Week 7: Arizona at Washington

We know – and so do you, if you look above – that neither of these teams has a losing record. Both are nominally in the playoff chase, if it’s even worth discussing such a thing in October. But unless you were holding our family hostage and required us to watch this game, we wouldn’t do it. And anyway, that’d be pretty messed up. Making us watch a Redskins game like that.

Every week, we say the same things about Washington, although not in so many words. That is, namely, that we don’t like them. At all. We don’t like their palatable-as-oatmeal-without-milk offense. We also don’t like head coach Joe Gibbs very much, because we dislike both bubble screens and a theological worldview that implies that God cares intensely about the NFC East. But disliking the Redskins is different than pretending they’re a bad team. They’re not.

Of course, considering the huge contracts the Redskins’ unctuous owner has paid out, they should be pretty decent. Even though many of those big-ticket offensive players are currently injured, though, the ‘Skins offense – while still not terribly dynamic – has been a lot better than we expected. Still, Jason Campbell threw a totally irrational 37 passes in Week 6’s loss to the Packers, with predictably not-so-good results, and the team continues to pile up penalties, drops and fumbles at a crazy rate.

An injury-marred O-line, supremely banged-up receiver corps and a return to Gibbs’ senses should straighten the former number out this week, but the latter problem is a different matter altogether. We’ll tell you why we think the Cardinals don’t have a prayer in this one in a moment, but we’ll say this, now: the Redskins are just mistake-prone enough to keep even this much-depleted Cardinals team in this game. The Cards’ defense is a steadfastly middle-of-the-road bunch, with a decent front line set off by “meh” linebackers and a weak secondary. Still, a fumble is a fumble, and if the Redskins keep putting the ball on the turf someone will pick it up.

Unfortunately, unless Arizona runs their pick or fumble recovery into the end zone, the ball will be passed to the clammy hands of new passer Tim Rattay. So far this season, the Cardinals have lost both feckless/hapless playboy Matt Leinart and devout/oddly-rejuvenated backup Kurt Warner to injury, which leaves Rattay – who was coaching high school football three weeks ago – as their top option under center. (His backup is Tim Hasselbeck, so don’t even think about it) While the Cardinals have started some true-blue humps at this position recently – we didn’t think John Navarre was really any good at Michigan, let alone that he’d start an NFL game – Rattay isn’t quite that bad. But he’s new to the system, playing behind a spotty offensive line, and is, at the end of the day, Tim Rattay.

The Redskins’ defense, while hardly world-beaters, should at least be able to make him look like Tim Rattay. At the moment, Washington’s D is third in the NFL in both yards and points-allowed, but for all the veteran talent on the unit, we don’t think they’re quite that good. But even if corners Carlos Rogers and Shawn Springs have a hard time staying with ace Cardinals receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin (who’ll likely return from injury this week), it will still be on Tim Rattay to get the ball to those receivers. Unless Edgerrin James has a monster week – not likely against a solid ‘Skins run defense – that will be all that matters.

With a third-stringer under center for Arizona, everything else is essentially academic. Rattay is a decent backup and probably a nice fellow. But we wouldn’t pick a team he’s quarterbacking to win on the road unless you took our family…look, please don’t. Our point is this: even if the Redskins aren’t quite all that, it won’t matter this week.

Redskins by 7