The Washington Redskins are 1-6 through the first seven weeks of the 2019 NFL season. Things aren't exactly going their way.
After an 0-5 start, they fired head coach Jay Gruden and promoted Bill Callahan to interim head coach.
Washington won their first game under Callahan, a 17-16 victory over the Miami Dolphins. They took a major step back in Week 7 with a 9-0 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Now they have a short week and square off against the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday Night Football. Can they pull out a surprise win or will they continue their downward spiral?
Here are three bold predictions for the Redskins in their Week 8 contest with the Vikings.
Slow Down the Kirk Cousins Train
Kirk Cousins had a really slow start to the season. The Minnesota quarterback looked absolutely lost for the first few weeks.
He wasn't finding his receivers deep and wasn't hitting them short. It even seemed like the coaching staff lost trust in him.
This led to superstar wide receiver Adam Thielen calling him out, and head coach Mike Zimmer doing the same. That was followed by superstar wide receiver Stefon Diggs admitting he wasn't happy with his role and usage in the offense.
Since then though, Cousins has been on fire. His last two games have been great and it appears he's back on track.
Now the Redskins get a chance to slow him down though, and they will seize the opportunity. First of all, the defense has been playing much better in recent weeks.
When on top of their game, Washington's defense is better than that of the Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions (Minnesota's last two opponents). The defensive line is starting to groove and don't look now but I think it's time Ryan Kerrigan and Montez Sweat break out.
More importantly, though, Cousins won't have his top target in Thielen available for the game. That makes things a lot easy for the Redskins.
They'll likely bring a heavy rush often to try and rattle Cousins. That will keep him from wanting to look deep too often. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see if Quinton Dunbar (who has been elite this year at cornerback) is up to the challenge that is Diggs.
Either way, this won't be another fantastic game for Cousins, Washington will slow down their former QB.
Redskins Switch Up the Game Plan
Callahan made it abundantly clear what he wanted to do. Run the ball early, and run the ball often. However, the Redskins might have an issue this week.
Derrius Guice is obviously still out. Meanwhile, Adrian Peterson is hurt at the moment. Even if he plays, it's hard to imagine he'd have the same kind of heavy usage.
To make matters even worse, Chris Thompson is out as well. That leaves Wendell Smallwood, undrafted rookie Craig Reynolds, and fullback Michael Burton.
The Redskins will likely still run the ball a pretty heavy amount. However, they might want to throw the ball a little more often. Due to that, it wouldn't be surprising to see them have as many dropbacks (or even more) than rushing attempts.
Case Keenum has struggled in recent weeks but showed he can contribute nicely at the start of the season.
With the emergence of Terry McLaurin as a number one receiver, the Redskins have a top target to try and get the ball too. With such a hurt backfield, he might get his number called often.
Look for short passes to Trey Quinn and quite a few screens and shovel passes to Steven Sims Jr. as well.
Redskins Keep it Close
The Vikings are hot. They are winners of three straight, and they've done all in pretty convincing fashion.
Meanwhile, the Redskins are ice cold. At 1-6 they hold one of the worst records in football. The only win they have is a one-point victory of the winless Dolphins. And even that game, against a team, clearly tanking as hard as possible, it took a miserable two-point conversion attempt to beat them.
Due to all of that, Washington comes into this game against the Vikings in Minnesota as massive underdogs. 16 points according to ESPN in fact.
The Redskins will keep it much closer than that. I'm not saying they will win (although I'm also not completely taking it off the table).
The reasons for that are simple. Thielen being outputs a serious wrench in Minnesota's plans. Yes, Diggs is also an elite receiver but Thielen was the number one guy and having two stars is a lot better than having one.
Meanwhile, Washington's defense has been much improved in recent weeks and could definitely help to sway this in their favor.
The offense is still completely lost. Due to that, it's hard to actually predict what they will this game (or any others really). But a combination of the defense and maybe a strong contribution from one or two offensively players will keep this as a one-score game.
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