NFL.COM: "Carucci's Burining Questions"

[NorthEast Skin]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/8911333

When the Seattle Seahawks travel across the country to visit the Washington Redskins, which team will make the stronger statement that it is a legitimate playoff contender?

This is a very tough one to call, but I'll give a slight edge to the Redskins.

The Redskins should keep Seattle's Shaun Alexander in check.

The Seahawks will ask running back Shaun Alexander to try and be the dominant force on the ground that he was in Week 3 against Arizona. Trouble is that won't be the Cardinals defense on the other side of the ball. The Redskins have one of the stronger defenses in the league, and they will do a great deal of blitzing from the outside that will likely force Alexander to run where he generally prefers not to go -- between the tackles. Don't expect Alexander to rip off too many of those long outside gains he had against Arizona.

Consequently, the Seahawks will probably have to win this game on the strength of Matt Hasselbeck's passing. The Redskins' lack of depth at cornerback should make them vulnerable when Seattle uses its multiple-receiver sets. However, they will rely on relentless blitzing to limit Hasselbeck's ability to take advantage of too many of those mismatches in the passing game.

Mark Brunell's late-game heroics against Dallas provided some obvious credibility to Joe Gibbs' decision to make him the Redskins' new starting quarterback, in place of Patrick Ramsey, after only one game. But Brunell has a long way to go to quiet the many skeptics who question whether Washington has a playoff-caliber offense. The Redskins used their bye to work on developing greater continuity in their passing game, although the Seahawks no doubt will focus their defensive strategy on shutting down running back Clinton Portis. With Seattle's quick-strike ability on offense and the likelihood that Ray Rhodes will have eight in the box when the Seahawks are on defense, Washington's best formula for success is to have Portis run often and to have him use his tremendous outside speed to get around the crowded line of scrimmage.