Ron Rivera concerned with two aspects of Washington Football Team’s performance
Ron Rivera wants the Washington Football Team to improve these two areas.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but there are two areas that the Washington Football Team needs to improve greatly before the regular season starts. And they are tackling and penalties.
Don’t believe me? Take the head coach’s word for it.
As Ron Rivera discussed after Friday’s practice, his main concern for the team’s early-season performance is tackling. Per NBC Sports Washington’s JP Finlay, this concern stems from the team’s lack of preseason games, as it doesn’t give players any chance to hit outside of practice before game action starts.
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Additionally, Finlay noted that there were several penalties in practice on Friday. Rivera called those “disconcerting” and will surely look to improve in that area before the season begins.
It isn’t surprising to see that Washington needs to work on these two areas. These were consistently issues under the previous regime and they boil down to issues of on-field discipline. The new coaching staff is still attempting to install that in a shortened offseason, so it may take some time to fully correct the issues.
And to Rivera’s point about the tackling, it’s tough for players to get reacclimated to proper angling during preseason games. It takes a little bit of time to get back up to full game speed as opposed to practice speed. So, the team may have issues in that regard to start the season, but it may be more widespread across the NFL.
Hopefully, Rivera and Jack Del Rio can help work to fix the tackling issue. As for the penalties, the most frustrating ones, in recent seasons, have come in the secondary and on the offensive line. If Chris Harris and John Matsko can help cut down on those as the season goes along, that will be a major stepping stone for the team, as they won’t have to worry about wiping out gains and making negative plays.
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We’ll soon see how Washington looks on the field, as their first game of the NFL season is two weeks from Sunday. Hopefully, the team will focus on improving in these areas and won’t have too many issues by the time they’re on the field against the Philadelphia Eagles.