Washington Football Team: Week 7 reality checks, predictions vs. Cowboys
By Tim Payne
2. The Reality Is, Ron Rivera has been more consistent with in-game decisions than people realize.
The level of confusion and consternation over Ron Rivera’s in-game decisions is pretty comical. Rivera, while more conservative than I would prefer in a handful of situations, has been very consistent in his approach.
While I’d like him to be making decisions with an aggressive “extend the game” mentality no matter the score, it’s not as if Rivera’s approach has been inconsistent. Essentially, Rivera has “attacked success”. Whenever the team has had the ball in the opponent’s territory with the opportunity to score, Rivera has made the aggressive decision.
Whenever the team (think the Eagles game and the two-point conversion vs. Giants) has had the opportunity to take or extend a lead, Rivera has gone with the aggressive decision. Whenever the team is multiple scores behind and not showing any signs of an ability to mount a comeback, he’s chosen not to extend the game via timeouts, etc.
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My theory is, he’s trying to reinforce and reward the team for putting themselves in winning positions. I wish he’d just try to squeeze every drop out of every game, to hone the entire team’s situational skills, but he’s been pretty consistent in his approach.
My Prediction: Against Dallas, Rivera will continue that trend. If the game is close, expect Rivera to coach aggressively, but if things get out of hand with the Washington Football Team down significantly, expect him to take his foot off the gas.