National Football League

Carson Wentz's return a disaster as Commanders lose to Browns

Updated Jan. 1, 2023 7:23 p.m. ET

LANDOVER, Md. — Ron Rivera was just looking for "a little bit of a spark" when he decided to change quarterbacks.

Instead, that move burned the Washington Commanders' season down.

Rivera's decision to bench Taylor Heinicke and re-insert Carson Wentz turned out to be an enormous disaster on Sunday afternoon. Wentz got off to a horrible start, throwing two quick interceptions, and from there things mostly got worse. Washington's $28.2 million quarterback threw three interceptions, while completing just 16 of 28 passes for 143 yards as the Commanders had their worst offensive showing since Oct. 13 — not coincidentally Wentz's last start, in Chicago.

Most importantly, in a game they absolutely had to win to stay alive in the race for the playoffs, the Commanders lost to the Cleveland Browns 24-10.

And once the Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings late Sunday afternoon, the Commanders’ chase for the playoffs was officially done.

"Not a good one," Wentz said, when asked to describe his performance. "It was not what I had in mind, what we had in mind as a team. It wasn't the performance I envisioned. A lot of stuff I want back."

Mark Schlereth, Adam Amin discuss Commanders' loss to Browns

Carson Wentz was disappointing in his return to the field after missing much of the season, throwing three picks in Washington's 24-10 loss.

Clearly it wasn't what Rivera envisioned either when he made the move he had been hinting at for weeks. He was never particularly comfortable with Heinicke as his quarterback, even though he had won five of his first six starts. The last three — in which the Commanders went 0-2-1 — weren't so good, which gave Rivera the opening to go back to the franchise quarterback he traded for back in March.

It was an unpopular move among the fan base. It probably wasn't all that popular in the locker room either, where the players had spent two months professing their love for the spunky, gritty Heinicke. And the results couldn't have been surprising since the well-rested Wentz looked a lot like he did in his last four starts back in late September and October, when he averaged 210 yards, threw just four touchdowns with three interceptions, and the Commanders offense basically shut down around him, averaging just 11.8 points.

What exactly was Rivera expecting? Even the fans could see what he couldn't. They began booing Wentz when he overthrew his first pass. They started chanting for Heinicke when Wentz was picked off on his second pass on the first drive of the game. Then he was picked off again two drives later, right after he literally bounced a pass to a wide-open Brian Robinson just a few yards away to his right.

By then, the chants of "Hei-nick-e! Hei-nick-e!" were echoing off the empty seats in the corners of FedEx Field.

Who knows if Heinicke could have done much better? He's far from a perfect quarterback. He's not the long-term solution in Washington. But for a while he had some magic going. He was an actual spark for the offense. And the fans wanted to see it again.

Instead, Rivera stuck with Wentz, and there was a brief moment when it all came together. The Commanders put together a brilliant, monster drive in the second quarter, marching 96 yards on 21 plays in 11 minutes and 27 seconds to get a 1-yard touchdown plunge by Wentz on a fourth-and-goal play. Wentz mostly rode the running game on that drive, including Robinson, who carried 11 times for 38 yards. But Wentz did go 4 -or-4 for 49 yards and the offense did have something that resembled a "spark."

"I thought he had his moments," Rivera said. "I thought that drive just before the end of the first half was what we were looking for. We expected him to come out in the third quarter and do it again.

"We just didn't sustain it."

It wasn't all Wentz's fault, of course. The battered defense, playing without injured corner Benjamin St-Juste and injured safety Kam Curl, got picked apart by Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson in the second half for 146 yards and three touchdowns on just six completions. Washington also lost defensive tackle Jonathan Allen to a knee injury in the second quarter, which opened up running lanes for the Browns, who had 146 yards on the ground.

But it's not like the Browns were lighting up the scoreboard. They only had a field goal in the first half. They were only up 10-7 until they scored with 36 seconds left in the third quarter. The game was there for Wentz and the Commanders to take hold of almost all day long.

They never did.

Rivera said he pondered a quarterback change at one point, but apparently not very seriously. He said "I considered it, but then they went up by 14 and I thought for sure we were going to have to throw the ball downfield." But the Browns didn't take a 14-point lead until there was 5:21 left in the game.

So in other words, Rivera had made his decision: He was going to ride Wentz all the way.

And it's really what he wanted. He saw what happened last December when Heinicke was his quarterback and everything fell apart for his team at the end. That's why the Commanders went out and traded for Wentz and absorbed his salary cap hit and gave up the two third-round picks to get him. For all of Wentz's flaws and past failures, Rivera liked his big arm and ability to run an offense. Wentz simply was more of an NFL quarterback than he ever thought Heinicke could be.

Rivera said last week that it would've been "asinine" to make the switch when Heinicke was the "hot hand" — although Wentz was still nursing his broken finger when he was. Once the hotness had worn off, there was never a doubt about what Rivera was going to do.

And for many, there was never a doubt about how that move was going to turn out.

So now the Commanders are right back where they've been for too many years, unsure if they have a franchise quarterback, one who they could trust at that position in an important spot — not that it really matters much anymore.

"It's all outside of my control," Wentz said. "I wish today would've went different. I had a different vision of it, different expectations for myself and the team."

So did Rivera. He wanted a quarterback he could believe in. He just couldn't bring himself to trust Heinicke.

Turns out, he couldn't trust Wentz either.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.