Philadelphia Eagles roundup: Week 1 NFC East Power Rankings

4. Washington Redskins

Here’s a controversial statement. The Redskins were horrible on Sunday. They, essentially, made two splash plays before that final drive narrowed the margin of Sunday’s final score. Washington is bad but benefited by some awful play by the Eagles early, and the success that the ‘Skins had on offense was more of a result of Philly’s breakdowns than their execution.

Sure, the Eagles seemingly couldn’t get off of the field on third down during Sunday’s game. that’s one of the narratives today, but is it accurate? They stiffened when they absolutely had to during Philly’s comeback, and the Redskins, after building a 17-lead in the first half, endured a collapse of catastrophic proportions.

Here’s the box score.

The final numbers look like this. The Redskins converted five third downs on 13 attempts. They managed seven points in the second half, and that came on a garbage drive at the end of the game. Philly will need to talk about that one, but on Monday, the Eagles will head to work knowing they have a lot to work on, but they get to work on those issues with a game in the win column.

The question in D.C. is this. How does a team bounce back after a loss like this one? Keep in mind they benched Adrian Peterson. He was a healthy scratch for the first time in his career, and his replacement, Washington’s leading rusher Derrius Guice, racked up a grand total of 18 yards on ten carries.

Benching ‘A.P.’ may not sit well with the vets in the locker room. The Redskins are a mess ladies and gentlemen, and here’s the bad news. Dallas comes to FedExField on Sunday.