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Washington Football Team head coach Ron Rivera met with the media after a 33-22 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday and appeared visibly frustrated.
He admitted as much to reporters.
“I’m very frustrated because we’ve got too many good football players to not be better than what we are now,” Rivera said, per Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post. “But your record tells you what you are. That’s what we are — we’re a 2-3 football team right now.”
Rivera has plenty of reasons to be frustrated. First, there is the much-hyped defense that continues to sink to new lows every week. Players and coaches speak to the media on the team’s defensive struggles and continue to offer the basic answers such as the fixes are easy, as the team is a tweak or two away from being a dominant defense.
Please.
Rivera says he believes in his players, but that is getting harder to do each week. He said it was the responsibility of the coaching staff to get more out of the players.
“I’m disappointed in that,” Rivera said. “But we have to go back. We’re going to look at some things as a coaching staff and make sure we put these guys in a position to have success. At the end of the day, we have to make sure we’re giving them every opportunity to succeed.”
We are entering Week 6, and Rivera is essentially talking about getting back to the basics. That’s not encouraging.
This team is what it is at this point. There are no miracle linebackers who can be signed off the street to transform a struggling group. There are no corners or safeties who can be brought in and miraculously change Washington’s fortunes. The players here must be better. Players need to stop saying they are a play or two away and start making those plays. It’s the only way Washington’s defense will improve in 2021.
Things aren’t going to get any easier over the next two weeks with Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers on the schedule.