The Commanders had another poor defensive performance in Thursday’s 40-20 loss to the Bears.
But head coach Ron Rivera said he’s not going to make changes to the coaching staff over the team’s long weekend.
“No, no,” Rivera said in his Friday press conference, noting that they just got through the fifth game of the season. “We’ve got 12 left to play. There’s plenty of football left. And we haven’t had an opportunity to finish working on things I talked about last night — we’ve still got several things to go through.”
Rivera added that coaches have to put players in better positions to make plays, particularly on defense.
While the Commanders allowed 210 total yards to the Cardinals in their Week 1 win, they’ve since allowed 399, 386, 415, and 451 yards in the last four games. Opponents have scored at least 33 points in each of those contests as well, though some of that can be attributed to offensive giveaways.
Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio has been with the Commanders since Rivera arrived in 2020. The team also started slow defensively last year but ended up No. 3 in total yards and No. 7 in points allowed.
We’ll see if the long weekend and playing the Falcons and Giants in their next two games helps the Commanders make some defensive improvements.