It’s been a rough week for Carson Wentz, but he was a winner despite it all on Thursday.
He also got some fierce support from his head coach.
Not long after Wentz helped his Commanders to a 12-7 win over the Bears, Ron Rivera delivered an impassioned defense of his quarterback while underscoring that he was fully behind trading for the QB.
“Everybody wants to keep saying I didn’t want to do anything with Carson, well bull—-,” Rivera said Thursday night at his postgame news conference. “I’m the f—— guy that pulled out the sheets of paper, that looked at the analytics, that watched the tape, and the freaking when we were in Indianapolis. OK. And that’s what pisses me off, because the young man doesn’t deserve to have that all the time. I’m sorry, I’m done.”
With that, Rivera stormed off the podium and abruptly ended his postgame presser with an exclamation point.
Wentz never left Thursday’s game, though. Not because of a biceps strain or a hand injury or an ankle ailment.
Prior to the game, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported Wentz, who was at the center of some comments from Rivera on Monday that caused a stir, was starting against the Bears despite a biceps tendon strain. In the first half, he appeared to have banged up his hand when he hit it against defensive lineman Justin Jones’ hand. In the second half, he was getting his ankle rewrapped. But he kept going.
After the win, Wentz underwent X-rays, NFL Network’s Mike Giardi reported, but the quarterback said he would be “OK.”
“It’s a little sore,” Wentz said of his hand. “I think I’ll be alright. I hit it on a helmet. I don’t know what it was, second quarter maybe. The chilly conditions didn’t necessarily help the jammed fingers. It was all right.”
This wasn’t exactly a storybook ending to an arduous week for Wentz, however. Although the Commanders won, Wentz struggled, with just 99 yards passing. He completed 12 of 22 passes with no touchdowns, no interceptions and a 66.3 passer rating.
His biggest highlight was probably emblematic of a week in which his toughness playing through injuries and weathering a media storm was at the forefront.
On the Commanders’ lone touchdown drive of the night, Wentz delivered a huge block to Bears standout linebacker Roquan Smith that sent the latter to the Soldier Field sod. With running back Brian Robinson running to the right side, Wentz cracked back on Smith, lowered his left shoulder, delivered a block to Smith’s chest and sat him down.