Gridiron Grid: Redskins-Eagles

This game would have been a lot harder to figure out before watching the teams' Week 1 opponents play their Week 2 followups.

 

Both teams played toss-up games in Week 1, with the Eagles coming down on the wrong side of luck vs. Green Bay and Washington coming down on the good side of luck vs. the Dolphins. Since the Eagles were on the road and the Skins were at home the performances were a wash.

 

Then came Week 2, where Miami looked just awful in losing to Dallas while Green Bay looked legit in crushing the Giants at the Meadowlands. Our Quality Stat indicators through one week show two teams that are evenly matched, but consider that Philly rolled their numbers up against (at least at this point in the season) a much better team (Green Bay) and was far superior in 2007.

 

Washington's early No. 4 rank in Passing Yards Per Attempt seems unlikely to hold against the Eagles, tied for ninth in Defensive Passer Rating through Week 1 and No. 6 in 2006. The Redskins also lost RT Jon Jansen for the season, not good against Philly's second-ranked Defensive Hogs.

 

Maybe the Redskins don't deserve to be seven-point underdogs at home, and they might prove they shouldn't be. But a win is unlikely at best.