Redskins Week 5 Reality Checks: The Patriots are coming

The Redskins host the Patriots at FedEx field this Sunday and a 15-point spread doesn’t seem to quite do the mismatch justice.

The Patriots are bringing a 4-0 record, a dominant defense, the league’s best coach, and a Hall of Fame quarterback into town, with a decade-plus of consistency, cohesion, domination, and confidence trailing behind them. When they arrive at FedEx field, they will enter something similar to the Twilight Zone, where there are dead men walking all around, nobody is sure why they are here and what they are doing, everybody has smiles on their faces that are definitively disingenuous, and the overall stench of decay hangs over the entire operation.

There may never have been a matchup of two franchises as polar opposite of one another as these two. The Washington Redskins franchise once was mighty and now has become a laughingstock. The Patriots franchise once was a laughingstock and now is mighty. The Redskins have a comedian on his last joke for a head coach. The Patriots have a statue. The Redskins have three quarterbacks locked in an intense battle not to be named the starter. The Patriots have Tom Brady.

The Redskins have a young, underachieving defensive front. The Patriots have an old overachieving defensive front. The Patriots have an owner who somehow managed to sidestep a scandal this offseason. The Redskins have fans who genuinely believe a scandal involving the owner may be the only hope to resurrect the franchise. The similarities are few, and the differences stark.

So what are some reasonable, realistic expectations for how this contest (I use that word under advisement) will go on Sunday?