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The Washington Football Team piled up 430 yards of total offense in Sunday’s 24-10 loss to the Green Bay Packers. Defensively, Washington held Aaron Rodgers and the Packers to just 304 total yards.
Certainly, a look at the statistics, and you feel pretty good about Washington’s performance at Lambeau Field.
Well, as you know, stats don’t always tell the complete story of a football game. And that’s certainly the case in Washington’s Week 7 loss at Green Bay.
Washington’s red-zone woes, which included three trips inside the red zone that resulted in zero points was a big reason it lost Sunday’s game.
After the game, head coach Ron Rivera saw some things he liked, despite the end result.
“I’m seeing the growth that we’re looking for,” Rivera said, per Michael Phillips of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “I loved the fight in these guys today. There’s no quit. They played hard, and that’s all you can ask for as a coach, that the guys are going to come out and play hard and give themselves an opportunity.”
Then, Rivera talked about the up-and-down day from Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke.
“I thought Taylor was impressive,” he said. “He did make a couple of mistakes, but he’s going to as a young guy gaining experience. But I have a lot of confidence that he’s going to be able to move us. And now we, as a football team, we’ve just got to grow and get better.”
On the controversial non-touchdown when Heinicke dove into the end zone, Rivera said he thought his quarterback was diving and did not give himself up. The officials ruled correctly, based on the NFL rulebook.
Look, some will criticize Rivera for his positive comments after Sunday’s game. There are no moral victories in the NFL, especially when you are far from being a good team, like Washington. But the head coach isn’t going to call his players out publicly. And that’s the correct move.
Washington had its chances to win on Sunday, and it failed. But, according to the head coach, not all was lost. Next, Washington travels to Denver, and we’ll see if some of the positives Rivera noted from Week 7 carry into next week’s meeting against the Broncos.