Bieniemy and threw the ball more times than anyone else in the league, and with a rookie quarterback.
“Rivera had this identity, he declared, and then he did a complete 180,” Cooley said.
“If I am Del Rio at this point, I am saying, “We went from a top-10 defense to 30th in part because we throw the ball on every down. Both sides of the ball affect both sides of the ball. I am by no means making an excuse for Del Rio or the big plays they give up. But at the same time, it doesn’t help.”
“I am almost blown away that Ron Rivera fell into that ‘OK, we will just do this now.’ You would think a guy that’s been around as long as he has would have said, ‘No, this is what I want. If this is going to be my last year, I am going out doing what I want to do.'”
“If it is my last year as head coach and I am resigned to my fate, or at least I think I am, I am going down swinging the way I want to go down swinging.”
