Sam Howell keeps making the same mistakes. Ron Rivera stresses patience

Sam Howell played the entire game against a punishing Buffalo Bills defense on Sunday, returning again and again to the field long after the outcome was settled, for a good reason, according to Ron Rivera: The coach said his young quarterback needs the reps.

More than 24 hours after his team’s first (and worst) defeat of the season — a 37-3 blowout loss — Rivera said Monday that the Commanders will stick with Howell, adding that the quarterback’s struggles were reflective of a player who has only four career starts. 

Against Buffalo, Howell was sacked nine times, threw four interceptions and finished with just 170 yards on 19 of 29 passing. The Commanders expect Howell to grow. But Rivera made clear the Commanders are willing to take the growing pains along the way. 

“Right now, we’re 2-1, Sam’s won three games in four of his starts,” Rivera said when asked what the leash is for Howell. “So we’ll just continue to go from there and see how things go. We kept Sam in because we felt the only way he’s going to grow and get better is to play.” 

In training camp, Rivera and other coaches praised Howell for rarely making the same type of mistake more than once. 

But in the regular season, Howell’s negative plays have fallen into a pattern. The 23-year-old has repeatedly held the ball too long, which has partly led Howell to take a league-high 19 sacks. And those issues have popped up on turnovers — where Howell’s throws can be late, giving the opposing defense time to make a play on the ball. 

Rivera said there are moments when Howell sees “too much” on certain plays. A flashing glimpse of a defender can cause Howell to hold the ball or move off his target before necessary, Rivera said. And that creates missed opportunities. Buffalo defenders picked up on it, too. Bills defensive lineman Jordan Phillips told reporters that Howell has a tendency to hold on to his first read, while edge rusher Leonard Floyd said that any time a quarterback holds the ball longer for 2½ seconds, Buffalo’s defense is “going to be having a party back there.” The Bills feasted on Howell’s inexperience. 

“I do look at this like this is a very young player,” Rivera said of Howell. “Granted, I know he’s a second-year player, but this is his fourth game. And so with that, there is some leniency with that. There is a little bit of growing pains that we’re going to have to deal with … But we’re going to give (him) every opportunity right now and right now we’re riding with them.”

The Commanders are banking on Howell learning from his errors. 

Howell showed growth from Week 1 to Week 2, cutting down on his turnover-worthy plays and getting the ball out faster. Howell said last week he felt like was more decisive in Washington’s win over the Denver Broncos compared to the team’s first game against the Arizona Cardinals. 

But Sunday looked like a step back, with Howell exhibiting some of his worst tendencies. In college, he was one of the most-sacked quarterbacks in his conference. On Sunday, his average time to throw was 2.66 seconds — a season-low — and Howell was sacked on 45% of Buffalo’s pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. His time to throw on pressure plays was 3.3 seconds.

“I’ve just got to do a better job and maybe we can do some things better, and try to limit the sacks,” Howell said. “But yeah, that’s definitely something we have to clean up.”

Not all of Howell’s nine sacks were on the quarterback. 

Washington’s offensive line again struggled to hold blocks and Buffalo was able to generate pressure often with just four pass-rushers — not even having to rely heavily on the blitz. Pro Football Focus, the analytical scouting service, assigned blame to Washington’s line on five of Howell’s nine sacks. 

But according to Pro Football Focus, seven of Howell’s 19 sacks have fallen on the quarterback — the most in the league. 

“He’s just got to continue to learn and grow and get through this,” Rivera said. “This is a guy that’s started and played four games.”