The Washington Post - USA (2020-10-20)

D2 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2020

TELEVISION AND RADIO WORLD SERIES 8 p.m. Game 1: Tampa Bay vs. Los Angeles Dodgers » WTTG (Ch. 5), WBFF (Ch. 45), WSBN (630 AM) SOCCER 3 p.m. CAF Confederation Cup, semifinal: Horoya vs. Pyramids » beIN Sports 6:15 p.m. Copa Libertadores, Group G: Delfín at Olimpia » beIN Sports 8 p.m. Concacaf League, preliminary round: Verdes vs. Arcahaie FC » Fox Sports 2 8:30 p.m. MLS: FC Dallas at Nashville SC » Fox Sports 1 8:30 p.m. Copa Libertadores, Group C: Athletico-PR at Peñarol » beIN Sports 10 p.m. Concacaf League, preliminary round: Managua vs. CD FAS » Fox Sports 2 TENNIS 5 a.m. WTA: Ostrava Open, early rounds; ATP: European Open and Cologne Championships, early rounds » Tennis Channel 3 a.m. (Wednesday)

WTA: Ostrava Open, early rounds; ATP: European Open and Cologne Championships, early rounds » Tennis Channel KOREA BASEBALL ORGANIZATION 5:30 a.m. LG at KT » ESPN2

SOCCER

MLS unveils initiatives

to boost racial equality

M LS announced initiatives
Monday to combat racism,
advocate for social justice and
increase diversity in soccer.
The league said the programs
came after several months of
discussions with key league
stakeholders, including a recent
meeting between the MLS board
of governors and Black Players
for Change, an independent
organization of more than 170
MLS players, coaches and staff
members aimed at confronting
racial inequality.
MLS Commissioner Don
Garber will sit on a new
diversity committee consisting of
members of the MLS board,
representatives of Black Players
for Change, club executives,
coaches, former players and
members of Pitch Black, a
resource group of Black
employees from the MLS office.
The committee will work with
the league to develop a strategy
to encourage diversity, inclusion,
opportunity and social justice.
“Major League Soccer is
committed to utilizing our wide-
ranging platforms to create

meaningful programs to address racism and social injustice in society and in the sport of soccer,” Garber said in a statement.... A nthony Fontana scored his sixth goal in eight games as the Philadelphia Union earned a 2-1 win over the New England Revolution i n Foxborough, Mass.... J ust one goal across two games — and that being a fortunately deflected effort to give Wolves a 1-0 win at L eeds — ended the English Premier League’s offensive outburst. After host West Brom and Burnley fought to the league’s first goalless draw in its 47 th match, Wolves edged to victory at Elland Road thanks to Raul Jimenez’s second-half shot from the edge of the penalty area that ricocheted in off the bowed head of Leeds midfielder Kalvin Phillips in the 70 th minute.

HOCKEY Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike Emrick announced his retirement a fter almost 50 years behind the microphone. The man affectionately known as “Doc” for his doctorate in communications spent the past 15 years as the voice of the NHL

in the United States. Emrick, 74 , called 22 Stanley Cup finals and six Olympics since working his way up from the minors in the 1970 s and did the most recent NHL playoffs remotely from his home in Michigan with his wife, Joyce, and dogs nearby.... The Colorado Avalanche agreed to a one-year deal with restricted free agent Tyson Jost. The 22-year-old forward scored eight goals and had 15 assists in 67 games for the Avalanche in 2019 -20.... The Arizona Coyotes signed forward Christian Fischer to a two-year contract. The 23-year- old was a restricted free agent after finishing with six goals and three assists in 56 games with the Coyotes last season.

COLLEGES Purdue football coach Jeff Brohm announced that he has contracted the novel coronavirus and will not be on the sideline for Saturday’s season opener at home against Iowa. Offensive coordinator Brian Brohm will replace his older brother and will continue calling plays.... Adrian Martinez turned back a challenge from Luke McCaffrey to win the starting quarterback job for Nebraska’s

opener at No. 5 Ohio State, Coach Scott Frost said.... Michigan State linebackers Luke Fulton and Charles Willekes were suspended indefinitely after being charged with assault early last month.... No. 22 Marshall scheduled a Nov. 7 home game against Massachusetts. Marshall h ad three other games called off because of the pandemic.... R ichmond men’s basketball guard Nick Sherod will miss the coming season after tearing his right ACL during practice, Coach Chris Mooney said. The senior, who let the Spiders with 7 8 three-pointers last season, was injured Thursday, a day after the team’s first official practice.... William & Mary plans to reinstate three women’s sports — swimming, volleyball and gymnastics — that had been targeted for disbandment.

AUTO RACING NASCAR cleared Kyle Larson to return in 2021, ending his suspension for using a racial slur while playing a r acing game. Larson was suspended in April after he used the n-word while playing an online v ideo game in which viewers could follow along. He was dropped by his

sponsors and fired by Chip Ganassi Racing. Larson, who is half-Japanese, spent the past six months immersed in diversity programs. “The work I’ve done over the last six months has had a major impact on me. I will make the most of this opportunity and look forward to the future,” Larson said.... Justin Haley will return to Kaulig Racing for a third season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

MISC. Phil Mickelson will team up with Charles Barkley to face Stephen Curry and Peyton

Manning in an exhibition golf match next month highlighting diversity, equality and inclusion. “The Match: Champions for Change” will take place Nov. 27 at Stone Canyon Golf Club in Oro Valley, Ariz.... Steve Johnson upset former U. S. Open champion Marin Cilic, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, to reach the second round of the Cologne Championships in Germany.... World champion cyclist Julian Alaphilippe had successful surgery on his right hand following his season- ending crash at the Tour of Flanders. — From news services

DIGEST

FROM NEWS SERVICES AND STAFF REPORTS

The NFL could fine the Tennes- see T itans for violations of coronavirus protocols cited in a review by the league and the NFL Players Association. But the league will not strip the team of any draft picks, force it to forfeit any games or discipline any officials, coaches or players, a person familiar with the f indings said Monday. The NFL and NFLPA completed their review of t he n ovel c oronavi- rus outbreak on the Titans, in which 24 members of the organization have tested positive for the virus since Sept. 24. The team’s training facility was closed for 11 days and two games involving the Titans were rescheduled. The review concluded there were issues with the Titans’ com- pliance with protocols requiring mask-wearing within the team facility, a ccording t o the p erson w ith knowledge of the findings. The review cites gatherings of individ- uals without masks in certain a reas in the facility. The review by the NFL and NFLPA also concludes there was “insufficient communication” by the team to players about gatherings and workouts away from the team facility, a ccording to the p erson familiar with the findings. Some Titans players reportedly gathered for off-site workouts while t he t eam’s f acility was closed during the o utbreak. The violations cited in the findings could form the b asis for a f ine of the team by the NFL. But the league has not made a decision about a fine, the person with knowledge of t he c ase s aid. The review said t he Titans were fully cooperative and devoted ex- tensive work and resources t o pre- paring the t eam’s f acility. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said last week that the focus of the investigation by the league and players’ union was safety, not discipline. He p revious- ly had written in a memo to all NFL t eams t hat any protocol violations resulting in adjustments to the schedule or affecting other teams could result in forfeits of games or the loss of draft p icks. — Mark Maske T he Titans are going to have to finish this season without left tackle Taylor Lewan, who has a torn right ACL. Lewan s aid on social media that an MRI exam confirmed he tore the ligament in the Titans’ overtime win o ver H ouston on S unday. l TRADE: The New York Jets agreed t o terms o f a trade t hat will send nose tackle Steve McLendon to the Tampa B ay B uccaneers. Tampa Bay also acquired New York’s 20 23 seventh-round draft pick for the Buccaneers’ sixth- rounder i n 2022. The deal, which was agreed upon Sunday night, reunites McLendon with Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, who was the Jets’ head coach from 20 15 to 2018. McLendon will add depth to Tampa Bay’s defensive line, which lost nose tackle Vita Vea to a s eason-ending broken a nkle O ct. 8. — Associated Press

NFL NOTES

Titans may

face fines

for protocol

violations

going to play, now it starts taking hold of who they are.” His goals remain to win n ow, to change a culture and to set up the franchise to win later on. “Well, we are making progress,” Rivera said. “I don’t know if we have all the pieces. I do think we have some guys that are more than capable of winning, and it’s a matter of having enough of those guys. It’s also a matter of having the mentality, of understanding what it takes to win. What do you have to do to win? How do you have to play to win?... T he thing I like is just the fact that we have a lot of young guys playing right now, and this is their opportunity to learn and grow together.” [email protected]

Rookie wide receiver Isaiah Wright was injured late in the fourth quarter, but his prognosis is not yet clear. If he’s out, too, the team will be down to three wide receivers o n the active roster: Ter- ry McLaurin, Dontrelle Inman and Cam Sims. Yet Rivera seems undeterred. His plan is to trust his gut, be it in the final seconds of a close game or over the course of the next couple of years. “When you start looking back and you start second-guessing yourself, you get into a situation of, ‘Oh, should I or shouldn’t I?’ And sometimes you freeze yourself,” he said Monday. “But to me, if the players know that’s what we’re going to do and how we’re

own doing with two costly turn- overs. The team has 10 giveaways this season, tied for the fourth most entering Monday’s games. Making matters worse is that players Rivera views as possible building blocks for the future suffered injuries that are likely to sideline them for weeks, accord- ing to people familiar with the situation. Rookie lineman S aahdiq Charles, who made his NFL debut at left guard Sunday, suffered a dislocated kneecap after only two snaps and won’t be able to return until after the team’s Week 8 bye at the earliest. Rookie wide receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden suffered a ham- string injury that will force him to miss at l east a few weeks.

But after a Week 4 loss to Balti- more, t he emphasis became about winning and winning now. Haskins was abruptly benched and the focus was on the tight race for the NFC East, with Washing- ton facing a four-game stretch that included three divisional matchups. “I’m taking a shot at the short term for the short-term glory,” Rivera said at t he time. But after Washington’s 20-19 loss to the previously winless Gi- ants, it’s fair to wonder whether his plan is sustainable with Wash- ington’s p ersonnel. After shuffling the lineup along the offensive line and in the secondary, and with Allen making his second start, Washington again fell short by its

the way we need to do things. This
is our way.’ That, to me, is impor-
tant.”
It’s possible Rivera can have
both. Throughout training camp
and in the early weeks of the
season, however, the importance
was placed on the developmental
aspects of his plan. After a Week 2
loss to Arizona in which he
spurned a chance to go for it on a
fourth down and instead opted for
a field goal, he said it was impor-
tant to spare his team from e xperi-
encing a shutout. After a loss at
Cleveland the following week,
when his team trailed by two
scores, he declined to use time-
outs late to try to get the b all back.

WASHINGTON FROM D1

Coach says Sunday’s bold call fits Washington’s goal to win now

BY SAM FORTIER

The enduring lesson from the
Washington Football Team’s loss
to the New York Giants on Sunday
isn’t about one player or situa-
tion. It isn’t about the NFC East
standings or jockeying for draft
position. It isn’t even really, deep
down, about the decision to go f or
two.
The game shed light on Coach
Ron Rivera’s thought process in
crunchtime. This was rare. The
team’s struggle to remain com-
petitive this season has limited
chances to see the true, three-di-
mensional nature of “Riverboat
Ron,” a misleading nickname for
a selectively aggressive coach.
With Carolina, from 2011 to
20 19, Rivera went for it on fourth
down less than the NFL average.
Yet when he went for it in score-
neutral situations, he converted
78 percent of the time, the sec-
ond-best rate in the league. In
other words, Rivera picked his
spots.
In the 20 -19 loss to the Giants,
Rivera made four important deci-
sions that illustrate this broader
philosophy.
Situation: Fourth and one at
the New York 48 -yard line, 11:58
left in the first quarter. No score.
Rivera’s decision: Go for it.
Though Rivera didn’t address
this decision after the game, he
has often expressed confidence in
his short-yardage unit. It almost
always features running back
Peyton Barber, whom the coach
has called “a hammer,” and the
gambles have mostly worked.
Washington has attempted 10
fourth-down conversions this
season, the second most in the
NFL, and has converted seven of
them.
In this case, the decision
aligned with numbers from
E djSports, an analytical company
that consults with NFL teams.
Historically, teams facing fourth
and one near midfield have con-
verted about 70 percent of the
time, and in a simulation of this
specific game, the odds were simi-
lar. EdjSports uses predictive
models to help teams anticipate
in-game decisions, and any
fourth down is particularly im-
portant because they have an
outsize influence on win proba-
bility.
EdjSports “stress-tests” each
situation. For example, co-found-
er Frank Frigo said, even if Wash-

ington were the NFL’s w orst rushing team and the Giants had its best rushing defense, the model would still advise to go for it. “We’re on board with [this call],” Frigo said. “That one’s p ret- ty clear.” On the field, Barber plowed up the middle and converted. This gave Washington a 3 percent boost in “game-winning chance,” an EdjSports metric. Situation: Fourth and four at the New York 40 -yard line, 1:20 left in the second quarter. Wash- ington trails 13-3. Rivera’s decision: Go for it. This was perhaps the second- most controversial decision Rive- ra made, behind only the final two-point conversion attempt. It was originally fourth and nine and Washington punted, but then the Giants incurred a running-in- to-the-kicker penalty, and Rivera accepted to make it fourth and four. Then he decided to go for it. “We were capable of moving the ball,” he explained. “I just felt

that we had to score a touchdown to put ourselves in position to be competitive in the second half.” In the model, the decision was a wash. The difference between his options were within fractions of a percent. In the charts E djSports builds for NFL coaches, they color-code game situations for quick reference; green is go, red is don’t go and yellow is at the coach’s discretion. This decision was yellow. “We always tell them we don’t want to be robots telling them what to do,” Frigo said. Players said Rivera had told them repeatedly during the trip to New Jersey that they were going there to win. This might seem like the usual coach-speak, but for a struggling team, Rivera sees the message of wanting to win as integral to the culture change he has preached. When Kyle Allen found wide receiver Dontrelle Inman for the first down, Washington gained

3 percent in game-winning

chance — even before it went on to score a touchdown just before halftime. Situation: Fourth and four at the New York 10 -yard line, 8:59 left in the fourth quarter. Wash- ington trails 13-10. Rivera’s decision: Kick a field goal to tie it. This decision was another yellow. If Rivera had gone for it, he could have increased his expected game-winning chance, but he also would have assumed more risk. He went for it in a similar situation in Week 1 against the Philadelphia Eagles, but this time, considering other factors — the longer distance, the road ven- ue — he played it safe. Yet the kick wasn’t a g uarantee. Dustin Hopkins had missed his first attempt of the afternoon, a 47-yarder, wide right. But Rivera trusted Hopkins, who made the 28 -yarder, and bet his offense could go ahead on another drive. Situation: Extra-point or two- point conversion attempt, 36 sec-

onds left in the fourth quarter. Washington trails 20 -19. Rivera’s decision: Go for two. This was Rivera’s most controversial move. But he and his players saw going for it as the only logical choice. Tight end Logan Thomas told his teammates before their final drive that they would go for it after they scored a touchdown, and later, in the lock- er room, Rivera reiterated that this assertiveness was part of his “philosophy.” “The only way to learn to win is to play to win, and that’s what I want those guys to understand,” he said. “We have to do certain things to win football games, and if taking a gamble is part of it, that’s what I’m doing.” This time, the model recom- mended kicking the extra point. Frigo is wary of leaning too h eavy on the numbers late in games — this is where the model has the most uncertainty — but he still thought this call “was pretty clear.” Washington would have had a 39 percent game-winning chance if it kicked off in a tie game or 62 percent if it did so leading b y one — both p ercentag- es lower than expected because the Giants had two timeouts and the chance to drive for a winning score — and the model suggested Washington would need to be a little more than 60 percent confi- dent it could convert the two- point conversion to justify going for it. That i s considerably higher than the historical two-point conversion rate of 48 percent. Frigo added, though, that he believed Rivera’s decision was “not a huge error.” He said few coaches truly follow analytics, that their guts sometimes make statistically optimal decisions and get “it right for the wrong reasons.” In the end, Frigo understood Rivera’s rationale. The coach said he went for it because he believes overtime favors the home team and because he’s trying to build something unquantifiable in his players. This decision might have been less than ideal in terms of winning Sunday, but to Rivera, it held real value. “I’m trying to get our players to understand [this is] how we’re going to do things,” he said. “We’re going to do things to the max. We’re going to play to win football games.” [email protected]

ANALYSIS

The numbers behind Rivera’s in-game decisions

H ere is what an analytics company says Washington’s coach should have done in four key situations during the loss to the Giants

TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST Ron Rivera’s decision-making process in pivotal situations was on full display during Sunday’s defeat.

The Washington Post - USA (2020-10-20)

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