Redskins vs Eagles Preview (Week 11)
This weekend when the Washington Redskins play host to the Philadelphia Eagles, it will mark the 155th time the two teams have squared off. It will also mark the first meeting between Robert Griffin II and Mike Vick, well if he can play that is. Vick suffered a concussion last week in the Cowboys vs Eagles match-up and will have to undergo a series of tests this week to even get cleared to play.
The Redskins come into this game after much needed bye week, they have lost their last three games, the Eagles themselves are in the midst of a five game losing streak and have a veteran coach in Andy Reid who is struggling to hold onto his job at the moment. SportsBetting.ag has the Redskins as a slight 1 and a half point favorite which reflects exactly what it should about this match-up, which should be a close game. It’s no secret that both of these teams have not played well this season even with the improvement of the Redskins offense, they still find themselves in last place.
The Redskins must follow the trend set by pretty much every other team the Eagles have played this year, put pressure on the Eagles week offensive line and contain Vick while putting hits on him as much as possible. There is a chance that Vick will not play in this game, if that happens look for rookie Nick Foles to take over the quarterback position. Foles looked good in preseason, but had a rocky start to his career last weekend against Dallas.
Andy Reid..Vick has “pretty significant concussion”. Vick will not be back to practice on Wednesday.
— Howard Eskin (@howardeskin) November 12, 2012
The Redskins defense needs to find a way to step things up in this game and contain not only Vick, but LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson as well. The Eagles have weapons, they just seem to be having issues using them. Almost certainly the Eagles will focus the majority of their attention on Redskins rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III. Griffin has the ability to take games over and no one knows mobile quarterbacks better than Andy Reid, although Reid has never faced or coached a player quite like RGIII who can throw like a top tier qb, as well as run like wide receiver.
Brandon Meriweather is expected to make his regular season, Redskins debut. Meriweather may not single handily change things, but at this point the Redskins will take any help he can give to the porous secondary.
With the current state of the NFC East having the Giants (who have lost 2 straight and have a tough schedule left) at 6-4, the Cowboys at 4-5 and the Eagles and Skins at 3-6, no one is out of contention quite yet. Although the losing team from this game can almost certainly start thinking about next year.
