Ron Rivera’s viral postgame exactly what Commanders fans have been asking for

The Washington Commanders beat the Chicago Bears on Thursday night to improve to 2-4 on the season. The season is saved, for the moment, but the win didn’t do much to inspire confidence in fans as Washington needed several Bears mishaps — including five blown trips deep in the red zone — to squeak out the victory

Thursday was an absolute whirlwind for the Commanders. William Jackson reportedly demanded a trade and ESPN published a bombshell report revealing Dan Snyder has gathered dirt on fellow NFL owners and Roger Goodell should the league push him to sell the team.

Lost in all of that was the fact ESPN reported it was Snyder who advocated for Washington to trade for Carson Wentz, seemingly implying that Ron Rivera, who unintentionally threw Wentz under the bus earlier in the week, didn’t want the quarterback as much has been led on.

After Thursday’s win, Rivera was asked plenty about Snyder and the head coach vehemently defended his team.

"“The truth of the matter is it’s not important to me. What’s important to me are the guys in the room,” an animated Rivera said. “That’s been something I’m trying to establish. I’m trying to get beyond all this stuff on the outside that’s noise as far as I’m concerned."

That was only the start. When Rivera was asked about Snyder’s desire for a “marquee” quarterback, the head coach exploded.

Commanders’ Ron Rivera loudly refutes report that the Carson Wentz trade was a Dan Snyder move.

What’s that, now? A little fire from the Commanders’ head coach? This is exactly what fans have been clamoring for for years.

"“What’s important is these guys. I’m going to speak my mind for a second,” Rivera added. “Honestly, it’s been hard. It really has. You lose four games in a row and everyone wants to get on you. They’ve played their asses off. They really have. They’ve played their asses off for everybody. They come out, they show up, they work hard, they don’t complain. They hear all of this stuff and they have to deal with it. I respect them for it because they’re resilient and they come back.”“Everybody keeps wanting to say I didn’t want anything to do with Carson. Well, bull—-. I’m the [expletive] guy that pulled out the sheets of paper, that looked at the analytics, that watched the tape when we were in Indianapolis. That’s what pisses me off because the young man doesn’t deserve to have that all the time.”"

That was when Rivera stormed out of the room, perhaps to address his team with a fiery postgame speech. After picking up his first win in Soldier Field as a head coach, Jon Allen, who added an interception to his Pro Bowl resume on Thursday, gifted Rivera with the game ball in an awesome scene.

Does Rivera’s heated defense of Wentz ring hollow after his viral “quarterback” comments earlier in the week? Maybe a little, but it was still great to see this side of two-time Coach of the Year. We’ve talked about a lack of urgency and accountability regarding the head coach. While those are still concerns, this unexpected explosion definitely helped Rivera win back a lot of respect from fans.

An ugly win and one fiery postgame doesn’t fix everything, but you definitely get a greater appreciation for what Rivera does in terms of navigating off-field issues and rallying the locker room when reports like the Snyder bombshell drop out of nowhere hours before a season-defining game.

As you can see in the game ball video, the locker room is in great spirits and seemingly loves playing for its head coach. That’s a pretty big deal.