Patriots-Redskins: Who Has The Razor's Edge? Key Matchups and More

[Soul_Survivor88]

Keep in mind, Kirk Cousins is coming off of a bye week, following the the greatest performance of his career. Against Tampa, he completed 33 of 40 passes for 317 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, and he also ran for a touchdown as the Redskins pulled off a 24-point comeback!

The man has potential

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

.... that said, there are these numbers

 

[mosslost]

You mean the Redskins?

I've been looking around the board and can't find much about the upcoming game...maybe it's because the last few games have had a lot of fanfare and hype for various reasons. Are there any lingering Washington fans on here who can give a good breakdown of the team? I have watched them off-and-on this year while flipping through Sunday Ticket. I am surprised the spread is -14 because this team seems very capable of playing good football.

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

God damn, we are so spoiled.....LOL

 

[bbobbo]

BTW, on Extremeskins.com, the prediction thread is pretty hilarious.

My personal favorite is:

Redskins / Patriots Prediction Thread: Permanent Waves - Page 4 - The Stadium

Posted 03 November 2015 - 02:39 PM

"I think its gonna be super close - Anyones game. Redskins will make a call and until the last second - no one knows what will happen...

Then things come up our way and skins win........

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The coin toss that is. The game is gonna be a Pats runaway...."


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but the Pats win the coin flip at an impossible clip. the redskins won't be able to overcome that.

 

[Nikolai]

but the Pats win the coin flip at an impossible clip. the redskins won't be able to overcome that.

None can.

 

[BradyFTW!]

The Patriots don't have trap games.

We have a lot fewer than most, but.... Patriots vs. Browns - Box Score - November 7, 2010 - ESPN

This team is a lot more experienced and even-keeled than that one was, though, and considering that they're in the midst of GFY Tour 2.0 I have a hard time imagining a trap game here.

I do agree with what the original poster said to an extent, though, which is that Washington has the capability of (erratically) playing some pretty good football. Cousins is stuck in that weird stage where for every three games he plays, two will be bad and a good one will come out of nowhere. They've had injury issues lately, so that whole situation bears monitoring, but if they're healthy for this game they should prove to be a fairly competent opponent, albeit extremely one-dimensional in that they're pretty much incapable of running the ball.

Don't get me wrong, I expect the Pats to win by multiple scores, but it wouldn't be a shock if we all end up a little surprised because the Pats win by 10-14 instead of the 24+ that's totally in play if the team that's showed up more than a few times this season is there on Sunday..

 

[TommyD4207]

Keep in mind, Kirk Cousins is coming off of a bye week, following the the greatest performance of his career. Against Tampa, he completed 33 of 40 passes for 317 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, and he also ran for a touchdown as the Redskins pulled off a 24-point comeback!

The man has potential

But Alterraun Verner's on that defense! How can this be???

 

[TommyD4207]

We have a lot fewer than most, but.... Patriots vs. Browns - Box Score - November 7, 2010 - ESPN

You know that game was 5 years ago, right?

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

But Alterraun Verner's on that defense! How can this be???

Remember now, he's been benched in favor of another corner....too bad he can't be on a team that actually knows how to use him

 

[n6249c]

You know that game was 5 years ago, right?

Losing trap games are hard to find in recent Patriots history...

 

[SVN]

another team we are facing after a bye ?

 

[glm]

Football Outsiders has them ranked as the 30th team vs. opposing offense's number 2 receivers. Also has them ranked 22nd against tight ends and 26th against the deep pass. Also has them ranked 23rd against the run.

 

[BradyFTW!]

You know that game was 5 years ago, right?

Sure, but that's an especially illustrative example. If you're looking for something more recent, the week before they played an undefeated team just last year they lost 41-14 to a 9-7 non-playoffs Chiefs squad. In 2013, we lost the week before the showdown with the Broncos for AFC supremacy, although at least in that case we lost to a good team on the road. In 2012, we lost at home to the Cardinals the week before traveling to Baltimore, and they ended up going 5-11 and firing the immortal Ken Whisenhunt.

My point: the Pats aren't immune to trap games. They're far less susceptible to them than most, and I think that's especially the case this year, but they're still human. **** happens.

 

[Mike the Brit]

This gives no insight whatsoever into the current Washington team -- but DAMN! I can't watch it enough.

 

[TommyD4207]

Sure, but that's an especially illustrative example. If you're looking for something more recent, the week before they played an undefeated team just last year they lost 41-14 to a 9-7 non-playoffs Chiefs squad. In 2013, we lost the week before the showdown with the Broncos for AFC supremacy, although at least in that case we lost to a good team on the road. In 2012, we lost at home to the Cardinals the week before traveling to Baltimore, and they ended up going 5-11 and firing the immortal Ken Whisenhunt.

My point: the Pats aren't immune to trap games. They're far less susceptible to them than most, and I think that's especially the case this year, but they're still human. **** happens.

You think the Kansas City game was a trap game? I think the Patriots were just a bad football team, and couldn't beat anyone halfway competent.

2012 Cardinals would count, despite getting robbed in that one, but again, that was now 3+ years ago.

I mean, Any Given Sunday blah blah blah, but when you have to go back 3 and 5 years to find something that could really be known as a trap game? It's statistically insignificant.

Hell, the Jets, a pretty good team, have to go all the way back to last Sunday to find their last trap game.

My point: The Patriots are more immune to trap games than any other team in the NFL. It just doesn't happen. In the last 15 years, they've played 277 games. How many actual trap games can you find? 10? 5? I mean, at the top end, you're look at like 4, 5% of games, and they were favored in, I'd estimate, 230 or so of those 277 games, if not more.

It's not statistically significant. It just doesn't happen.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

You think the Kansas City game was a trap game? I think the Patriots were just a bad football team, and couldn't beat anyone halfway competent.

2012 Cardinals would count, despite getting robbed in that one, but again, that was now 3+ years ago.

I mean, Any Given Sunday blah blah blah, but when you have to go back 3 and 5 years to find something that could really be known as a trap game? It's statistically insignificant.

Hell, the Jets, a pretty good team, have to go all the way back to last Sunday to find their last trap game.

My point: The Patriots are more immune to trap games than any other team in the NFL. It just doesn't happen. In the last 15 years, they've played 277 games. How many actual trap games can you find? 10? 5? I mean, at the top end, you're look at like 4, 5% of games, and they were favored in, I'd estimate, 230 or so of those 277 games, if not more.

It's not statistically significant. It just doesn't happen.

In reality, there is no such thing as a trap game. Although many love to cite "overlooking an opponent" as a reason for losing, the truth is many teams are simply not good enough to avoid upsets to weaker teams. The Patriots have just been one of the best teams in the NFL, and the best teams in the NFL beat weaker teams year after year and rarely lose to them. The Patriots have lost two "trap games" in recent memory - to the Browns and Cardinals over the last 4-5 years - games where they've been heavily favored against an inferior opponent. They lost because they turned the ball over and didn't execute; the stats are that if you play enough of these games, you are bound to lose some, even if that number is very small. It's random. To think that in all these years, those were just games where they just came in overconfident and overlooked those teams, whereas the many, many times they've dispatched similar teams with ease, to think that is just because of their team focus and not selective "overlooking" is bonkers. It's easy to blame "team psychology" for a loss, but that concept is a myth.

 

[PP2]

We have a lot fewer than most, but.... Patriots vs. Browns - Box Score - November 7, 2010 - ESPN

This team is a lot more experienced and even-keeled than that one was, though, and considering that they're in the midst of GFY Tour 2.0 I have a hard time imagining a trap game here.

I do agree with what the original poster said to an extent, though, which is that Washington has the capability of (erratically) playing some pretty good football. Cousins is stuck in that weird stage where for every three games he plays, two will be bad and a good one will come out of nowhere. They've had injury issues lately, so that whole situation bears monitoring, but if they're healthy for this game they should prove to be a fairly competent opponent, albeit extremely one-dimensional in that they're pretty much incapable of running the ball.

Don't get me wrong, I expect the Pats to win by multiple scores, but it wouldn't be a shock if we all end up a little surprised because the Pats win by 10-14 instead of the 24+ that's totally in play if the team that's showed up more than a few times this season is there on Sunday..

Isn't that the game they ran the 0-5 on Brady and really stymied him? If so, don't you think that's more of an outlier than anything else?

 

[BradyFTW!]

You think the Kansas City game was a trap game? I think the Patriots were just a bad football team, and couldn't beat anyone halfway competent.

The very next week they beat an undefeated Bengals team, which was the start of a 7 game winning streak, so clearly they could beat a lot of teams, including 'halfway competent' ones. They just happened to show up to that game unprepared to play and got their asses kicked by an inferior team that week. Unless we're working with very different definitions of 'trap game', that absolutely was one.

2012 Cardinals would count, despite getting robbed in that one, but again, that was now 3+ years ago.

I mean, Any Given Sunday blah blah blah, but when you have to go back 3 and 5 years to find something that could really be known as a trap game? It's statistically insignificant.

Statistically insignificant has a very specific meaning, and it's a term that doesn't really have a place in a discussion of nebulous, vaguely defined terms applied to extremely small samples.

Hell, the Jets, a pretty good team, have to go all the way back to last Sunday to find their last trap game.

The Jets were beaten by a better team. That's not a trap game. Oakland is good.

My point: The Patriots are more immune to trap games than any other team in the NFL. It just doesn't happen. In the last 15 years, they've played 277 games. How many actual trap games can you find? 10? 5? I mean, at the top end, you're look at like 4, 5% of games, and they were favored in, I'd estimate, 230 or so of those 277 games, if not more.

It's not statistically significant. It just doesn't happen.

But it does happen. You just acknowledged that it happens. No team is immune to trap games, Patriots included. They fall into trap games far less frequently than other teams, I agree there, but that's a whole different claim that what you started with.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Isn't that the game they ran the 0-5 on Brady and really stymied him? If so, don't you think that's more of an outlier than anything else?

It was highly unusual, sure, but trap games pretty much by definition are exactly that. And if you don't like that example for whatever reason, there are plenty of more recent ones. If you define a trap game as "losing to an inferior team in the week leading up to a game of greater perceived importance", then you can find at least one trap game in most Patriots seasons. We have far fewer of them than most, and that's a huge credit to Belichick, but we're not immune to them.