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FOOTBALL is back!!! Well, maybe. If Washington can’t field enough players because of the Covid outbreak on their team, we may be awarded this one by forfeit. Last time I checked, they had 21 players in the Covid Protocol. Sheesh!

Provided that we do get to play, is there a way we can make Washington play in hazmat suits? And can they bring their own benches? We don’t need Covid leaving any Redskins residue on our furniture.

And don’t give me any flack about “dead-naming” the Redskins. When they get around to getting an actual name, I’ll get around to actually using it. Currently what they have, is an adjective, and an adjective should never be a name. Isn’t that right Negro Man, and Menopausal Woman?

See?

With a win, we get to 7 – 7. We’ll likely be just on the outside of the playoff picture, in 8^th place. Many speculate that we’d move into 7^th place, but they’re ignoring or forgetting that if Minnesota beats Chicago (extremely likely), they’d also be 7 – 7 , with a 5 – 4 conference record to match ours. The difference would be their 3 – 1 division record to our 1 – 2 division record.

To move into the 7^th place, we need to win, and for the Vikings to lose.

With a loss, we’d fall to 6 – 8. Even though that would still not mathematically eliminate us, we’d need a lot of things to break our way to qualify. Best to take care of business ourselves.

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The point of Four Things isn’t to predict a winner, it’s to discuss which tactics will practically guarantee our Eagles this win. CAUTION: I don’t have the faintest clue as to what a point spread is, and I know even less about how it works. I know football and that’s IT. If you use FT as a gambling tool, you are trying to lose your money, and will deserve it when you do.

So let’s talk about the Four Things we need to focus on this week versus the Redskins:

1) Use the 12^th Man: With a ton of new starters on both sides of the ball for Washington, there are bound to be communication errors here and there. We can magnify that, and make it 100 times worse. Keeping the crowd pumped, will help drive opponent mistakes, which will in turn help excite the crowd, and in turn, make it harder for our opponent to communicate well, etc.

2) Run the Ball: First, running has become our identity. During a playoff push and a playoff run, a team really needs to be in-touch with who and what they are. Second, getting mauled, punked, bullied, rag-dolled, beat-up, and pushed around is demoralizing. We need to break their will to fight back, by punishing them when they do. Passing won’t get that done as viciously.

3) Blitz from our right: Our right is their QB’s left. It’s his blindside. He’s already going to be uncomfortable relying on a makeshift offensive line. Serving him hits that he didn’t see coming, will wreck his focus, and cause him to rush passes, and make mistakes more frequently.

4) Don’t force-feed Reagor: Honestly, the kid is trash. He’s straight-up caustic, burning garbage.

However, with #2 WR Quez Watkins out due to Covid, our remaining WR’s are Jalen Reagor, Greg Ward, and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. Slim pickings at a time when we needed someone to step up and be the Robin to Devonta Smith’s Batman.

With Watkins out, the Eagles don’t have a second outside threat. Second year WR John Hightower might get called up from the Practice Squad. He has 4.4 speed and he gets open quickly, but his hands are suspect. Or at least they were last year. However, if he plays Sunday and shows that he can hold onto passes… 

If we do these Four Things,

We’d better win this damned game! If Washington manages to beat us, we need to deep-six any hope or talk of the playoffs.

We average 25 points per game. Washington is 2 – 4 this year, when their opponent scores 25 points, and those wins were over the giants and Falcons.

Let. Me. Re-iterate.

Washington had to win shootouts, to beat the Falcons and the giants. So if we put up 25, we should be good, right? I’m looking at you Jonathan Gannon! And so is this brick that I’m holding. So we’re gonna win, right? Right?! My man!

Oh by the way! Check out what Head Coach Nick Sirianni said!

Remember the guy who told you about this in June, before we traded for QB Gardner Minshew? And again in September, soon after we traded for Minshew? And again in November?

Of courrrrse. That guy was meeeee. And here we arrrrre.

Exactly where I told you we’d be. 

The last time this coaching staff tried to experiment, it led to Jalen Reagor tea-bagging everyone who believed in him. We need to run the table here, so this is no time to get cute or “clever”.

This week is being served up like a softball pitch. It’s practically tee-ball. If the Eagles botch this, we have no right to use the word “playoffs” until the next time we actually qualify.

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PREDICTION: EAGLES 27 – Redskins 12

Check back in a couple of days for Four Things Reviewed, and we’ll discuss how it went.