Madden Simulation projects Redskins offense to struggle in Week 11

For the third straight week, the Redskins enter their Sunday game as the underdog. This week, the Madden Simulation is predicting that they will struggle greatly on offense.

The Washington Redskins are entering a critical week for their team. Coming in to Week 11, the team is 4-5 and is well behind in the NFC Wild Card race. While it’s looking unlikely that the team will be able to make the postseason, they will still have a chance until they fall too far behind.

Right now, it’s looking like Sunday’s game could be that day. The Saints pose an extremely difficult challenge for the Redskins. They have a very strong offense, but it’s their defensive improvement this year that has led to the seven game win streak they are currently on. Further compounding the issue for Washington is that they are going to be playing on the road in the Superdome. New Orleans usually gets solid, loud crowds, so they will definitely have an advantage on Sunday afternoon.

For this reason, it’s no surprise that the Madden Simulation for this week is favoring the Saints. In the simulation performed by App Trigger’s Michael Owens, the Saints are projected to top the Redskins by a final score of 23-7. That 16 point margin is the same margin of defeat as seen in our game preview.

The main reason that the Saints are predicted to win is that Drew Brees is supposed to have a huge game. In the simulation, he threw for 341 yards and two touchdowns, generally managing to shred the Redskins defense. His passing ability paired with Mark Ingram’s strong running gives the Saints offense a big advantage over the banged up Washington defense.

As for the Washington offense, they failed to get anything going in the simulation for yet another week. Madden has notoriously produced low-level offensive predictions for the Redskins this year, and this week was no different. Here’s what the simulation has to say about Kirk Cousins and Chris Thompson.

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"Kirk Cousins couldn’t find nearly as much success for the Redskins, throwing for just 77 yards and completing 55 percent of his passes. Washington’s lone touchdown came early in the first quarter when Chris Thompson punched in a score from a yard out. He ran for 79 yards on 19 carries in the defeat."

It’s hard to imagine Cousins throwing for 77 yards in any circumstances. Cousins is a talented quarterback and while his weaponry may not be at full strength on Sunday, there is no way he would throw for that little yardage. Also, the team is going to be using a new lead back in Samaje Perine, so that unproven running option could force the team to pass more, which means Cousins would put up bigger numbers.

Meanwhile, Thompson’s stat line looks a lot more reasonable. He will be in line for an increase in carries due to Rob Kelley’s injury. And him scoring a touchdown wouldn’t be a big surprise for Washington either.

Next: 5 Bold predictions for Redskins vs. Saints in NFL Week 11

Overall, the result of the simulation is generally possible. But Madden needs to start giving Cousins more credit. He puts up better numbers than they project each week, so that’s the one thing to be wary of when looking at the simulation.

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