Ron Rivera Focused on Washington Commanders 'Bounce Back' Ability After New York Giants Loss
The Washington Commanders suffered a horror 14-7 loss to the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium as Ron Rivera's team left a lot to be desired in all phases.
Washington was slow out of the blocks as the offense managed just 14 plays for 27 yards combined on its first three possessions, which all ended in punts.
The Giants got their game going in the second quarter, scoring two touchdowns while keeping the Commanders scoreless.
Washington made some ground in the second half to make it a one-score game, but the Giants managed to hold on for just their second win of the season, while the Commanders dropped to 3-4.
Washington head coach Ron Rivera isn't worried about the season's outlook after the defeat; he is more concerned about how his team will bounce back from such a poor loss.
“To me, it’s really about how you bounce back than anything else,” Rivera said. “With ten games to go, you never know what’s going to happen. But you got to take then one at a time, you got to stay focused on it. We’ll correct these things, a lot of things that we can correct, a lot of things that we will get better at, and we’ll continue to work at it, and we’ll see what happens.”
Commanders quarterback Sam Howell was sacked six times against the Giants.
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The Commanders' offense had perhaps its worst performance of the season, converting just one-third down while only having 273 yards of total offense. The protection issues were still there as Sam Howell was sacked six times, taking the season's total to 40 through seven games.
There will be a lot of soul-searching this week for the Commanders, and Rivera stated that his message to the locker room post-game was the same as his half-time team talk.
“It was pretty much a follow-up of what I said at halftime,” Rivera said. “Going out, doing our job moreso than anything else. Paying attention to the details, little things. Those are the things that will help you have success. I thought they came out on the second half and gave themselves a chance to win. But you can’t go down 14 nothing and expect to pull things out all the time.”
Washington's season has been the very definition of a roller-coaster through seven games, and this is an uncomfortable part of the ride.
The Giants were 1-5, and Washington was supposed to handle business. Instead, they got blindsided by Brian Daboll's team and slumped to 3-4 on the season.
