Ron Rivera likes what the defense is doing schematically

Washington Football ead coach Ron Rivera spoke with the media on Wednesday afternoon in preparation for the team’s week five matchup with the New Orleans Saints. Rivera, whose defensive unit ranks 29th in the NFL in yards allowed, has struggled mightily this year after being ranked second in that same metric last season. However, Rivera is not too concerned about the defense, as he expressed to the media that he likes what they are doing defensively as it relates to the scheme. 

“I like what we’re doing. I do. I think there’s a lot of things that we do. I think that there are some things that we can be better at. There are some things that we most certainly can go ahead and continue to refine and use. It’s one of these things that’s just kind of what we’re struggling with right now. We’re going to keep working. Again, like I said, we’re 2-2 and the thing that we’re disappointed is we feel we could be better than that.” – Rivera on Washington’s defensive scheme.

Furthermore, Rivera liked what his team is doing from a man coverage standpoint; it’s just the third-down defense that seems to be hindering the defense. 

“I think we’ve done some good things from our man coverages. It’s hard to sit here and tell you things are looking great when you look at what we’ve done in third down and that’s where most of our struggles have occurred. You look at some of the first and second down things, especially when it’s zero-to-three-yard gain, you feel good about that. And then, unfortunately, getting in a couple of third-down situations and you, you take a step back and go, man, how can we miss this? Or why didn’t we do that? So you just go back to the drawing board and keep working at it.” – Rivera on wanting to play more man coverage at the beginning of the season.

As we all know, the pass rush is essential, and Washington’s defense has accumulated just seven sacks heading into the fifth week of the season. Out of the seven sacks, second-year edge rusher Chase Young has zero, and there’s a huge spotlight on him that will continue to grow larger if he cannot get home to the quarterback. Rivera said that Washington has to be smart about how they are utilizing Young:

“Well, when I look at some of the things that he’s done and look at how people react to him and how people have basically slowed him down, there’s an impact there still. I think that’s the one thing that we just have to be smart about.” – On the attention Chase Young’s receiving.

Hopefully, things turn for the better starting in week five against the New Orleans Saints while the season is still young.