Redskins take control of NFC East with win over New York Giants
The Washington Redskins notched their third-straight win on Sunday afternoon against the Giants. And with it, they got a stranglehold on the NFC East.
The Redskins are 5-2. You did, indeed, read that right. After starting the year 2-2, the team has won three straight games. Granted, the last two have been games that they should have won, but nonetheless, you can never underestimate an NFL team’s ability to win on any given Sunday.
The Redskins didn’t score a lot in this game. The Giants hung around, but they just couldn’t do anything against the superb Washington defense. In the game, the front helped to shut down Saquon Barkley. Barkley averaged only 2.9 yards per carry, his second-worst total of the season, and that was largely thanks to the effort of the big boys up front.
One of the biggest weapons for the Redskins was their pass rush. They put Eli Manning under unrelenting pressure all day long. They ended up notching seven sacks for 50 yards, and that really helped to affect the field position battle. Matt Ioannidis (2.0 sacks) and Daron Payne (1.0 sacks) were particularly impactful in all aspects of the game.
On offense, the game-plan was for a lot of Adrian Peterson. And that’s exactly what happen. He touched the ball 27 times for 156 scrimmage yards and two total TDs. It was another vintage performance from Peterson who ran with excellent power and elusive ability. That helped the offense to gash the Giants and control the time of possession battle (‘Skins won by roughly seven minutes).
In addition to the performance of Peterson, Alex Smith efficiently led the team’s offense and moved the ball. He wasn’t flashy, but he spread the ball around and avoided mistakes. He did enough to keep the Giants defense honest, and that helped Peterson out.
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This was pretty much a complete win by the Redskins. Could they have done more on offense early? Yeah, it’s possible. That said, they did more than enough to beat the Giants and the fact that their defense is looking borderline elite is making them a potential playoff contender. Defense wins championships, and at the very least, defense should help the Redskins continue to lead the NFC East for the next few weeks.