Riffs, rants, observations and dissenting opinions from the voices in my head: Here's a warped and dented take on this weekend's games, with a special focus on the undefeated versus the immortal.
Note: All times listed are Eastern, odds are via Odds Shark and game capsules are listed in the order you should read them.
Bengals at Patriots
Sunday, 8:30 p.m.
Line: Even
And now for something different here at Game Previews: a Choose Your Own Adventure version of the Bengals-Patriots capsule, complete with individualized predictions!
First, select your feelings about the Patriots:
True Believer: You have been curled up next to your bathtub since Tuesday morning, clutching an old Kevin Faulk jersey and whimpering Brady will save us, Brady will save us, Brady will save us.
Reactionary: It’s Jimmy Garoppolo time! The Patriots should also promote defensive coordinator Matt Patricia to head coach and general manager now so the Raiders don’t snatch him!
Fatalist: Oh, they will just end up 11-5 in a weak division and reach the AFC Championship Game again, and we will all go through this silly public teeth-gnashing next year.
Next, select your feeling about the Bengals:
Bandwagon Driver: This is the year, baby! And I am not just saying that because an early bye week gave me two full weeks to be a trendsetter.
Doubter: Oh boy, regular-season victories against second-tier opponents...the Bengals have never done that before. I am so excited that I might actually purchase a ticket to a game.
Narrative Driver: Is Andy Dalton elite? Can he win the big game? For real or fraud? Smash or trash? All opinions and evaluations are strictly binary!
Now, combine your two opinions, select the appropriate preview, and walk away feeling both informed and validated:
True Believer vs. Bandwagon Driver: The Bengals win 28-24, but two fourth-quarter Brady touchdowns reveal both a new offensive strategy and a radiant inner strength that transforms offensive tackle Cameron Fleming into Hall of Famer John Hannah.
Reactionary vs. Bandwagon Driver: Bengals coast to a 27-14 win. Brady and Bill Belichick are assumed body and soul into heaven (or someplace) during their postgame press conferences.
Fatalist vs. Bandwagon Driver: Bengals win 23-20. Bills and Jets lose. Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin spends the bye week talking up undrafted free-agent QB Seth Lobato.
True Believer vs. Doubter: Patriots win 31-13. Andy Dalton admits after the game that playing in Foxborough makes his tummy tingle.
Fatalist vs. Doubter: Who cares?
Reactionary vs. Doubter: Patriots squeak out a 24-23 win when a pass interference penalty sets up a last-second field goal. The playoff rematch is guaranteed to take place in Foxborough.
True Believer vs. Narrative Driver: Tom Brady throws three touchdowns and Andy Dalton throws three interceptions in a 31-13 Patriots rout because WINNERS WIN and CHAMPIONS FIND A WAY.
Reactionary vs. Narrative Driver: Andy Dalton throws three touchdowns and Brady endures six sacks before giving way to Garoppolo in a 28-14 Bengals rout because IT’S THE END OF AN ERA.
Fatalist vs. Narrative Driver: The Bengals win 23-20, but ALL THAT MATTERS IS WHO GETS IT DONE IN THE PLAYOFFS.
Actual prediction: The better team wins. Bengals 24, Patriots 17
Cardinals at Broncos
Sunday, 4:05 p.m.
Line: Broncos -9
Nerve damage has left Carson Palmer in medical limbo; a finicky shoulder has left him unable to throw downfield, meaning Drew Stanton gets the most important start of his career Sunday.
Stanton has been surprisingly efficient, but the Cardinals’ hopes for an upset and coveted "For Real" status on talk shows rest with their defense. Their defense’s hopes rest with coordinator Todd Bowles’ ability to devise an anti-Peyton Manning game plan.
As Josh Weinfuss reported for ESPN.com, Bowles has plenty of help. Head coach Bruce Arians and team consigliere Tom Moore have coached Manning in the past and know many of his tendencies. Antonio Cromartie and Larry Foote have faced Manning in big games, with some success. And Bowles-coached secondaries have posted a respectable 8-7 touchdown-to-interception rate against Manning in five games.
The trick, according to Foote and the other veterans, is to show the same basic fronts over and over again, hiding blitzes and other wrinkles beneath a fog of vanilla formations. Sounds plausible. The Seahawks showed a lot of simple looks in the Super Bowl, and Manning cannot audible out of a bad situation if he does not know what situation he’s facing.
Of course, the Cardinals blabbed all about this plan to ESPN, so Manning knows he will be facing crazy blitzes and coverages disguised as basic concepts. But maybe that’s what Arians and Bowles really want. Then they will come out with Tyrann Mathieu, Tony Jefferson and Calais Campbell stacked on top of each other at the line of scrimmage like turtles.
Maybe all the talk about disguises is the real disguise. Come to think of it, maybe Carson Palmer’s shoulder is just fine. The Cardinals had a hard time deceiving anyone in the past, because nobody paid attention to them. Now they are making up for lost time.
Manning is one touchdown away from joining the 500 passing touchdown club, which currently consists solely of Brett Favre (508), who is the kind of guy who can hang out in clubs by himself without feeling lonely.
To gather 500 Cardinals passing touchdowns, we must start Nov. 8, 1987, when Neil Lomax enjoyed a three-touchdown afternoon for the St. Louis Cardinals, then travel through Kurt Warner, Jake Plummer and Palmer, with local stops at Timm Rosenbach, Dave Krieg, Tom Tupa, Chris Chandler, Matt Leinart, Gary Hogeboom, Boomer Esiason and others too obscure or wacky to mention.
Stanton’s club is a lot more interesting than Manning’s, but it has some strange members. Stanton might want to arrive for the first meeting incognito.
Prediction: Broncos 28, Cardinals 16
Chiefs at 49ers
Sunday, 4:25 p.m.
Line: 49ers -5
Alex Smith’s return to San Francisco reminds us of an era when the 49ers were a fractured organization plagued by intrigue and locker room politics, an era when management, coaches and players were often pursuing three different agendas.
An era just like the present!
Oh, the controversy stirred up by Hall of Famer cornerback Deion Sanders and embedded informant Notmichael Noncrabtree is mostly smoke. Jim Harbaugh’s players have defended him with quickness, intensity and just a hint of defensiveness.
"I know for a fact that everyone loves Harbaugh," right guard Alex Boone—a disgruntled contract holdout six weeks ago—told 95.7 The Game. "He’s a great guy. How can you not want to win for a guy that wears cleats during the game? Come on now. Have you seen that guy’s energy? He’s excited 24-7. You’ve got to love to play for a guy like that."
So yeah, Boone can peer into the souls of all 52 of his teammates and determine their true feelings. Because after all, who could hate a boss who uses corny dress-up motivational tactics and acts like a rat in an amphetamine laboratory all the time?
Every locker room has malcontents and grumblers, and a coach like Harbaugh is not going to build the kind of gray-flannel consensus Andy Reid strives to instill in his teams.
Smith’s return harkens us back to the time when the 49ers had serious troubles: head coaches branding Smith an underachiever and benching him for every J.T. O’Sullivan who wandered past the locker room; offensive coordinators getting fired in September for miscommunication; head coaches gaining and losing personnel authority; general managers quietly resigning; coach-versus-quarterback sideline arguments; and general week-to-week soap operatics.
The 2003-2010 49ers had a fractured locker room and headquarters. The 2014 49ers are just mad because they lost to the Cardinals.
Smith, branded the culprit in so many of those long-ago incidents, has found a home beneath Reid’s red umbrella of mushy professionalism. The Chiefs are winning games the way the 49ers always wanted to win them: nasty defense, power running and attention to detail. They also have great third-down rates on offense and defense and low penalty numbers.
Unity does not trump talent as often as sportswriters like to imagine, but unity-plus-precision can trump talent-minus-injured starters.
The 49ers will likely be without right tackle Anthony Davis (leg), and Vernon Davis (back spasms) may be little more than a decoy. The Chiefs have a mostly healthy one-two running back punch (Jamaal Charles will never not be sore), and Donald Stephenson’s return from suspension improves an offensive line that gets better every week.
The 49ers must come face-to-face with the fact that they are not as great or deep as any of us thought, and that scapegoating won’t solve the problem. Smith is in a far happier place, though the 49ers don’t really miss him. They will miss Jim Harbaugh much more if he leaves.
Prediction: Chiefs 21, 49ers 20
Texans at Cowboys
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Line: Cowboys -7
This is not just a battle for the legitimacy that comes with a 4-1 record, but for the hearts and minds of Texans.
You no doubt saw Facebook’s fandom-by-county map from early September, and it confirmed what you probably knew: Most of Texas is still Cowboys country, despite owner/president/GM Jerry Jones’ ongoing effort to alienate the constituency.
The Texans were a better team than the Cowboys from 2010 to 2012, but former head coach Gary Kubiak and QB Matt Schaub are not the kind of guys who make fans abandon generational loyalty.
J.J. Watt (limited in practice this week with a thigh injury but expected to play) is the biggest thing to hit Houston football since Earl Campbell. One Watt Swat-6 after a Tony Romo bumble, and some of those blue counties in Texas may start to turn red. Wow, that sounds backward during political season.
Those counties wedged between the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana are sure to fall. C’mon, Jefferson, Orange, Jasper and Newton counties: Ditch the 10-gallon hat stereotype and follow Watt into the 21st century!
Hey, San Antonio, Bexar County and all of those southern regions: Change allegiances now, and you might spook owner Mark Davis into keeping the Raiders out of your backyard! And Austin...Ryan Fitzpatrick has a microbrewer’s beard and Arian Foster is all New-Agey. Why are you rooting for the Cowboys?
The Cowboys and Texans are only meeting for the fourth time, and this is the first time both teams enter the game with winning records. This is a more critical win for the Cowboys than the Texans due to strength of schedule.
The Texans still have all four Jaguars and Titans games coming, and their conference rival is the AFC North: you can practically pencil in at least a 9-7 record now. The Cowboys have some soft patches coming but have already cashed in their Titans and Rams coupons; the Seahawks and Cardinals are looming on their immediate horizon.
Must-win scenarios do not lead to wins, but an outstanding offensive line can help neutralize a defensive MVP, and the Texans cannot do enough offensively to exploit the weak links in the Cowboys defense. The annexation of Texas as a football red state will have to wait, but Watt should still be able to coax a new generation of Texans into singing "Luv Ya Blue."
Prediction: Cowboys 26, Texans 14
Bears at Panthers
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Line: Panthers -1.5
We interrupt our regular discussion of what’s wrong with the Panthers running backs (everybody’s hurt), receivers (everybody left), offensive line (everybody retired) and Cam Newton (see previous parentheses) to talk about what’s wrong with Carolina's front seven. Expected to be the strength of the team, the Panthers front seven has allowed 391 rushing yards and registered just one sack in the last two games.
Here is what is going on:
Defensive Tackles Are Getting Single-Blocked
Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short should be eating up double-teams in the middle. Instead, they are easily getting single-blocked.
It was not unusual during the Ravens game to see a center or guard slam straight into Luke Kuechly after barely nudging Lotulelei, Short or Colin Cole. Kuechly needs to be able to flow to the ball to be effective.
Greg Hardy’s absence is an obvious factor, but edge rushers can only do so much when interior defenders are playing poorly.
Backside Pursuit Has Been Sluggish
Thomas Davis is battling hip and hamstring injuries, leaving veteran role player Chase Blackburn as the starting weakside linebacker. Blackburn lacks the speed to race down the line and seal off cutback lanes.
Strongside linebacker A.J. Klein is too easy to neutralize: Tight ends pin him to the sideline, and wide cutback lanes appears.
The Safeties Are No Help at All
Roman Harper and Thomas DeCoud are not the guys you want taking on fullbacks in run gaps. Though if you are looking for a safety to take a bad angle, then bounce off the ball-carrier, DeCoud has tons of experience.
This game promises to be an exhibition of shoddy run defense and secondary blunders by two teams that should know better. The key difference: One team will attack with Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery and Martellus Bennett, the other with Darrin Reaves, Kelvin Benjamin, Greg Olsen and the power of positive thinking.
Prediction: Bears 24, Panthers 10
Browns at Titans
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Line: Even
The Titans don’t look like a football team at all right now. They look like a bunch of kids running around in a barn. It’s almost like...I cannot put my finger on it...
Kenny, King of Tennessee
We’re on our knees
This team’s not ready.
What will be their destiny?
To end the year 3-13?
CHORUS
Gotta find some blockers
Please replace Jake Locker
Cannot lose to Cleveland
Or Kenny, we’ll be leavin’.
Fans are getting cranky
Give the ball to Sankey!
Kenny, you stop failin’
Or you’ll be Dennis Allen.
Wow, that was like watching a whole band of Charlie Whitehursts! On an unrelated note, Phil Simms has announced that he will no longer say the words "Apache Relay" during NFL broadcasts.
Prediction: Browns 22, Titans 13
Ravens at Colts
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Line: Colts -3
Meet the new Baltimore Ravens:
C.J. Mosley
The rookie leads the team in tackles (34) and has been a force in pass defense over the middle. Here’s Chris Simms offering some high praise on Mosley:
Who would have thought the Ravens would find an impact defender at Alabama?
James Hurst
The undrafted rookie left tackle had what head coach John Harbaugh called an "invisible" game in relief of Eugene Monroe last week. For a left tackle, invisibility is a good thing.
Justin Forsett and Lorenzo Taliaferro
The veteran all-purpose back and rookie slasher have combined for 278 rushing yards in the last two weeks. Both look very comfortable in Gary Kubiak’s stretch-and-cutback system.
Could Mosley, Hurst, Forsett and Taliaferro be the next Ray Lewis, Jonathan Ogden, Jamal Lewis and Priest Holmes? Slow down! The Ravens secondary is an injury-riddled wreck, and the team’s road record is still spotty, so Andrew Luck’s flying circus will be a real handful this week.
But the talent pipeline keeps flowing from Tuscaloosa (and elsewhere) to Baltimore, meaning the team could go 11-5 forever, even without the aid of a schedule full of Titans and Jaguars.
Prediction: Colts 27, Ravens 23
Falcons at Giants
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Line: Giants -4
Center Joe Hawley and right tackle Lamar Holmes were both lost for the year Sunday. That forces Peter Konz into the lineup at center and (ugh) Gabe Carimi onto the field at right tackle. With rookie Jake Matthews already learning on the job at left tackle, the fate of the Falcons and the health of Matt Ryan rests with one man: offensive line coach Mike Tice.
Every Bears fan just swallowed their gum. History tells us that Ryan will be sacked 101 times in the next two seasons, yet somehow Tice will be promoted as a result. Farewell, offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter! Hello, Roddy White and Julio Jones running fly routes against double coverage while eight guys block.
The Giants have straightened out the worst of their early-season offensive and defensive issues and are ready to beat an opponent that’s vulnerable on the offensive line and inexperienced (and a little soft) on defense.
Meanwhile, you lost out on Larry Donnell in fantasy football because your brother-in-law spent eight years worth of waiver points and agreed to bathe your commissioner’s dog. If we invest in the stock market the way we play fantasy football, the American economy is doomed.
Prediction: Giants 28, Falcons 21
Rams at Eagles
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Line: Eagles -7
It takes an injury plague, a tough loss and an All Pro running back averaging 2.7 yards per carry for some folks to appreciate and pay attention to offensive linemen.
Right tackle Lane Johnson returns after a four-game suspension Sunday, and Zach Berman of the Philadelphia Inquirer takes us deeper into Johnson’s workout regimen than we ever expected to go.
Click the link above to find out all about Johnson’s diet and specially weighted jacket, then learn that he was allowed to listen to recordings of Eagles offensive meetings (presumably after Chip Kelly adds a background soundtrack).
At least no Eagles lineman has been bitten by a tick. St. Louis' Rodger Saffold got bit by an arachnid in June and contracted ehrlichia, which is just as debilitating as Rocky Mountain spotted fever but sounds less like a John Denver-Ted Nugent duet.
Saffold was quiet about the illness when it limited him in training camp but has recently come down with a case of TMI, telling the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Jim Thomas some gory details involving dark brown urine.
Saffold took every anti-tick precaution possible, including spraying his yard, but the little parasites are everywhere. "You can get a tick anywhere," he said. "You can get a tick in a grocery store." No kidding. And you should see the prices for the organic, farm-raised ones.
Team-meeting podcasts and discolored discharges aside, no Eagles or Rams lineman injured himself this year by falling out of the Roll-A-Bout he was driving because of a previous injury, so we are ahead of the game.
Jason Peters won a $2 million settlement from Roll-A-Bout, so maybe Saffold can net some cash from this guy. Come to think of it, maybe we should go back to not paying attention to offensive linemen.
Prediction: Eagles 30, Rams 21
Buccaneers at Saints
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Line: Saints -11
Every organization needs a Rob Ryan to take the blame for a systemic failure. Ryan’s defense has been terrible, but the Cowboys could not build a 24-0 lead without the offense laying a goose egg thanks to a three-and-out, an interception and a missed field goal.
Speaking of missed field goals, the Saints have given up trying to return punts (Jairus Byrd was just fair-catching many of them before he got injured), and whoever drew up that fourth-quarter fake punt needs to stop huffing the dry-erase markers.
The Saints are dead last in turnover differential, thanks in equal parts to a defense that cannot force them (just two) and an offense that keeps making them (eight). Drew Brees throwing interceptions? Jimmy Graham fumbling? Sean Payton’s game plans accomplishing nothing?
Blame Rob Ryan.
Saints fans can help the fuzzy twin this week. The Bucs have numerous problems—wideout Mike Evans is injured, head coach Lovie Smith refuses to accept the obvious and name Mike Glennon the starter—but one of the biggest is an inability to call plays efficiently.
Interim coordinator Marcus Arroyo is having a hard time relaying plays to Glennon, and the issues in communication resulted in several delay-of-game penalties against the Steelers.
Did offensive assistant Jimmy Raye somehow sabotage the headsets? Is offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford calling from home with suggestions, Mike Martz-style? It does not matter. Saints fans just need to make some noise—maybe some zydeco; that nonsense gets on everyone’s nerves—and the false starts and delay penalties will follow.
It did not work for the Steelers, but they have their own coaching problems to worry about.
Prediction: Saints 34, Buccaneers 21
Bills at Lions
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Line: Lions -7.5
Kyle Orton, this is your life:
October, 2005
The rookie Orton pulls an Al Gore and invents modern NFL Internet gossip when pictures of him with a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels go viral.
Orton ushered in a new era of "drunk athletic personality who does not realize cellphones have cameras" journalism that embarrassed dozens of athletes, cost a college coach or two his job and helped launch the careers of many of my more successful friends.
The trend jumped the shark when Johnny Manziel rode the swan.
Training Camp, 2006
Orton loses the starting job to Rex Grossman in Chicago.
Interesting fact: More noteworthy NFL personalities have lost jobs to Grossman (Orton, Donovan McNabb, Brian Griese) than have lost their jobs because of Grossman.
It probably should be the other way around.
July, 2008
Lovie Smith flips a coin to determine the Bears' starting quarterback at the start of training camp. Grossman wins the toss but loses the job.
Lovie has currently advanced to the point where he calls Buccaneers plays using Dungeons & Dragons dice. Second edition.
April, 2008
Orton is thrown into the Jay Cutler blockbuster trade.
Over the next three seasons, he will play for both Josh McDaniels and Todd Haley, get benched in favor of Tim Tebow twice and generally bear witness to one of the most bonkers eras in NFL history.
That is saying something for a guy who spent three years sharing a job with Rex Grossman.
March, 2012
Orton joins the Cowboys for some peace, quiet and organizational vision.
Dec. 29, 2013
Given a Week 17 start against the Eagles with playoff implications, Orton plays well and leads a comeback against a superior opponent, only to throw a backbreaking interception in the fourth quarter.
At least the Cowboys did not have to change their game plan.
July, 2014
The Cowboys release Orton, because things are going so well for them this season that they need to make sure they go 0-4 under Brandon Weeden if Romo’s injuries flare up. The Bills sign Orton despite Doug Marrone’s objections because no matter how hard EJ Manuel tries to change minds, the bounce pass is still illegal in the NFL.
What a ride: From the rise of the Deadspin generation to the Super Bowl bench to Tebowmania to smack in the middle of a Buffalo regime change.
Orton is not a great quarterback, but he’s resourceful and can throw seven-yard slants that receivers do not have to dive for. Orton has always been just good enough to lose his job, but that makes him the best quarterback on the Bills roster.
Prediction: Bills 19, Lions 17
Steelers at Jaguars
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Line: Steelers -7
When the Steelers have been favored by five or more points since 2012, they are just 4-4 straight up, 2-6 against the spread. The Steelers are 8-7 and 9-6-1 as underdogs since 2012, giving us a Vegas confirmation of an observation many have made: This is a team that plays up or down to its level of competition.
That is scary when facing the Jaguars, because they might actually lock themselves in their own lockers.
Many complicated factors go into the Steelers' "flat against flat teams" phenomenon. Scott Kacsmar of Football Outsiders has unearthed a big one. The Steelers have allowed 24 game-winning fourth-quarter drives since 2007, the fourth-highest total in the NFL, including a league-leading 12 game-killers in the final two minutes.
Last week’s Buccaneers loss underscored the late-game problems. Offensive game plans devolve into handoffs and Ben Roethlisberger pooch punts. Defensively, Dick LeBeau tries to pretend that Jason Worilds, Jarvis Jones and the 33-year old Troy Polamalu are LaMarr Woodley, James Harrison and the 27-year old Troy Polamalu.
The pass rush never arrives, receivers get open, and suddenly the Buccaneers (or Browns) are in the red zone.
The Steelers are still capable of beating up on bad opponents; it will probably happen this week. Just beware if the Jaguars are hanging close at halftime. The Steelers chose to run against the worst pass defense in the league last week. Against the worst overall defense this week, they are likely to kneel.
Prediction: Steelers 27, Jaguars 17
Jets at Chargers
Sunday, 4:25 p.m.
Line: Chargers -7.5
Based strictly on last week’s results, here is how the AFC East quarterbacks ranked: 1) Ryan Tannehill, 2) Geno Smith, 3) EJ Manuel, 4) Tom Brady.
Now imagine that you believe Matt Moore should start ahead of Tannehill (even Joe Philbin leaned in that direction last week), Michael Vick ahead of Geno (manufactured New York storyline entering its eighth month), Kyle Orton ahead of Manuel (it’s happening) and...this is hard to even type...Jimmy Garoppolo ahead of Brady (actual midweek conversation topic).
Based on that logic, the AFC East quarterback rankings look something like this:
Matt Moore
Michael Vick
Ryan Tannehill
Kyle Orton
Geno Smith
Jimmy Garoppolo
EJ Manuel
Tom Brady
Do you want to live in that world? I don’t want to live in that world. Smith will remain the subject of quarterback controversies as long as he plays in New York, but at least he is in good company.
And Philip Rivers is involved in a whole different conversation: The early MVP debate.
Prediction: Chargers 28, Jets 19
Seahawks at Redskins
Monday, 8:30 p.m.
Line: Seahawks -8.5
This was the exact matchup for a Wild Card Game two years ago. Remember? Really, it wasn’t that long ago. You didn’t watch it on a 19-inch television with rabbit ears while listening to Seals & Crofts on 8-track and wondering why Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon?
It was recent: One or two cellphone upgrades ago. It just feels like a long time ago.
Here are some ways the Redskins can pull an upset:
Expired Catering
They probably have some potato salad from the Wild Card Game lying around in the cooler where they keep the World Cup Budweiser.
Serve it to the Seahawks, along with some juicy steaks from Rustler's Steak House and some Marshawn Lynch Skittles that are actually shriveled old Ronald Reagan jelly beans.
Cartoon Confusion
Now that the Redskins were immortalized on South Park, they have the powers of cartoon characters!
They can drop anvils on Russell Wilson’s head, or paint a hole in the side of a wall for Alfred Morris to run through, but the Seahawks smash into the wall when they try to chase him.
Plan backfires when Redskins only acquire the powers of characters in Regular Show.
Creative Landscaping
Camouflaged six-foot deep pits in the FedEx Field playing surface should slow the Seahawks down. All the grounds crew must do is slightly fill a few of the existing pits.
Quantum Leap
Send head coach Jay Gruden back to Jan. 6, 2013, to slap Mike Shanahan silly, take an injured Robert Griffin III out of the game, perhaps replace a divot or two, and change the course of history.
It might not stop the Seahawks, but it would do wonders for the Redskins.
Prediction: Seahawks 31, Redskins 13
Mike Tanier covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.