The Washington Redskins and the New England Patriots are playing in NFL Week 5. Here are some bold predictions for this game.
Game day is here. The Washington Redskins are taking on the New England Patriots. Time to rip the Band-Aid off.
The Patriots are one of the best teams in the league. The Redskins are one of the worst. Even with Washington at home, this game should be extraordinarily difficult and it could get ugly very fast.
Last week, it seemed like Jay Gruden was making his last stand. Now, it seems like he’s just coasting along until he’s inevitably fired. Will the team be willing to play hard for him if he has one foot out the door? It’s hard to know. And against a tough opponent, the team could fold quickly.
This game could go wrong quickly. But if it stays closer than expected early, it could also have some unexpected statistical results. The end result still is extremely likely to be a Redskins loss, but here are some bold predictions ahead of the Redskins vs. Patriots Week 5 clash.
3. Patriots outscore Redskins by 30 points
The matchup between the Redskins and the Patriots has been rightfully portrayed as lopsided. The two franchises are in completely different stages at this point in time, and New England has a decided edge.
Heading into the game, the Patriots are favored by about 16 points, but that doesn’t seem like enough. They should be able to take down the Redskins pretty easily and the question will be by how much.
If you look at the Patriots in recent weeks, they haven’t been quite as good as they were earlier in the season against the Steelers and Dolphins. They beat the Jets by 16 and only were able to beat the Bills by 6 in a game they easily could have dropped. Can the Redskins keep this one closer than many are expecting? It’s possible, but highly — and I repeat, highly — unlikely.
This could end up being one of the Patriots’ biggest wins of the year. I don’t think that they’ll lay down a 43-0 victory like they did against the Dolphins, but the Redskins could fall victim to a 30-point loss much like the Steelers did. We’ll stick with that 30 number and predict that will be the margin of defeat for the ‘Skins on Sunday.
The Redskins seem likely to be vastly outplayed in this game. But there could be some silver linings for them if they can get some areas of their team to produce, as outlined in the next two bold predictions.
2. Redskins sack Tom Brady 3 times
This may not seem like that bold of a prediction. Three times? That’s kind of weak. But as always, context is important here.
Through the first month of the season, Brady has only been sacked a grand total of three times. That’s less than once a week. This is largely due to the fact that the Patriots have mostly played subpar competition and Brady gets the ball out of his hands very quicky. So, it’s hard to bring him down.
That said, the Redskins have the personnel needed to get some pressure on Brady. Ryan Kerrigan and Montez Sweat haven’t been as good as expected, but the edge rushers are both solid and Sweat, in particular, could take advantage of Marshall Newhouse at left tackle. Newhouse was signed off the street to provide depth for the Patriots and while the veteran has played well thanks to offensive line guru Dante Scarnecchia, he could regress at any time.
Meanwhile, the Patriots do have a backup playing at center in Ted Karras, so that will give Daron Payne, Jonathan Allen, and Matt Ioannidis a chance to make some noise on the inside. Like Newhouse, Karras has been solid, but he could face issues at any time.
Overall, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the ‘Skins generate some pressure early against the Patriots. It won’t be sustainable throughout the game, but if they can get to Brady early, they could get better than expected sack numbers.
1. Colt McCoy doesn’t turn the ball over but throws for less than 150 yards
This is an excessively difficult game for Colt McCoy to return from injury for. After suffering a broken fibula last year against the Philadelphia Eagles, McCoy has been out of game action for 10 months. He would have had a chance to compete for the starter job in camp but simply couldn’t get healthy.
Now, he is healthy. And the matchup he is facing is unbelievable.
In the first month of the season, the Patriots surrendered 27 total points. Two of the touchdowns they allowed came off a pick-6 and a muffed punt. That means that opposing offenses have been primarily responsible for a whopping 13 points.
McCoy is going to have a tough task taking on a really good secondary even with starting safety Patrick Chung absent. He will likely have to settle for a lot of dump-offs and short passes and try to have his receivers generate yards after the catch. That may be tough against a team of solid tacklers.
All told, I think McCoy will have a decent game. He’ll avoid turnovers, but he won’t be able to generate much on offense. If he passes for less than 150 yards, it wouldn’t be a surprise. And it certainly wouldn’t be an indictment of his skill set against a defense this powerful.