By #Mike Wynn Sports
Who’d of thunk that the Redskins would be 3-1 and sitting in the second spot of the NFC East after their opening night debacle against the NY Giants. Washington is coming off 3 straight wins including the big upset of Dallas in big “D” Sunday. The Eagles off a frustrating Sunday night loss at Chicago in which they missed 2 field goals and failed to punch it in from point blank late in the game. Despite this loss the Eagles are from out of any race at this point of the season and a win here over a divisional opponent would be big. So let’s take a closer look at both these teams and we’ll start as always with the visiting Redskins.
Washington has won 3 straight games and a lot of the credit has to go to the maturation Jason Campbell. Campbell looks like he has command of this Jim Zorn offense and his confidence and demeanor on the field have his teammates believing they can win with this guy at the helm. Campbell is completed 65% of his passes, but more importantly his 6 touchdowns without an interception. He’s making the right choices and delivering the ball and defenses can no longer key on Clinton Portis and the running game. Speaking of the running game, Clinton Portis is having a nice season. Portis is averaging a solid 4.3 yards per carry this season, and that’s good news for Washington if they can keep him healthy for 16 games. Defensively the Redskins have been OK ranking fourteenth in the league overall. They did do a terrific job Sunday against the Cowboys as their banged up secondary (no Springs or Smoot in the fourth quarter) kept Dallas out of the end zone until the final two minutes. First year head coach Jim Zorn has his team believing in his system right now and their going to be a contender this season despite playing in the toughest division in all of football.
The Eagles come into this one off a Sunday night game that they probably felt they should have won. Usually reliable kicker David Akers missed two field goals and the Eagles failed to get in the end zone from 1 yard out twice with 5 minutes remaining. Starting RB Westbrook sat out Sunday night and is once again questionable for this match up Sunday, and that’ll be a huge loss for the Eagle’s if he can’t go. Buckhalter is a solid back up but he’s no Westbrook and without that big threat out of the backfield, Washington can expect a lot of pass from McNabb and company. Unlike recent seasons McNabb has more weapons to go to this season. Rookie WR Jackson looks like he’s going to be a good one, and third year man Baskett is solid on the other side. McNabb is still nursing a chest contusion he sustained against Pittsburgh, but he’s a warrior and will definitely play in this one. McNabb the heart and soul of this Eagles team already has 1100 yards passing this season with 6 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Defensively Jim Johnson’s unit can bring it. Eagles have the number 3 defense in the league and they’re number 1 against the run allowing just 54 yards per game on the ground. Philadelphia has forced 10 turnovers already this season and they’ve sacked the opposing QB 17 times.
Looking at some of the history and trends in this series we find that it’s been fairly close, as they’ve split their last 6 games straight up with the Redskins holding a slight 3-2-1 ATS edge. 20 of the last 31 in this series have gone under the total including the last 2 in Philadelphia where the Eagles are a terrific 24-7 under in October since 1992. Philadelphia is also a solid 17-7 under in the favorite role while Washington is 1-5 under as a road dog of 3½-7 points the last 3 seasons. With Westbrook iffy for this game Sunday it’s tough to go with a side here, but we’ll look for this one to follow the trends and stay under the total of 43.