they didn't want you anymore is there any bitterness there Ron
know I did the best I could and when you know when it was time
to move on David Tepper treat me with tremendous dignity and
respect
he really did he gave me an opportunity to say goodbye and
I really appreciated that and was really kind of cool when we
play them here he did he did a Rivera strong as well so yeah
I got my respect for what what what he's doing
there right now what they're trying to do in terms of their
rebuild as well but there is there is no bitterness I mean
it if there is anything it's just you just missed the folks
in the friends we had in Charlotte
Ron Rivera with the very reasonable and calm answer even
though the question you're trying to Stir It Up a little
bit they basically told you to pack your stuff and get
the hell out of here you suck what do you have to say he's
got such a great calm demeanor about him and that's why he's
you know been a really damn good coach for a long time and
again I think he understands the business he's seen all
angles of it it was a player this time comes at all times
or everybody is the most humbling sport in the world as
far as that's concerned and he's on to the next challenge
is grateful for that and he's have enough things to worry
about with his own Washington football team and getting them
in the right place and
I'll let alone worrying about in the past and what happened
in Carolina
they got that victory over the Buccaneers on Sunday that has
maybe given the Washington football team a little bit of
a kick in the butt and now Ron Rivera not only goes back to
Carolina but he goes back to face a quarterback that he
probably didn't
think would be playing crazy Carolina anymore and Rivera
told me on Sunday he's got his vial of plays to be used
against Cam Newton if he ever comes across Cam Newton again
I'm sure he never expected to come across Cam Newton in Bank
of America America
Stadium in Charlotte but it's looking like it will indeed be
Cam Newton starting here is Panthers coach Matt rhule from
yesterday admitting that it is trending toward Cam Newton over
PJ Walker as the starter week 11 when Washington and Ron
Rivera come to town
I think we're probably training that way to be quite honest
with you I just you know you got a lot going to not going to
probably pull that trigger till later but I think that you left
them at those pretty transparent today so if you do
want to know who won do push him I think into that I think
it's good for team but you know we're getting pizza
ready as well and I think as I said and I think game playing
wise we can go we could we could see him because he
married a different things happen
and this is what fascinated me and you've talked at length
about how the NFL may be catching up to the Joe Brady
offense and disbelief that they're spending their time
teaching Cam Newton the Joe Brady off and I think they need
to be teaching Joe Brady
to Cam Newton offense but at the same time you have a guy
coming to town that knows Cam Newton better than anyone in
the NFL does and that anyone in the NFL ever will nine years
with Cam Newton from the day he was drafted that's when
Ron Rivera got Cam Newton their careers in Carolina identical
they arrived at the same year they left the same year so
this is a hell of a challenge for Matt rhule and Joe Brady to
come up with their approach to use Cam Newton when they're
just getting acquainted with him when the guy that's going
to be defending the Cam Newton offense knows him
as well as he possibly could be a fascinating wrinkle to this
definitely isn't Ron Rivera having a defense of background
and all that yeah I'm sure he's he's going to have some good
ideas on how to defend maybe some of the the power Run game
stuff
that Cam Newton does certainly it probably has a good feel for
what routes can likes to throw or he'll sit on this route to
long and not move on to the next 3 or whatever yeah he's
going to have some knowledge there but I don't think
it should like you know did deter deter deter deter when
I was right. You're not stop not deterred the Carolina I think
coaching staff from kind of approaching at the way you said
we're yeah we got our offense and we got our stuff
we do here but you know let's Infuse some of the Cam Newton
stuff that he does well and that gives us a Advantage you
know where are complete football team again I think
that's where I just look at Carolina right now and I think
we're
past the point of thinking like well their offense is going to
get it back together and they're going to start throwing
the ball all over the lot and look like the team they did
early in the year. That's that's not going to happen that
ship so
you know sailed and gone no but what they can do is with
McCaffrey back the Cam Newton runs physical running
the football with McCaffrey and occasional shot down the field
to DJ Morin Robby Anderson view screen passes to them some
quick passes them McCaffrey out of
the backfield where they can play Power football and still
be dangerous and make you defend the whole field and more
importantly pie through their defense which is their defense
is great it's a great defense it really is you know their
biggest issue is that is like
we talked about with a lot even like the Carolina Panthers
defense is number six in football to me it's better than
that really is but you know it's the old thing we always
talk about man that just they have to be on the field a
whole lot there for a bunch of weeks because their offense was
so stinky so I think you're going to see more of a complete
team complementary approach from Carolina here on out and
I think it speaks to like what you're saying with like Joe
Brady learning
the cat the Cam Newton offense and infusing that into his game
plan with just a little bit of what he does to add to it as in
Joe Brady that makes sense to me at least
and everybody in the nfc's alive except the Lions very
much a lot and this is a huge game for Washington if they
want to pull their way into a Chase for maybe a seven-seat
obviously the NFC East title is as a practical matter Out Of
Reach
but they could still get a wild-card in the Panthers and
play for a wildcard in these games where you see that
the NFC contenders for 567 C Crossing each other pads that's
going to help sort all this out as we get closer and closer to
determining
who's going to get a spot in the playoff tree with both of
these teams are alive and this game went from being just kind
of one of those games you brush past to being a very compelling
game on Sunday when Washington and Carolina get together at
1 Eastern another game that will be very compelling on Sunday