Madden Simulation Week 1: Redskins projected to lose close encounter with Eagles
The Washington Redskins are set to host the Philadelphia Eagles in NFL Week 1. However, they may not be able to scratch out a victory.
The wait for Washington Redskins regular season football is nearly over. In just over 48 hours, the team is going to open the 2017 season against one of their divisional rivals. At home, the Redskins will have a chance to start off the season of the right foot with a win over the Philadelphia Eagles. There’s just one catch. The Eagles are a pretty good team.
Over the course of the past offseason, the Eagles have done a lot to improve their team. They overhauled their receiving corps and brought in Alshon Jeffery. Defensively, they traded for Ronald Darby and Timmy Jernigan to improve their stop unit. Most importantly, Carson Wentz appears to be ready to make the leap in his second year and become a quality starting quarterback.
Earlier this week, we made a prediction for the Redskins-Eagles game, saying that the Eagles had a slight advantage over the Redskins because of their superior defense. Our Madden simulation for this week seems to think the same thing.
Must Read: Previewing Redskins vs. Eagles in NFL Week 1
Thanks to our good friend Michael Owens at App Trigger, we were able to get our hands on this week’s Madden simulations. In the simulation, the Redskins are projected to lose to the Eagles by a relatively small margin of 5 points. The 27-22 loss appears to be a possibility for the team.
The Eagles were able to jump to a 21-10 lead early in the fourth quarter and never relinquished it. Per the simulation, the Eagles appeared to grab a sizable lead late, and just played to waste the clock at the end of the contest. That means that the Redskins may have had a garbage time touchdown, but that isn’t a huge deal.
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The simulation projects the Eagles to run an efficient offense, but Carson Wentz does throw a couple of interceptions. LeGarrette Blount also had a 96 yard performance, so that helped the Eagles to chew clock and control the contest. That seems a bit far fetched, given the problems that Blount has faced during the preseason.
As for the Redskins, here’s a look at how Cousins and the offense performed, via Owens:
"[Cousins] did manage to complete 65 percent of his passes for 249 yards and a pair of touchdowns and didn’t turn the ball over once. Like the Eagles, his scores came in from inside the red zone with catches from tight end Vernon Davis and running back Robert Kelly. Wideout Josh Doctson was his primary target with six catches for 79 yards. Kelly also scored on the ground in one of his 17 carries for 58 yards."
This seems to be a somewhat realistic look at how the Redskins offense should perform. Efficiently, but not with the same firepower they had last year. Rob Kelley‘s performance on the ground appears to be an average game for the second year man, so that checks out.
The one thing that stands out as less likely is Josh Doctson‘s stat line. Doctson has dealt with injuries in his short NFL career and even if he is 100 percent on Sunday, he will not be Cousins’ top target. The six catch, 79 yard performance seems more likely to come from Jamison Crowder, who will be Cousins’ No. 1 receiver. Still, this is a minor qualm and it is possible that the team could use Doctson more than we think.
Next: 5 Redskins-Eagles matchups to watch in Sunday opener
Overall, this is just a simulation that is saying what many people think. This will be a close game, but the Eagles are currently favored to win. The Redskins will have to game plan well in order to ensure that doesn’t happen.