New England Patriots Week 5 roadmap to the Washington Redskins
New England Patriots (4-0) travel to the Nation’s Capital to take on the Washington Redskins (0-4) Sunday afternoon at FedExField.
Coming off an ugly win against the Buffalo Bills in an AFC East slugfest, the New England Patriots will travel to the Nation’s Capital to take on the winless Washington Redskins.
While the Pats’ D is still rolling, Tom Brady and the offense will look to solve some of their issues against a Redskins team that is desperate for a victory. Jay Gruden’s team enters this mismatch on paper near the bottom of the league in scoring and giving up points.
Appears to be the perfect remedy for a Patriots offense looking to get healthy and establish some rhythm in both the running and passing game.
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Defensively, the Patriots defensive unit should feast again. The only disadvantage is they don’t know which quarterback they will be facing as Redskins coach Jay Gruden is still undecided between veteran backup Colt McCoy and rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins.
With the way the New England Patriots defense is ballin’, it appears either quarterback will be in quite a game as the 4-0 defending Super Bowl champions are -14.5 favorites against a team coming off a 24-3 loss to the New York Giants.
Last matchup
The New England Patriots and Washington Redskins last battled in a Week 9 matchup back in 2015.
Tom Brady and the Patriots offense jumped out quick taking a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Brady connected on an 8-yard touchdown to Julian Edelman and old friend LeGarrette Blount took it in on a 5-yard run for the quick strike.
With Kirk Cousins at quarterback for the Redskins, that was actually all the Patriots needed as they took a 17-3 lead into halftime and eventually extended that lead to 27-3 before giving up a late 4th quarter touchdown to win the game 27-10.
Blount led the team in rushing with 129 yards on 29 carries and Brandon LaFell led the team in receptions with 102 yards. Tom Brady finished the game with 299 yards passing with 2 touchdowns and an interception.
Coach’s corner
Just because the Washington Redskins come into this game winless and haven’t decided on a quarterback, doesn’t mean New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is taking them lightly and neither will his team.
The Patriots obviously have some things to work on offensively and Belichick knows the Redskins defensive could still present some problems for Brady and the crew.
"“Defensively, the front is very disruptive. They have good players on the edge, good players inside, guys that are hard to block,” Belichick said during his weekly conference, via Patriots.com. “They cause a lot of negative plays, ball disruption, tackles-for-loss, put a lot of pressure on the offensive line. Again, very experienced players in the secondary, very experienced coaching staff with Greg [Manusky], Rob [Ryan], Ray [Horton].”"
Players to watch
While eyes will be on Tom Brady, Josh Gordon, Julian Edelman and the offensive line for the New England Patriots, the Washington Redskins do have some playmakers on both sides of the ball.
Defensive backs Landon Collins and Josh Norman are obviously players to watch in the secondary, while Jonathan Allen, Matt Ioannidis and Ryan Kerrigan are players to watch in the front seven.
Offensively, Adrian Peterson is still very capable of making some noise, while tight ends Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis can create some problems. Wide receiver Terry McLaurin is a big play threat the New England Patriots secondary will need to keep under lock.
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Early prediction
The New England Patriots really shouldn’t have a problem in this one. The Washington Redskins will be desperate for a win but expect some early mistakes and a couple of quick scores by the Patriots to take them quickly out of the game.
It could be Jay Gruden’s last game as head coach of the Redskins as the Patriots will improve to 5-0 with a 34-6 victory.