Redskins Realistic Predictions Week 7: Ready to get off the Tilt-A-Whirl?

2. Reality Is, the Cowboys really have two offensive weapons: Elliott and Beasley.

In three career games against the Redskins, Ezekiel Elliott has scored five touchdowns while averaging over 26 touches for 119-plus yards. It’s no coincidence that the Redskins have not been able to pull off a win in any of those contests.

Elliott, combined with the Cowboys’ solid offensive line, has ground down Redskins’ defenses, dominating time of possession and keeping the Redskins’ offense off the field. Those Redskins defenses were much worse against the run than this year’s iteration, however. According to Pro Football Reference, the Redskins’ rushing defensive rankings for 2016 and 2017 were 24th and 27th. The 2018 Redskins are ranked 4th in rushing defense.

Many factors contribute to those rankings, so it’s entirely possible the improvement is not as drastic as those rankings indicate. But anyone watching the games would not be much surprised by the data. This Redskins defense is dramatically improved against the run this year, and so there is reason to hope that they might be able to contain Ezekiel Elliott to a greater extent than they have been able to in his prior three starts against them.

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As for Beasley, he has more than twice as many catches as any other Cowboys’ receiver this year, and is so much more reliable of a weapon for Prescott than any of the other Dallas pass-catchers. If the Redskins can devise a plan to limit him, it will go a long way toward victory.

We shouldn’t expect either to be a non-factor. We shouldn’t expect either to be totally bottled up. But we should expect that this team comes ready to key on Elliott and Beasley and require the Cowboys to find another way to beat them.

Prediction: Elliott is too dynamic to be totally shut down, especially since Jason Garrett can be relied upon to get him plenty of touches. But the Redskins, I believe, will manage to avoid getting run into the ground by Elliott. He’ll end up with 25 touches for 98 yards and 1 TD.  Beasley will get his targets, but I expect Fabian Moreau to do an effective job most of the game against Beasley. He’ll end up with 7 catches for 60 yards.