ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Football Team was under a lot of pressure coming into the 2021-22 season after they surprisingly won the NFC East division last season.
Expectations were high especially for the defense, which impressed in the second half of last season. The leader of that defense, defensive end Chase Young sat down for a 1-on-1 with the Locked On Washington Football Team podcast on Thursday to talk about their slow start to the year and how the team can get back on track.
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"All we have to do right now is just stick together. That’s number one, make sure we stick together," Young told Locked On WFT host Chris Russell. "We’re not pointing a finger. We’re working together as a team. Defense, we’re working as a unit, offense working as a unit and we’re trying to get this thing together to play complimentary football."
WFT is 1-2 with their lone win against the 0-3 New York Giants, 30-29 on Thursday Night Football. Washington allowed 43 points last week against the Bills on Sunday. Was there too much hype laid onto this defense to start the year?
“We try not to pay attention to the outside noise. As a defense, we know what we can do, because we’ve done it," Young said. "We’ve just got to look in the mirror and really tighten up. We’re grinding, we’ll definitely keep our foot on the pedal.”
Washington has notably given up an opening drive touchdown to the opposing team in all three games this season, putting themselves behind early.
“We just got to start faster," Young said on the Locked On WFT podcast. "At the end of the day we’ve got to play together and if we can do those two things early, I feel like you’ll see a big change.”
Washington will have a chance to get back on track on Sunday when they take on the 1-2 Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta.
Young recently teamed up with USAA and ESPN to talk about his new home in Virginia, detailing how his dogs are an important part of his life off the field, and how his relationship with his grandfather helped shape him into the person and team captain he is today.
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