Redskins vs. Vikings Gameday Preview & Prediction

1. The game features two teams that have been far from good this season but will feature two of the league’s top two running backs.

One is averaging 5.2 yards per carry while the other one is at 4.6 yards per.  But you would Adrian Peterson is the 5.2 guy but he isn’t.  Alfred Morris is and leads the league’s running backs in that stat.  The only reason he is not leading the league in overall yards is a lack of carries.  Washington got back to feeding Morris the ball last week against and Chargers and just like 2012 they won.  This must keep up tonight and continue through the second half of the season for the Skins to be successful.

As for Morris as a player, I think the DC area knows how good he has been in his first season and a half, but the rest of the league is still learning.  Alfred Morris is great and should be considered in the league’s top 3-5 backs no question.  Morris in games has started the first couple series slow but after that he is able to break off runs with ease.  Do I wish he was more of a pass catcher?  Yes, but that may be more of the system’s lack of throwing to the backs in the early downs.  Every week I see myself watching the games and saying Morris is awesome.

2. As for the Vikings running back we mentioned before Adrian Peterson, he is still the game’s best.

And if anyone wanted to question that all you need to do is check last week’s game versus Dallas.  It is obvious that Washington will have to keep Peterson in check and not allow him to take over the game.  He did it early in the meeting last season but overall did not dominate the Redskins like he does to most teams.  Washington has had success against Peterson in the past including being responsible for injury him in 2011.  No one wants to see that but we do need to see him slowed down.

Because if the Vikings can get Peterson rolling it could open up things for Christian Ponder and the Vikings struggling pass attack.  Washington needs to force the Vikings into obvious pass downs and let their ball hawks have chances to get takeaways against the shaky Ponder.  Ponder can move and takeoff especially in the red zone so Haslett must have his guys ready to look for that.  And it would be huge for London Fletcher to do what he did last season which was pick up his play in the second half.  The true leader has been very quiet so far and it would nice if he could make some noise.

3. The Washington special teams put together their best outing two weeks ago in Denver but last week once again was a struggle.

Usually it’s the coverage teams we are cursing each week but last week they threw us a curve ball.  Kai Forbath had two kicks blocked including a chip shot after a long impressive opening drive.  This cannot happen no matter how good or bad a team plays.  Shanahan blamed the blocks on Forbath’s low kicks which have to concern everyone since we thought we had a solid kicker finally after many years of struggling to find one.

Forbath also must in an indoor situation get his kickoffs out of the end zone.  I don’t want to give the Vikings and Cordarelle Patterson a chance to burn us.  He has been the best in the league this season so please don’t even chance it.  Washington needs to make Ponder go eighty yards as much as possible tonight.  As for the Redskins return game I don’t even know if it’s worth discussing or hoping they can get something out of it.  Maybe Shanahan goes to Niles Paul on kickoffs and Santana on punts to try to make some things happen.

4. The Vikings are 1-7 and the Redskins need to win this game versus a bad team.

But just like having Peterson on offense and not much else, the Vikings have Jared Allen on the defensive side that can change a game.  The good news is that he should face Trent Williams which will help the Skins although Allen got to Griffin last season.  Amazingly that is my first mention of Griffin so far?  But Allen is great and Brian Robison and Kevin Williams are vets who can also cause some disruption.  And I wouldn’t be a true Terp if I didn’t mention Erin Henderson in the middle which I am impressed with his career after not being drafted out of Maryland.

So if Silverback can contain Allen and give Griffin pocket time we should see better results in the pocket passing game than the past weeks.  Mainly because the Vikings secondary is bad and not only bad but hurting as well.  If Griffin cannot take advantage then we should have some concern about this passing game like we did after the Denver game.  But then again they should be able to continue to kill teams with the read option post to Garcon all day if they can run the ball.

5. As for the game prediction.

Washington has to go into Minnesota and win if they want to have any chance of making a playoff run.  I think the offense will play another complete game much like versus Chicago and San Diego and the defense will hold Peterson in the first half, resulting in a lead that forces Ponder to throw and Peterson to be less of a factor

I got it as, Washington 27  Minnesota 13