3 bold predictions for Week 11 vs Carolina

The Washington Football Team will visit the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, where they’ll be looking to pick up back-to-back wins for the first time this season and the first time since they rattled off four straight from Weeks 11-14 last year.

The Week 10 win over Tampa Bay will go down as the defining moment of the season, but Washington will have another opportunity to pick up a signature moment this weekend, as Ron Rivera will be going head-to-head against his former team and quarterback, assuming Cam Newton gets the start.

Rivera spent nine years with the Panthers, accumulating a .546 winning percentage during that span and even took them to the Super Bowl in 2015 where they eventually lost out to the Broncos in semi-blowout fashion.

Given all the history that’s tied into this matchup, it has the makings to deliver the unexpected. With that in mind, we thought it’d be a good idea to debut a bold predictions piece for the Week 11 showdown in Charlotte.

3 bold predictions for Washington vs Carolina

3. Landon Collins locks down Cam Newton

If Week 10 was any indication, it’s that Ron Rivera and Jack Del Rio plan to move Landon Collins all around the defense. Against the Broncos, we saw him deployed almost exclusively as a safety.

On Sunday, however, we saw a little bit of everything from Collins. In total, he logged 44 defensive snaps (92%) — 12 against the run, four pass-rushing snaps and a whopping 28 in coverage, where he was inept over the first six games.

To his credit, though, he finished as the defense’s fifth-highest graded player, allowing just three catches for 15 yards.

With all that being said, we have a feeling Collins will revert back to the role he played vs Denver. With Cam Newton projected to get the start, Carolina will likely deploy a run-heavy offense, much like the Broncos did in Week 8, and we all know how impactful the former All-Pro is defending the run.

Look for Collins to be tasked with “spying” on Newton should the veteran quarterback look to take off with his legs. At 6-foot and 218 pounds, Collins’ has the requisite build to bring Cam and his 6-foot-5, 245-pound frame down in the open field.

Even better for Collins? Newton isn’t nearly as elusive as he used to be. That should lower the chances of him flying in and whiffing on a tackle, which we saw a lot of earlier in the season against faster opponents.

How Collins and Co. fare against Christian McCaffrey is a different story, but we think Collins will hinder Newton’s impact on the ground.

Dominant performances have been hard to come by for Collins in the Burgundy and Gold, but we have a weird feeling we’re going to see a repeat of Week 8, when he erupted for a sack, five run stops and three tackles for loss.