The game: Washington at New York Giants (-3)
And just like that a game that looked like kind of a dull easily ignored throw-away turns into one of the best games of the week in an already topsy-turvy NFL season. The Washington Redskins (1-1) come into MetLife Stadium tonight riding their biggest win of the Jay Gruden era that didn’t involve a two-for-one coupon from Hardees.
The New York Giants (0-2) haven’t won a game this season, but they’ve looked strong for stretches and have struggled closing games out in the fourth quarter. With injuries in Dallas and Philadelphia looking like their season is already done, the NFC East is wide open and one of these two teams should step up and claim it. That team won’t be the Redskins, but let’s just put that aside for a minute.
The History
This is the 167th meeting between the two teams. The Giants lead the all-time series 97-65-4.
The Giants are currently riding a four-game winning streak over the Redskins. The Giants won 24-13 last December.
The rivalry between the two teams began in 1932 when the Redskins (the the Boston Braves) were founded and is the oldest rivalry in the NFC East.
The Redskins last beat the Giants on Dec. 3, 2012 with a 17-16 win at FedEx Field on Monday Night Football.
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The Redskins on offense
With a victory over the Rams last week and a solid performance in two games, Kirk Cousins has likely solidified his position as the starting quarterback for the rest of the season (and Jay Gruden’s coaching tenure) at the very least. Washington has a respectable receiving corps, but what has every fantasy owner who worked the waiver wire right is their running backs.
Matt Jones had a break-out performance last week against the Rams defense and may have supplanted Alfred Morris as the go-to back in the Redskins offense. With Jones and Morris both running well, Cousins can take advantage of play-action opportunities downfield with DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garcon and Ryan Grant.
The Giants on offense
With the exception of the decision not to take a sack in the final minute against the Cowboys in Week One, Eli Manning has been sharp in his first two games and hasn’t thrown an interception this season. The challenge for the Giants will be up front, as their offensive line has to keep Manning’s jersey unruffled against a suddenly formidable Redskins pass rush.
Outside of Odell Beckham Jr., the Giants haven’t had much at receiver this season and that’s not going to change this week. They cut goat Preston Parker this week and Victor Cruz finally ran in practice, but is still ruled out for the game. Rueben Randle really needs to step up and be a factor here in his fourth season. This is the time. If he doesn’t, he may not have a job next year.
The Redskins on defense
The Redskins made the offseason moves they needed to fortify their defensive front and it paid off. Stealing Stephen Paea from the Bears and Terrance Knighton from the Broncos have paid dividends already.
Ryan Kerrigan has kind of been the forgotten man from the 2011 NFL draft that is probably the best defensive lineman draft in NFL history. Marcell Dareus, Aldon Smith, J.J. Watt, Nick Fairley, Robert Quinn, Cam Heyward, Muhammed Wilkerson, Corey Liuget and Cameron Jordan all came out of that first round along with Kerrigan and all but a handful of them have multiple Pro Bowls on their resume. Now that Kerrigan has decent players around him, he should be a safe bet to put up his second double-digit sack season.
The Giants on defense
New York is still missing Jason Pierre-Paul in the line up, regardless of how many fingers he’ll have to play with when he’s finally physically cleared. In the meantime they’ve had to make due with Robert Ayers (which hasn’t been bad) and Kerry Wynn (which has been bad). Because of the lack of outside pressure, the G-men have been forced to blitz more and put their defensive backfield in some bad situations. Landon Collins should be an outstanding safety some day, but right now he’s still a rookie and can be a weakness in coverage.
The pick: I like the line, but I think the Giants will blow past it. The Redskins got their best defensive performance in a decade last week. I don’t think they can do it two weeks in a row. Giants 27, Redskins 16
