Redskins S.O.S so far. #1 in the NFL..

[Playaction2Sanders]

Looking at profootball reference today, its easy to get lost on that site looking up players and team stats.. I was checking the skins Strength of Schedule. And they have it listed as a 10.55. Looking around the rest of the league NE is 2nd with a 9.06 and KC has an 8 and San Diego has a 7. We were the only one in double digits which means we've had the hardest schedule to date..

 

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/was/2017.htm

 

But looking at the rest of the league, there weren't many near us after San Diego. I gotta say it makes you feel good about this team..

[SWFLSkins]

Remaining schedule looks a little better, but we still have 5 division games which can be tricky. At Seahawks and at Saints, probably better than playing them at FedEX field, haha

[HailSkins789]

We will come on a run after the bye week. This team is legit. We are one or two plays away from being undefeated. Our defense is legit, and our O is finally back to form. The fact that we came out of that first rough stretch at 2-2 says something. I'm happy with where we are, and hope we continue to improve moving forward, because if so, we can be very dangerous.

[LavarArringtonMachine]

This is great, I love it!  After the bye, I can see us going 4-0.

[Taylorcooley1]

Well like I posted in the assessment thread 0 false starts for our o line and zero sacks allowed in that stadium, it reaaaallly is a sign of a great team..year in year out for 39 years I've been here..through the thick and thin of things..in the area I live there aren't many skins fans..so in the early nineties I was the only fan around, in the late eighties I was in so cal and everyone was rams or raiders fans and my father and I were the lonely skins fans..so I ponder now and than how it was to have a dominant team..reminiscing of especially the 91-92 team..steam rolled everyone!!..am I seeing that in this team?..not   quite    yet...but it's close..I mean like possibly this season close..the defense is there and with what I stated at the beginning of this post leaves one to think if last nights game very well could have been a Superbowl preview...reading that post felt like being on a roller coaster ride..?..haha o well 

[skinny21]

Am I right that our schedule was ranked the hardest before the season started too?  

[BleedBNG]

8 minutes ago, skinny21 said:

Am I right that our schedule was ranked the hardest before the season started too?  

 

ESPN mag had us at no.1

[Warhead36]

The key is the five game stretch after the 49er game: @ Philly, Dallas, @ Seattle, Minnesota, @ New Orleans. Assuming we beat the 49ers, we need to go 3-2 in that stretch. Doable for sure.

 

After that it gets a bit easier. We get the Giants twice and they'll be well out of it by then. Cowboys in Dallas on a Thursday night, but its the week after Thanksgiving, so both teams will be on regular rest. Chargers in LA is basically a 9th home game for every team playing as the visitor. Cardinals suck, and Broncos but at home and they aren't anywhere near as good when playing outside Mile High.

 

If we're 6-4 going into the final 6, a 5-1 finish is not unreasonable. 11-5 probably wins the NFC East, although the 2nd Eagle game could decide it, because they could finish 11-5 also and we can't get swept by them.

[Voice_of_Reason]

14 hours ago, Warhead36 said:

The key is the five game stretch after the 49er game: @ Philly, Dallas, @ Seattle, Minnesota, @ New Orleans. Assuming we beat the 49ers, we need to go 3-2 in that stretch. Doable for sure.

 

After that it gets a bit easier. We get the Giants twice and they'll be well out of it by then. Cowboys in Dallas on a Thursday night, but its the week after Thanksgiving, so both teams will be on regular rest. Chargers in LA is basically a 9th home game for every team playing as the visitor. Cardinals suck, and Broncos but at home and they aren't anywhere near as good when playing outside Mile High.

 

If we're 6-4 going into the final 6, a 5-1 finish is not unreasonable. 11-5 probably wins the NFC East, although the 2nd Eagle game could decide it, because they could finish 11-5 also and we can't get swept by them.

You've got to win the games you're supposed to win.  At this point, that's probably the 49ers, Giants twice, Chargers and Cardinals.  Win those, and barring injury or ridiculousness, they will be favored in all of them, you've gotten yourself to 7 wins. Giants in NY will be tough, because it always is.  But it's a game they SHOULD win if they are the type of team we think they are or can be.  

 

Then you've got Philly, Dallas twice, Seattle, Minny, Broncos and NO.  That's 7 games.  Go 4-3, get to 11 wins and probably the division, assuming one of those wins is against the Eagles.    Go 3-4, and get to 10 wins, and almost certainly make the playoffs.  If they go 2-5 or worse, they miss the playoffs, most likely.  

 

I think that 10-6 is in play.  I don't see them getting to 11 wins.  But I hope I'm wrong.  The biggest game of the season might be in 3 weeks in Philly.  If you win against the 49ers and then win that game, at 4-2 with a split against the Eagles in-hand, you're looking pretty good.  If you beat the 49ers and then lose to Philly, they are in control of the division, but at 3-3, you can still get to 10 wins and the playoffs.  

 

Lose to the 49ers, and you just blew your best shot of making the playoffs in your 5th game.  

[LavarArringtonMachine]

On 10/3/2017 at 8:10 PM, BleedBNG said:

 

ESPN mag had us at no.1

 

It looked like a number 1 schedule at the start, but that had to have been based on what those teams did last year.  Looking down our schedule going forth, alot of those teams look like mirages compared to last year.  Between personnel changes, injuries, or just plain philosophy changes, I dont see why we wont wind up 12-4 or better if we can stay healthy.  All of the heavy hitter teams on our schedule from last season are all having setbacks of some kind.

 

We have to seize the moment while the gettin' is good!!!   

[Suffolk_Skins]

On 10/4/2017 at 2:40 PM, Voice_of_Reason said:

The biggest game of the season might be in 3 weeks in Philly.  If you win against the 49ers and then win that game, at 4-2 with a split against the Eagles in-hand, you're looking pretty good.  If you beat the 49ers and then lose to Philly, they are in control of the division, but at 3-3, you can still get to 10 wins and the playoffs.  

 

Lose to the 49ers, and you just blew your best shot of making the playoffs in your 5th game.  

 

It's still a little early for that, I agree with you it's big because the Eagles look pretty legit right now and have one over us but they still have to play Cards and Panthers before we even go there. Who knows they could be 500 by the time we play them! Not impossible, my point is lots cab happen but yes I agree we need not to go two down against the Eagles. I am not just saying this because we lost but I think week 1 divisional games are stupid! The season has not got going and they are worth a game and a half. 

 

That said if we do lose there it ain't over. One of the two wildcards should come from the East, 9-7 might do it 10-6 certainly should. If we go 4-2 and beat the Eagles we should be some degree of control. 

3 minutes ago, Suffolk_Skins said:

 

[Warhead36]

Right now its looking like the Bucs aren't going to be as good as people thought. Falcons and Panthers are both 3-1, but I could see the Panthers dropping off with how little they have on offense around Newton(and Newton's general consistencies).

 

In the North you could have both the Lions and Packers. I think the Lions are legit, unsure about the Packers.

 

The West will only send one team and my guess is its...the Rams. Seahawks just don't impress me at the moment.

 

East could send two teams. Cowboys will drop off once Zeke is suspended, their D has already been exposed. I think its between us and the Eagles.

 

This could also be a year though where a 10 or even 11 win team misses the playoffs.

[Suffolk_Skins]

7 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

Right now its looking like the Bucs aren't going to be as good as people thought. Falcons and Panthers are both 3-1, but I could see the Panthers dropping off with how little they have on offense around Newton(and Newton's general consistencies).

 

In the North you could have both the Lions and Packers. I think the Lions are legit, unsure about the Packers.

 

The West will only send one team and my guess is its...the Rams. Seahawks just don't impress me at the moment.

 

East could send two teams. Cowboys will drop off once Zeke is suspended, their D has already been exposed. I think its between us and the Eagles.

 

This could also be a year though where a 10 or even 11 win team misses the playoffs.

 

10/11 wins might not make the playoffs? That doesn't go in line with the rest of your post.

[skinfan2k]

Teams who will be there at the end:  

 

East: Cowboys, Redskins

North: Lions, Packers

West:  Seahawks

South:  Falcons, Panthers

 

 

[Warhead36]

23 minutes ago, Suffolk_Skins said:

 

10/11 wins might not make the playoffs? That doesn't go in line with the rest of your post.

Its possible the Eagles, Redskins, Lions, Packers, Falcons, and Panthers all win 10+ games.

 

One of those second place teams in that scenario wouldn't make the playoffs.

[skins island connection]

 

 After last year's monster dinosaur egg that the Redskins laid against the Giants in the finale, I don't ever look past the Giants and consider it a relatively easy win.

 The egg laid in that game would have made Fred Flintstone drool with envy. That still burns my ass to this day.

 

 In fact, there shouldn't be a fan, player or coach on the team that believes the Redskins will simply boll over any opponent. The gauntlet coming up will be a big test for both the offense and defense, but after that, no one knows if any of the remaining teams will be on a heater, and usually there is at least 1 team that does get on a winning streak.

At least splitting the Dallas games, winning against Minnesota will be tough, Seattle still has a good defense, the Saints, ehhh, I dunno but think it should be a win, Denver could be a 9-6 defensive struggle, but outside of those games, the others that 'look' like easy wins are the ones I'm most worried about. Gruden has to keep them focused and not let their heads swell, or a couple of losses against teams going nowhere will end up gaining another team, the Redskins.

[Burgold]

We seem #1 in strength of schedule so often. I don't get it. Last year, weren't we the third best team in the NFCE?

[TSO]

10 hours ago, Burgold said:

We seem #1 in strength of schedule so often. I don't get it. Last year, weren't we the third best team in the NFCE?

 

The stuff coming out now is based on the records thus far this season, so it makes sense now. But, yeah, it’s annoying. Seems like we always are. 

 

What I never understood was how the SOS rankings that were coming out during the offseason had us among the top of the NFL and higher than the rest of the NFC East. Same question you have now.

 

For instance, somehow the Cowboys and Giants - playing the exact same schedule but instead two of their NFC opponents are division winners/second place - ended up ranked with an easier schedule! Blew my mind. 

 

I get it to a degree... we’re playing the Cowboys and Giants twice so their better records by default works against us. But it’s not like it should be that big of a difference. Those divisional winners the Cowboys play instead of us must not have had great records. But like, the Giants also play the Cowboys twice and our record wasn’t that bad, so how were they lower than us? I guess the two second-place NFC opponents they play had average records as well and they weren't any different than our third place ones. It’s weird, though. And frustrating. 

[nemocystem]

SOS is  main reason FPI has us at a 14% chance to make the playoffs as of today.  It's a bear, but i don't really pay too much attention to SOS ratings...fwiw.

[Warhead36]

14 of the 16 games each year are decided in advance. It just so happens we're playing the AFC West this year which is very strong, and our own NFC East which at least after last year appeared strong(13 win Cowboys twice, 11 win Giants twice, this is why our schedule appears easier than there's because they play the 8 win Redskins twice instead).

 

 

[TheGreek1973]

One game at a time.  First the 49s.  I want us to get a little more solid on the O, settle on a RB (Brown should have a chance to show his stuff in this game).  We should be getting Reed back he needs to contribute heavily if we are to challenge for the division.  

 

Eagles, we owe them a smack-down, the refs helped them immensely in our first game.  They are hurting in the secondary and Cousins right now is playing better and better.  Must win this game for us, where we may not have Norman.  I wouldn't risk him if he is not 100%.

 

We go 2-0 the next two games and show the type of effort we did against KC, I am not worried about any other team in our schedule.  We can play against anyone.  Just please no injuries.