Eagles v. Redskins Staff Picks: All My Rowdy Friends

The name of the game seems to change nearly every week. The Redskins snatched victory from the jaws of defeat a week ago against a consensus inferior opponent, the San Francisco 49ers.

After having oodles of confidence after narrowly losing to the Chiefs and having put away a generally considered top-tier Raiders squad, Oakland has since fallen to 3-, making the Redskins’ week 3 victory shine a little less bright.

Now, the ever-familiar skepticism has started to inch it’s way back into the conversation, and questions bubble to the surface: are there “moral losses” or “amoral victories?” What is clear is there isn’t all that much which is obvious about the Redskins this season. At times, they’ve show themselves wholly capable of competing with playoff-caliber teams, but at other times even in wins, they seem to have regressed.

This week the Redskins have an opportunity to exact a measure of revenge on the Philadelphia Eagles, a team for whom there is no love lost. Philly is currently in first place in the NFC East, the only team Washington is looking up at in the standings. The Redskins travel to “The City of Brotherly Love” (a name about as fitting as if Washington were “The City With No Rush Hour Traffic”) for a third prime-time matchup this year. A victory on the road would bring the Redskins within half a game of first(darn bye week math) and would go a long way towards re-instilling a lot of the confidence that has perhaps dwindled over the past few weeks.

And now our staff predictions for the week:

Bryan H. Stabbe (4-1): 24-18, Eagles
I may be a pessimist, or a cynic, but I’m not drinking the Kool Aid just yet on this Redskins squad. I was in college in central PA when Michael Vick hung six touchdowns on Washington on Monday Night Football, a game that my Eagles fan “friends” have never let me forget. Perhaps it’s the lingering trauma of that game that has me down on this Monday Night iteration, but history aside, I think the Eagles... are really good [audibly suppresses gag reflex.] Carson Wentz is well on his way to becoming the Eagles first ever 4000 yard passer, and has an opportunity to take advantage of a severely injury-depleted Redskins defense. I really, really hope I’m wrong but I think the Eagles take the win at home.

Tom Garrett (3-2): 31-28, Redskins
If the Eagles beat the Redskins, the division will be theirs to lose. Everyone else will have three or more losses, while Philly will be 6-1. Not only that, but a win over Washington would complete a season sweep, effectively giving the Eagles an even bigger lead over the Redskins.

But this is the NFL. And the NFL is built on regression to the mean.

Washington was in good position to beat the Eagles when things fell apart late back in Week 1. Now, the Redskins are facing a Philadelphia team that has won four straight---but three of those four wins are by a *combined* 10 points.

The Redskins are moving the ball well, and I think the Eagles will have trouble slowing this Washington attack. The question is whether a banged-up Redskin defense can do enough to keep Carson Wentz and company from putting up five or more touchdowns.

I think they can, and the Redskins win a close, fairly high-scoring game to keep the NFC East race very interesting over the next two months.

Bill-in-Bangkok (4-1): 27-20, Eagles
The Redskins are the better team when healthy, but the likely loss of Norman & Breeland will be too much to overcome in a week where we lost Jon Allen for the year, as well as replacing Dustin Hopkins with a rookie kicker who will begin his NFL career in Philadelphia on Monday Night Football. Absolutely no pressure on the young man there. This is a crucial game that will be decided by injuries.

Aaron Lesher (2-1): 27-24, Redskins
I think if people knew the Eagles would be 5-1 through the first six weeks of the NFL season they would have felt differently about the Redskins' Week 1 loss. That game was extremely close and ended on a completely blown call.

Since then, the Redskins offense has improved significantly, namely Cousins and the O-line. We also should be getting Rob Kelley back, which should be a boost to the run game.

What worries me are our mounting injuries on defense and the red-hot play of Carson Wentz. He's a top-five QB in the NFL right now and a nightmare for pass rushers to bring down (just ask Ryan Kerrigan). The only way I see us winning is forcing multiple turnovers and Kirk playing a mistake-free game.

However, I think we come into this game fired up and a better squad than the Eagles played in Week 1. We've shown multiple times we can perform in primetime games, and I think the Eagles believe they have this in the bag. Cousins drives down the field the last 2 minutes and new kicker Nick Rose boots the game-winner.

HogHunter (1-4): 28-24 Redskins

Now it’s your turn, how do you feel about the Redskins’ chances against the Eagles? Vote in our poll and share your predictions in the comments below.