Rivera reveals to the media reveals yet another issue that the defensive line is facing

The Washington Football Team’s defensive line has not lived up to any of the hype or expectations many had for them this offseason, which is an unfortunate truth for this unit. Head coach Ron Rivera has given the media many reasons for why the defense as a collective has underperformed three weeks in the season, but it seems that none of the issues have been corrected. On Monday, Rivera spoke with the media, highlighting a lack of cohesion amongst the defensive line and their pass-rush coordination.

“One of the things that we saw, we really kind of saw it on tape this past Sunday was rush wasn’t as coordinated as it needed to be. We had a couple instances where when Daron [Payne] would win to whichever side he was with the end, he’d win but unfortunately, the end wasn’t coordinated with him. He did a nice up and under move and got himself back inside, we had the end wash around to the outside. A couple of times when the end went to the outside, Daron made a nice outside move as well. So we had two guys outside. And again, it’s one of those things that they have to have a little more coordination. They got to work a little bit better together and just understanding where each other’s going to be. Because again, you need to make sure you’ve got an inside guy and an outside guy. You can’t have two guys going into the same area.” – Rivera on the defensive front getting pressure. 

Another issue now that Ron is revealing is that the pass-rush isn’t coordinated. Coordination is another thing to add with players playing selfishly and undisciplined, and miscommunicating. Rivera spoke on players continuing to miss assignments.

“Well, you see it every now and then at the beginning. You see it now sometimes when they’re pressing and they want to make a play. And again, it’s just that’s the hard part. You don’t want to fall guy for trying, but you also want to make sure they understand just how important it is to do your job and be accountable.” – Rivera on players missing assignments.

Chase Young in particular, is having issues meeting the expectations people had of him in his second season. Rivera spoke on how Young has been adapting to opposing teams playing him.

“Yeah. That’s the hard part for him is the expectations are high and he’s trying to make things happen. He’s had some really good moments. I believe he had a pretty good pressure right yesterday and had a couple of chances at some pretty good plays. It’s just one of those things that he gets a little extra attention with the chipper to his side or the protection turning towards him. He’s just going to have to learn to continue to cope with it. But at the same time, he’s also got to understand what his strengths are and really attack it with those strengths because he can be such a disruptive player.” – Rivera on Chase Young’s progression.

Rivera has his hands full with correcting the issues on this team, and he also needs his players to understand the bigger picture in that working together makes everyone’s jobs easier. Nobody needs to be a hero with the talent that this team has on the defensive side of the football. Hopefully, for Rivera and company things get corrected soon because the fans and media won’t hold back from calling him out for the overpromising this region has seen over the recent decades.