WATCH: Commanders head coach Ron Rivera gives puzzling answer on why he didn’t throw the challenge flag on DeVonta Smith reception

Drew Smith
October 30, 2023
Eagles
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Mistakes were made in yesterday’s 38-31 Philadelphia Eagles victory over the Washington Commanders.

With 5:38 remaining in the third quarter, the Commanders held a 17-10 lead over the Eagles. Jalen Hurts and company were faced with a 4th and 4 from Washington’s 45-yard line.

Hurts found a streaking DeVonta Smith for a 17-yard completion and a first down. However, the reply on television almost blatantly showed that Smitty didn’t actually catch the football.

DeVonta Smith 4th Down Conversion

As many have pointed out, that 4th down catch should have been challenged by Rivera and it would have been over-turned.

Too slow and the Eagles stay on the field to march down for a TD.

Poor coaching costs Washington dearly there. pic.twitter.com/LdbHZffB1B
— Chad Ryan (@ChadwikoTWW) October 29, 2023

Fair and Balanced Journalism: DeVonta Smith didn’t catch that ball

Devonta smith got credited with a catch for this lmaoo pic.twitter.com/DM0VGj4keX
— John (@iam_johnw) October 29, 2023

On the sidelines, the Commanders were jumping up and down waiting on head coach Ron Rivera to throw the red challenge flag. That never happened.

The Eagles hurried everyone up to the line of scrimmage and snapped the ball. Two plays later, Hurts hit AJ Brown on a 25-yard touchdown catch to tie the game 17-17.

AJ Brown Touchdown No. 2

So of course, the question is why did Ron Rivera not challenge the play?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he didn’t. I thought it was coming back for sure when watching the game live and was pretty shocked myself that there was no flag thrown.

Luckily, Rivera gave us one hell of an answer following the game.

Ron Rivera on No Challenge

Ron Rivera never saw the replay of DeVonta Smiths 4th down catch, and that’s why he didn’t challenge pic.twitter.com/jigmtPlBuE
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) October 29, 2023

“I didn’t see it on the screen,” Rivera said via Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post. “I was looking up at the screen to see if there was something that could help me with it. Then I was waiting to hear somebody upstairs on if they had seen it or not. We hadn’t seen the replay, so we weren’t sure. [The Eagles] did their hurry-up, ran up to the line, and snapped the ball. You almost think that in that amount of time, somebody else could have looked at it and saw if it was complete.”

Pretty insane answer given the fact that we are talking about a professional football team in the NFL, right? How don’t the Washington Commanders have someone reviewing literally everything that happens during a game?

At the end of the day, the Eagles are now 7-1 on the season, which is the best record in the NFL. They will host the Dallas Cowboys at 4:25PM at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday.