ASHBURN, Va. — Just one more preseason game for the Washington Football Team before the regular season kicks off. This Saturday, Washington is taking on the Ravens in that final preseason game. There are certain things head coach Ron Rivera is looking from from his team, "Well, just the biggest thing more than anything else is really about us going through the process of what that's going to be like during the regular season. Everything from the way we're going to meet to the way we walk through, the way we practice and then the post practice lifts and meetings. It's just to get a sense and feel for that. Be very direct with the game planning, getting an understanding and feel for how we're going to game plan."
So far in the preseason games, the offense has been able to move the ball except for when it comes to getting the ball into the endzone. Defensively the team has been stout.
Washington was highly ranked on defense last season. The most important thing in Rivera's eyes to keep that improvement going is maturity. About that Rivera asks, " At what level are we? We did do some good things last year as a defense, but I think we finished number two in total defense. Well, that's great, but that doesn't mean you're going to be number two again. So, did we mature enough that we understand that we're going to get back to work?"
Furthermore, Rivera knows this is not the time to be satisfied, "You don't want to go at this thinking, 'Oh, we've arrived. We're here.' And that to me is really important. So, is it hard to get back there? It shouldn't be, in my opinion if you have the right approach. Especially if you've got a lot of the same guys back and you've added on a couple of pieces, you feel good about that."