Redskins opponent, Giants, playing mind games ahead of Week 8
By Ian Cummings
The Redskins have a good chance to go 3-0 from Week 6 to Week 8 with a game against the 1-6 New York Giants coming up.
If the Washington Redskins have learned anything from being members of the NFC East for so many years, however, it’s that no divisional game is truly a guarantee. With the Giants acting as they are currently, it’s a necessity that a reminder is provided.
The Giants pretended they were contenders all summer. Who could blame them? They were just two seasons removed from an 11-5 playoff campaign, and the roster had undergone little turnover since that point.
Unfortunately for the Giants, they mistook the width of their playoff window, and came to the rebuild realization too late. Now, the Giants are stuck offloading the unsavory contracts from their team, to prepare for a thorough restocking in spring. They traded away former first-round cornerback Eli Apple to the New Orleans Saints, and earlier this morning, per Adam Schefter, they shipped off elite run stuffer Damon Harrison to the Lions in exchange for a fifth-round pick.
It would seem as if rebuild protocol has initiated. But that doesn’t mean the Redskins should take the Giants for granted in their upcoming battle.
By initiating the rebuild and moving current assets for future assets, the Giants are subliminally playing mind games with Jay Gruden’s Redskins. This naturally has the feel of a trap game, and with the Giants having shipped off two defensive starters in the past 24 hours, they somehow feel like less of a threat than they were after a 1-6 start.
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With a chance to mount a three-game winning streak and achieve a 2-0 start in divisional play, the Redskins can’t blow off preparation for this game and treat it as a guarantee. In recent weeks, there seems to have been a promising, prevailing focus from the group, but outside noise such as what we’ve seen from the Giants can disrupt that. The Redskins need to keep the intensity high, and circle the game on their calendar, rather than writing an early “W” in red marker.