Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera battles Arians again

This year’s matchup

Less than five years later, Arians and Rivera are facing off once again. Both coaches are heading new franchises, with Arians leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Rivera leading the Washington Football Team.

Rivera’s club this year probably falls somewhere in-between Rivera’s 2014 and 2015 Panthers teams that defeated Arians, in terms of talent.

However, this time around, Arians isn’t rolling out a fourth-string quarterback. He is rolling with future Hall of Famer, and potential G.O.A.T., Tom Brady, who ironically has very similar stats to 2015 Carson Palmer.

Despite all that, don’t believe for one second that Arians is overlooking Rivera and the WFT.

“We don’t see them as a 7-9 team. We see them as a 4-1 team, because every time Alex Smith has played, they went 4-1 and had a plus-three turnover margin. It’s a different team when Alex is playing and we know that. We’re playing that 4-1 team, not that 7-9 team.”

Yes, Smith has been a difference-maker during his time with Washington, as the franchise has gone 11-5 when he starts, versus 6-26 with all other quarterbacks.

However, Smith has been hobbled the last few weeks with a calf injury and hasn’t fully looked like himself on the field.

Rivera has mentioned potentially rotating between Smith and Taylor Heinicke against the Bucs.  So this time, it might be Rivera who is rolling out a fourth-string quarterback.

But regardless of who is starting at quarterback for the Washington Football Team, Rivera has preached time and time again that this team always has a chance. The players have embraced that underdog mentality of playing with house money and doing what nobody thinks is possible.

"You know how the old saying goes: All you need is a chance. And so, that’s what we have is a chance. And it’s interesting because, you know, there’s been a lot of upset victories throughout time. And no bigger or greater upset victory than David versus Goliath. So who knows, we’ll see what happens. That’s why we’ll show up on Saturday night."

After overcoming a 2-7 record to get to the playoffs, the Washington Football Team already proved the doubters wrong. Let’s see if they keep that trend going on Saturday and Rivera can improve his playoff record against Arians to 3-0.