It’s not by any means scientific, but the Washington Post has the first large scale look at the Over-Under for the Redskins in 2008…. and it’s interesting to see what the Redskin-interested community is predicting. Suffice it to say, as I write this, the prediction is for 10.9 wins (seems high to me; I’m seeing 9-7). Most fans see 9 sure wins, 2 sure losses, and a number of tossups. Any thoughts?
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I hate to say this, but I see the games at the Giants and Cowboys as pretty much sure losses, and here’s why.
The Giants game will be the first game of the season, a marquee matchup, and will be the Z-Man’s first game as Head Coach that means anything. It will be away, at a place that historically hasn’t been easy (though we’ve done well enough there, I suppose) against one of our biggest rivals, the currently defending Superbowl Champs. There are player rivalries involved, as well, with some prominent players moving between the teams, and the Redskins are the last team to have beaten the Giants at home, IIRC, and the second to the last loss. The Redskins are CAPABLE of winning… I just don’t think they will.
In Dallas’s case, we’re going to be the second team in the Cowboys’ new stadium; one mitigating factor is that we’re the SECOND in every way; in Week 2, the Eagles get to inagurate the stadium as the first opponent, first NFC opponent, first NFC East opponent, etc. The Cowboys are still the team that (through some fluky scheduling) put together a 13-3 team last year; in a few key areas they’ve gotten a bit older, but we haven’t seen the results of the draft, and they are actively courting players that may still be quite good (however, in the next few years, they’re going to visit the same Cap Hell the Redskins are in now). We’ve always had problems with the Cowboys… and we’ve always had problems in Dallas. Gut says we get our first win in Dallas’s new stadium in 2009, not 2008.
We’re going to be underdogs in Seattle, but I’m not convinced we lose that game; I’m just leaning that way (in fact, right now, I wouldn’t be surprised at 0-November with the current schedule, either). The early losses to the Giants and Cowboys, and an 0-November, and the Redskins won’t make the playoffs (that’s 5 NFC losses, 4 in the East losses, right there). And a good part of that is because the schedule isn’t particularly kind to the Redskins this year.. I’m predicting 9-7 as the realistic best we can do this year, but that won’t get us in the playoffs even if a 9-7 team gets in. More realistically, 8-8 or even 7-9 this year.