Rivera continues to challenge Sweat & Young; they must “trust their teammates”

The Washington Football Team is 2-6 in the bye week, one of the worst scenarios imaginable for head coach Ron Rivera and the inverse of what it means to build a winning culture. There are many factors that have contributed to the six losses that Washington has sustained in the first eight weeks of the season. However, one of the most important factors behind Washington’s slow start is their defense. 

Washington, whose defense was presumed to be one of the best units in the NFL in this offseason, is 27th in yards and points allowed in the NFL. Furthermore, the defense is 32nd in the NFL on third-downs by a wide margin. The unit that Rivera has invested into the most over the past two years has regressed mightily and his strategy seems to be failing. Enter defensive ends Montez Sweat and Chase Young, two young players who are looked at as the staples of this defense. These two pass-rushers, eight games into the season, have combined for five and a half sacks. For comparison’s sake, defensive tackle Jonathan Allen has six sacks by himself on the season. 

What does Rivera have to say about the two ends as he reflects on the season to this point? He wants to see less pressing and more trusting.

“We would like to see a little bit more from those guys,” Rivera said to Michael Silver, who is a contributing writer for the Washington Football Team. Rivera continued, “They need to stop pressing and trust their teammates. Sometimes when a guy tries to chip them, instead of running through the chip and blowing that guy up, you’ll see them duck underneath or slip around and miss a chance to make a play. Sometimes Chase starts outside and plants his leg and cuts inside — because he’s trying to make a play — and the quarterback gets flushed to the outside. If Chase stays outside, he has an easy sack, but instead, he dives underneath.”

Rivera questioned why the team plays hard only when we put themselves behind the 8-ball. As he reflected on Young’s forced fumble against the Denver Broncos last week, Rivera said it was great, but not satisfactory. Rivera stated “Where were those plays earlier in the game? When they know you’ve got to take the ball away from them, and you still take it away from them…that’s impressive, but where was that earlier? Why do we have to always put ourselves behind the 8-ball to play that hard? We should always be at that level.”

Sweat fractured his jaw in the loss to the Denver Broncos and may miss up to a month. The onus, in the meantime, will be on Young to respond to his head coach by improving his decision-making on the field. 

You can read the full article and interview between Silver and Rivera, here, as they discuss a variety of subjects concerning the Washington Football Team.