All season for the Washington Football Team, the NFC East division title has acted as a proverbial carrot that has dangled frustratingly out of reach for Ron Rivera and his team. While they didn’t start the year even believing that grabbing that carrot was an option, it soon became clear that if they just outstretched their arm a bit more, it could be grabbed.
Of course, there were a lot of missteps along the way, and fans have said all along that going for the carrot is stupid in the first place. But thanks to a 3-2 stretch over the past five games, Washington is now in as good of a place as they’ve been all season to achieve what they’re set out for. Only now, Rivera is claiming that he isn’t even thinking about the carrot. He’s only thinking about himself and his team.
“You have to take care of your business. You have to play your game. If you don’t win, it doesn’t matter,” Rivera said to NBC Sports Washington’s JP Finlay on Monday. “Now, maybe after that game, then you pay attention to what’s happening to the other teams in your division … but right now, the focus has to be on what we do and how we do it going forward.”
At the moment, Washington is tied for first place in the NFC East and based on strength of schedule, and current health of their players, they arguably have the best chance at winning the division, though they have the third-highest betting odds to do so. But in the end, Rivera is right — if they don’t take care of business and win the games on their schedule, it doesn’t matter what happens around them.
So they may keep winning and get closer and closer to that dangling carrot, but if focusing on that causes them to trip up short of their goal, then the solution is obvious. Don’t focus on the carrot. Don’t focus on the goal. Control what you can control, and let the rest fall into place.
I trust Rivera to do that well.
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