As per SportsTalk 980, here is the 2008 schedule for your Washington Redskins:
Thursday September 4th: Washington at NY Giants
Sunday September 14th: New Orleans at Washington
Sunday September 21st: Arizona at Washington
Sunday September 28th: Washington at Dallas
Sunday October 5th: Washington at Philadelphia
Sunday October 12th: St. Louis at Washington
Sunday October 19th: Cleveland at Washington
Sunday October 26th: Washington at Detroit
Monday November 3rd: Pittsburgh at Washington
Week 10 BYE
Sunday November 16th: Dallas at Washington (Sunday nighter)
Sunday November 23rd: Washington at Seattle
Sunday November 30th: NY Giants at Washington
Sunday December 7th: Washington at Baltimore
Sunday December 14th: Washington at Cincinnati
Sunday December 21st: Philadelphia at Washington
Sunday December 28th: Washington at San Francisco
I will add more detail when it becomes available but at 1st glance, I like the bye before the Dallas game.
And now, some further analysis:
Those first two home games are going to be big if the Redskins want to avoid needing another big run at the end of the season to make the playoffs. Facing three road division games in the first five weeks is a tough slate, so beating Arizona and New Orleans at home early is going to be big.
After those 1st five games, the schedule takes a bit of a lull and the Redskins hit what would have to be considered easy portion of the schedule. Those three games (STL, CLE, DET) are all winnable, Cleveland had a good season but should are still beatable particularly at Fed Ex Field.
Post bye, the Redskins are looking at three tough games (DAL, SEA, NYG). As mentioned above, I like getting Dallas after a week off. The Seattle game will have some intrigue with it being Jim Zorn’s home coming and a rematch of last year’s playoff game.
The Redskins close out with four winnable games (BAL, CIN, PHI, SF), although three are on the road. I beleive this is the 2nd straight year where the divisional match-ups start with three road games. While it would be nice to get a home division game early, if they are going to bunch up like that, I’d rather have the home games later in the year.
All in all not a bad schedule and you can now start making your travel and ticket plans at our Redskins tickets page.
Lee, sorry, but I have to disagree with a some of the analysis; it’s much better to have off games between the hard games (though starting the season with the hard games may help; we’re less likely to have injuries that will effect whether or not we can field a workable team). I’d particularly liked to have had at least a few of the more difficult games have a breather between them; it’s going to be disappointing if we are already out of contention by week 9 or 10 because the schedule was so heavily front loaded, even if we do have a lighter schedule.
Dallas after the Bye is a nice touch, but I would have hoped that we wouldn’t have three weeks of tough games a coast-to-coast trip in the middle (and the first is a NIGHT game!); that’s artificially going to make the stretch even more difficult. Additionally, having almost all of the tough games on the road (the toughest game non-NFC East at home is Pittsburgh; the next is New Orleans) hurts, as well. I’d much rather play a cream puff on the road, and a tough team at home.
That said, there are SOME favors in there. But with a schedule where we may be realistically projected to potentially go 0-4 in November is not a good schedule. On the other hand, it is the schedule we’ve seen the last two play off teams…. November Swoon, December Streak.
In some ways I agree Bill. I’ve probably become a bit too used to big December runs and think they happen more often than they really do.
I will say if we go 0-4 in November with two home divisional games, we’re toast. Zorn’s going to have to prove himself in this division games, if we go 1-5 or 0-6 against the NFC East, we’ll be worrying about our draft pick much earlier next year.