What? Me Worry?

The Redskins are underdogs no more.

They are solid 13½ point favorites Sunday against winless St. Louis.

The only stats you need to know are that the Rams are averaging less than 11 points a game while giving up more than 36. On the other side of the ball they are scoring almost 22 points a contest while giving up less than 20. Maybe an easier way to say it is both teams have played the Giants & Philly. The Skins lost to the Giants, 16-7, while beating Eagles, 23-17. The Rams were slaughtered by both – Giants, 41-13, & Philly, 38-3.

What? Me worry?

Well there are concerns.
1. St. Louis is coming off a bye week. Off hand this would not be a big issue, but during the last 2 weeks, the Rams fired their coach and hired former New Orleans coach Jim Haslett, who has had time to put in new schemes.
2. Since the back-to-back on-the-road wins over Dallas & Philly, the praise has been off the charts. Tim Brant of WJLA TV, called them the favorites in the NFC East. How this is possible with the Super Bowl champion Giants still undefeated & having beaten the Skins is mind boggling. However, it is the kind of statements people are making about the team.
3. There has to be a let down. While Coach Zorn preaches no highs and no lows, these are overpaid NFL players, who always have let downs a couple of times during the season. Best teams do not always win, that is why they play the games.

My biggest concern is the let down. Hopefully, the home crowd will fire them up.

St. Louis is a bad football team. The power rankings consistently have them as the worst team in the league. While Haslett is a good coach, he is not a miracle worker.

Haslett is a defensive coach by trade. Since he was the defensive coordinator promoted to Interim Head Coach, he probably will not be making a lot of changes to the defense. On the offensive side of the ball, what is he to do? He will go with Marc Bugler over Trent Green at Quarterback. Running back Steven Jackson is a talented and versatile. He can put up big number both running and catching the ball. He is not off to a great start, but that could be because he is still learning our friend Al Saunders’ 700-page play book.

This game is not about St. Louis, but about the Redskins. In the four-game winning streak, the biggest margin of victory was 7 points. The question is can the heavy favorite dominate a bad football team.