Rivera Reveals Thoughts on Washington Preseason Finale

It may not count, but it certainly matters

Nobody should be panicking about the way the Washington Football Team's preseason came to a finish on Saturday against the Baltimore Ravens. 

Still, a loss as bad as this one - 37-3 was the final score - doesn't leave a good taste in anyone's mouth, no matter the stakes and circumstances. 

Head coach Ron Rivera told the media after the game the performances would help the team clarify who does and doesn't make the roster, meaning the results certainly counted for some of the players. ... even if it didn't for the team. 

"Well, as a whole, it wasn't very good," Rivera said of his team's performance. "Individually there's going to be some good things, some things I feel good about. I think some things came through that made things even more clear for us...This was really more about the evaluation of them than it was about anything else."

Every season there are teams who have to dig deep in their depth charts to make it through the season. If Washington is one of those teams this year, then the film from this game is going to impact who is there, and who isn't, when the time comes to dig deep. 

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That stress, and the fact most of the guys playing Saturday took more reps than they have before, certainly contributed to the result of the game. That's especially true when you consider Rivera decided not to play his starters, a choice he said was made days prior. 

"We asked the remaining guys to play a lot of football, which is really tough,'' he said. "We'll certainly keep that in consideration when we go through this process of deciding what's our 53 [man roster] and what our practice squad will look like."

That's a form of good news for some of the bubble players who played their hearts out, even if it didn't go the way they'd prefer. The coaching staff knows what it asked of them, and isn't taking it lightly.