Are The Washington Football Team For Real?
It's early, so it's normal to jump all over the team with the biggest upset of week-1 and declare them the surprise team of the season, so let's do it!
The Washington Football team will make the playoffs this year.
I honestly believe they will...........
.......As long as the league decides to let 30 of the 32 teams into the post season this year.
That's not likely to happen though, so I guess I'll revert back to just being impressed with their opening day win over the Philadelphia Eagles, who were picked by many to finish atop the NFC East this year.
How did Washington do it?
An impressive run game? Nope.
They averaged 2.2-yards per carry, so it wasn't that.
A high-powered passing attack? Nope.
Rookie QB Dwayne Haskins threw for only 178-yards and one TD while getting sacked three times, so it wasn't that.
A ball-control clock-eating offensive game plan? Nope.
The time of possession was just about equal, with the Eagles holding the slight edge at 30:39 to Washington's 29:21. So, it wasn't that.
In fact, the Eagles led in passing yards and total yards, and had a better yards per carry on their 17 rush attempts.
Washington did run the ball 36 times on Sunday, more than twice as many times as the Eagles, but they totaled only 23 more yards than the Eagles did.
Football Team RB Peyton Barber averaged a paltry 1.7-yards per carry on his 17 attempts. No Washington runner averaged more than 4-yards per carry.
In fact, Washington's longest play of the day was a completion to WR Terry McLaurin for 21-yards in the 2nd-quarter. And they only had four plays over 13-yards after that play.
So, it must have been the defense that dominated this one and paved the way for the 1-0 Washington start,
Well, I guess, but the stats are confusing.
Washington punted more times than the Eagles did.
The Eagles had the better net punting yardage.
The Eagles had a better 3rd-down efficiency percentage.
The Eagles even had fewer penalties and less penalty yardage against them than Washington did.
So how did the Eagles lose this one by 10-points?
I'm going to have to chalk it up to the turnover battle.
The Eagles threw three INT's and lost a fumble, while Washington didn't turn the ball over at all, even though they did fumble twice.
The Redskins also won the sack battle 8-3 and had 10 tackles for loss compared to the Eagles defense that had only 4.
The Eagles had the first three scores in the game, going up 17-0 with seven minutes left in the 2nd-quarter. And then their offense put it in park the rest of the way.
Washington went on to score five consecutive times, including three TD's and two FG's, and their defense shutout the Eagles for the final two-and-a-half quarters.
Perhaps we should give some credit to the Eagles for getting this win for the Football Team from Washington.
Before this one was kicked-off there weren't many giving Washington a chance. But, some injuries to the Eagles left the door open just enough to sneak some footballs away from the Eagles offense and get out with a "W".
Starting RB Miles Sanders was scratched with a hamstring issue he'd been dealing with since early in camp.
Starting OT Lane Johnson missed the game due to excessive swelling after he had surgery on his ankle to clean-up some debris that was causing him discomfort. He was close to playing but the swelling was a bit too much to let him go.
Starting DE Derek Barnett also missed this one with a hamstring injury that has kept him out of practice since the beginning of camp.
Whatever the reasons may have been, the new version of the football team from Washington is undefeated.
Now, they will pack-up their magic show and take it to Arizona to face the Cardinals on Sunday night prime time television.
Just kidding, you don't think the NFL would actual schedule the Football Team to play on prime time, do you?
If they can beat the Cardinals in Arizona this weekend I will definitely know that 2020 is not done throwing us curveballs. Or should I say screwballs.
Stay tuned.