The Washington Commanders (7-5-1) are at home at FedEx Field tonight for a second bite at the team from the Big Apple. Two weeks ago, Washington and the New York Giants (7-5-1) finished in a tie. Last week, the Commanders had a bye, and New York lost and they are in a virtual tie in the standings.
In another NFC East showdown that could move the standings, win or lose or tie, they are at it again in December. These games within the NFC East feelsl cannibalistic in a football sense. If the playoffs started yesterday, every team in the NFC East would be going to the playoffs with the Eagles as the division winner, and the Cowboys, Commanders, and Giants, all with Wild Card berths.
With Chase Young activated weeks ago, he has remained as “questionable” on the injury report leading into this morning and is once again one of the “inactives” which is exactly what happened now for the past three games. The former defensive Rookie of the Year is working his way back from ACL surgery.
It might surprise you to hear that Vegas has the Commanders as a 4.5-point favorite with this game being played at home.
Quarterback Taylor Heinicke of the Commanders will have Carson Wentz as his backup today. That was expected when Wentz was activated from Injured Reserve.
“I think they are pretty excited about playing the Giants again. I know we’ve had a whole week to think about a tie. It was funny because I’m still not quite sure how to describe it. And we talked about that when we got together Tuesday at one o’clock, so it’s still kind of that feeling.”
“We’ve had a lot of good energy. We’ve been focusing on what we do and what we want to do against these guys.”
“Jeremy [Reaves] stepped up during the meeting and just told the guys, ‘Hey, great energy, great practicing, we’re fired up, but let’s stay focused.’ And that’s really kind of where they are. I mean, it’s one of those things that if you’re not careful, you could say this is a trap game just because everybody’s telling you that you’ll get ’em this time, you’re at home and all that stuff. But that doesn’t mean anything. ‘Oh, they didn’t play well last week.’ That doesn’t mean anything. They played against a very good football team and they’ve got a number of injuries. What we gotta do is stay focused and get ready to play.”
— Head Coach Ron Rivera
A reminder that Cole Holcomb (injured reserve) is still out and a long list of inactives:
- CB Benjamin St-Juste
- QB Sam Howell
- RG Trai Turner
- DE Chase Young
- LB De’Jon Harris
- G Chris Paul
Matchup: New York Giants (7-5-1) at Washington Commanders (7-5-1)
Date|Time: Sunday, Dec. 18 | 8:20 p.m. ET
Location: FedEx Field | Landover, Maryland
TELEVISION: NBC Sunday Night with Mike Tirico (play-by-play); Cris Collinsworth (analyst); Melissa Stark (sideline reporter); Terry McAulay (rules analyst).
RADIO: Commanders radio network flagship station is WBIG 100.3 (Big 100) with Julie Donaldson as the host, Bram Weinstein on play-by-play, and London Fletcher as the analyst. On satellite radio channels Sirius 98, XM 231 and SiriusXM online 831.
Vegas lines: Washington is a -4.5 favorite with an Over/Under of 40.5 points
