Washington Football Team: Easiest and toughest stretches of 2021 schedule

Washington Football Team’s most critical stretch: Weeks 14-18

• Week 14 vs. Cowboys
• Week 15 @ Eagles
• Week 16 @ Cowboys
• Week 17 vs. Eagles
• Week 18 @ Giants

Incredibly, the Washington Football Team is finishing the year with FIVE straight divisional games. We’ve seen this happen to teams before, but usually, in three-game spurts. Five is borderline insanity.

NFC East games are often close, grind-it-out contests that can take a mental and physical toll on teams. As such, getting five division rivalries in a row, including both matchups against the Cowboys and Eagles in a four-week span, is going to be very difficult for Washington.

Does Washington hold an advantage over most of these teams in roster construction? Sure. You could argue that the Giants have the better roster currently, but nobody would have any qualms if you rated Washington as the best team in this division.

That said, that doesn’t guarantee a win for Washington in these games. Besides, these contests are all late in the season, so if Washington is dealing with any critical injuries down the stretch, they could be worse off even against weaker-looking squads.

Also, it’s worth noting that their matchups coming late against the Eagles is bad news since that will give Jalen Hurts a full year to test his skills as a starter and improve. Maybe he won’t improve much, but Washington probably would’ve preferred to get him earlier in the season when he was still ironing out some of the kicks with his game.

Washington could emerge from this gauntlet as the division champion, but if it’s a tightly-contested divisional race, they’re going to be tested every week. And one slip-up could have a major impact on their chances of being a playoff team.

Washington’s schedule surely is tough on paper, but the team has surprised us before. We’ll see if they can continue on an upward climb as they look to go to the playoffs for the second time under Rivera’s watch.