Perhaps the best story of the Week 5 slate was when Alex Smith made his improbable return to the field in relief of an injured Kyle Allen during Washington’s loss to the Rams. Unfortunately for Smith, it looks like he might have to head back to the bench for a bit.
Allen will remain the team’s starter for now if he’s healthy, head coach Ron Rivera said after the game. Allen was cleared by doctors to return on Sunday even though he never did, which would seemingly indicate he’ll be good to go for Week 6. Smith led the team to a field goal right before halftime, but was unable to get anything going in the second half as he was under heavy pressure.
Most importantly it was good to see Smith’s health hold up, especially when he took some big hits from Aaron Donald and co. His final stat line turned out pretty ugly though, as he finished 9/17 for 37 yards while taking six sacks. Despite Washington’s 1-4 start they’re very much in the thick of the abysmal NFC East, especially in the wake of Dak Prescott‘s brutal ankle injury.
Rivera clearly wants to compete for the division, it’s why he benched Dwayne Haskins in the first place, so it’d be somewhat surprising if we don’t see Smith again soon. Allen is a fighter, but his upside isn’t very high and the team’s ceiling is almost certainly higher with a pre-injury Smith if he’s able to return to that form.
Allen was 9/13 for 74 yards with a seven-yard rushing touchdown before a hit from Jalen Ramsey temporarily sidelined him. Washington’s upcoming schedule consists of the Giants, Cowboys, Giants, Lions, Bengals, and Cowboys, so they’ve definitely got some winnable games on the horizon. Meanwhile Haskins has been demoted to third string and is reportedly likely to get traded soon, and with all the drama in this quarterback room it’ll be a very interesting situation to monitor moving forward.
Not a fan of UH QBs.
Cowboys fan here…
Just to see Alex Smith take a snap was incredibly inspiring.
Skins fan here…thanks for being a good human being…we need more of that these days..
I think he should start. Smith could be rusty while Allen just isn’t much better than Haskins
Uhh so they have more confidence in Allen with Smith as provable back up over Haskins?
It’s Washington. Don’t try to make sense of their moves.
Haskins is healthy, but otherwise has no NFL-level abilities.
This NFC East is one of the worst collection of football teams I have ever seen.
Get rid of the Washington from your name. Be the DC Titans or something similar. We from the state of Washington don’t want to explain we are a state on the west coast they are a district in the east.
There’s a bit of an issue with naming two teams in the same league “Titans”. I don’t believe Tennessee would much appreciate it either being as how they had it first and all, ya know?
Actually, Tennessee didn’t have it first. They were the Oilers for at least a season after moving from Houston. They bought the rights to the name “Titans” from the Jets. The Jets had that name until several years before the AFL-NFL merger, I believe. I’m sure I can find the history on Wikipedia, but from personal knowledge, the Jets used to share Shea Stadium with the Mets. They were in the shadow of LaGuardia Airport, hence the name Jets.
Maybe the Washington Football Team could take the same name as their MLS counterpart – DC United.
@compassrose I don’t mind your point about the teams adopting DC as their primary name, but hopefully you know that DC had the Washington part 99 years before the state. If you don’t like explaining the difference, maybe you could change your name instead?
We are a state they are a Dist we have the clout. Seriously why would they name both Washington? When they become a state it will be worse.
As for the name Titans I didn’t even remember Tennessee had the name. I just thought it sounded good. If you want to tie it in with the capital they could be the rattlers or maybe the Vipers. They could be the Raptors. They could be called the boars for hog pen. There are many names.
I wish Houston would have kept their name and colors. The Oilers were rarely good but part of the NFL. Like the name and colors better than the Texans.
Smith is a good story, but he showed that he hasn’t touched a football in 2 years. He shouldn’t be on the field until he gets back some sense of how to play football.
Smith has done his part in rehab so all the blame should be directed at Snyder. Asking Alex to perform against a defense led by Aaron Donald with zero OL support is like asking someone to jump from a plane without a parachute. Shame shame shame!