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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Ivan Lambert

Commanders Jonathan Allen: ‘the defense has to play better’

One defensive starter feels the Commanders let the Eagles off of the hook, Sunday before falling 34-31 in overtime.

Jonathan Allen, said, “…the defense has to play better.”

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The Commanders defensive tackle was making his weekly appearance on the “Sports Junkies” 106.7 The Fan Monday-Friday 6-10 am.

Allen expressed frustration and feels the good thing is this week, they are scheduled to play the Bears on Thursday night. Thus, Allen feels the short week forces the players to forget Sunday’s loss quicker and move on to the next challenge.

Losing such a close, hard-fought NFL game can be tough on a player’s sleep. Allen expressed that Sunday’s loss definitely kept him awake at times in the night. But he then added that he has learned that “in the NFL, you don’t want to permit one game to become two games and then three games.”

“We’re definitely frustrated we let that (game) go, but you got to take what you can from it and move on to the next game,” explained Allen.

Allen praised the Eagles offensive line, saying they are all five very good starters, and perhaps they may even have two Hall of Famers, and they play together so well.

“I feel like we played good in stretches, but this is the NFL, and you have to play good for all four quarters,” exclaimed Allen. “They made the plays when they needed to; hats off to them.”

“One thing I am going to say, though, is this is the NFL. We have a bunch of guys who are going to work our butts off to get this right, and we are going to get it right.”

Allen then pointed to the defense in particular, in how they have allowed too many points against Denver, Buffalo and Philadelphia.

“We are going to get this fixed, and we are working our you know what off every day to get back to what we know is good defense.”

“We HAVE to win this. This is a MUST-win game.”

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