Pig Pen Podcast: Rams ruin Alex Smith’s return

Alex Smith returning to the football field will go down as the most heartwarming, inspirational moment of the 2020 season. It truly was a really great moment to see. So at least we got that, because the rest of the Washington Football Team’s performance was dreadful.

Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams sits high atop a long list of games in contention for worst games played since the turn of the millennium. Absolutely nothing went right.

Sean McVay and Kevin O’Connell were out for blood in the first half. They made Jared Goff look like an All-Pro and seemingly had the perfect play call no matter how the defense lined up.

Smith entering the game was the clear highlight. But after the tears dried and the emotion of the moment wore off it was very clear why he was listed as the backup to Kyle Allen’s starting spot.

Smith looked like a guy that hadn’t played in nearly two years, which was to be expected. It’s a great story regardless, but a bit ironic that the team from Hollywood was the one to spoil it.

Allen put together one impressive drive capped off with his 7-yard touchdown run. But a hit from Jalen Ramsey kept Allen on the sideline for the rest of the contest, a choice by the coaching staff.

Rivera keeping in Smith as a precaution for Allen is just the latest spot to be crossed off in the “Questionable Decisions” bingo game that is seeming to be played. Anyone that can formulate the calculations to that equation deserves an honorary doctorate degree from your school of choice.

I’ll save the thoughts on criticism of Wes Martin and his performance for the actual podcast. SPOILER ALERT: Not a ton of nice things were said.

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