Remember the times when Washington was in a frenzy the week the team played Dallas. Times have changed and the fan base has evolved over the years. Some say Diron Talbert started the hate for the Dallas Cowboys back in the 1970’s when he was a star for the Washington Redskins. Some say it was former Washington head coach George Allen. The hate ran deep then both teams went through the ups and downs where the rivalry faded. Some still cannot forget those days when “Dallas week” was a week-long event.
LAS VEGAS, NV — Aerial photo of Allegiant Stadium (Sol Tucker for TalkWFT)
LAS VEGAS, NV — After Washington’s Monday Night victory, they had to travel across the U.S. in a short week to take on the Las Vegas Raiders. Washington enters at 5-6 and the Raiders at 6-5. Both teams are fighting for their playoff lives today.
The Washington Football Team has a golden opportunity ahead of them. Left for dead two weeks ago, they upset the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers in consecutive weeks to jump from 2-6 to 4-6 and get back into sniffing distance of a playoff berth. This week’s challenge is the 3-7 Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football. The last time the WFT was on MNF? It was December 3, 2018. After a long absence, they are back.
Head Coach Ron Rivera; www.allproreels.com — Washington Football Team (All-Pro Reels Photography)
Work trip, business trip, head trip. Head coach Ron Rivera is back in North Carolina, and it is Déjà Vu all over again. Not only does Rivera play his ex-team today, his old quarterback, Cam Newton, will start for Carolina due to Sam Darnold’s injury.
Rivera started his head coaching career for Carolina in 2011 and had his run sacked during the 2019 season. In coaching years, that is a long time. Rivera paid his dues with 14 years in various defensive coaching jobs with three different teams before the Panthers hired him as their head coach. They fired him mid-way through that 2019 season. That stung. He was kicked to the curb like an empty soda can. This was the same coach who took Carolina to their first Super Bowl in 2015 with a regular season record of 15-1.
The Washington Football Team (3-6) comes into Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte looking for direction after a stunning upset victory against the defending Super Bowl-champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week. The WFT decidedly stomped on Tom Brady’s Bucs by a final score of 29-19. So the question lies, can they do it again this week?
“Well, I know as far as playing against them, it won’t be the same effect. But it’ll be back in Charlotte, that’ll be probably the bigger thing more so than anything else for me. Just because, again, as I said, the thing that I really appreciated about my time there were the people. That’s probably the bigger thing. Now, what I’m doing is I’m limiting my exposure to that. Stephanie will do all the visiting and saying hello to folks.
Me, I’m pretty much going to try and stick to the mantra that this is a business trip.”
“No, there’s no reason to be bitter. I did the best I could. When it was time to move on, [Carolina Panthers Owner] David Tepper treated me with tremendous dignity and respect. He really did. He gave me an opportunity to say goodbye, and I really appreciated it. What’s really kind of cool, kind of speaks to who he is. When we played him in [Washington], he did a Rivera Strong as well.
I got a tremendous amount of respect for what [Tepper] is doing there right now, what they’re trying to do in terms of their rebuild as well. There is no bitterness. If there is anything, it’s just miss the folks and the friends we had in Charlotte.”
Head Coach Ron Rivera
This will also be Taylor Heinicke‘s first start as a visitor in Carolina which is one of his former teams. While he only played six games there, he had nearly 1 1/3 years with the organization until they cut him prior to the start of the 2019 season. This might feel a little personal for Heinicke.
“Yeah, it’ll be fun. Me and [Cam Newton] had a great relationship. He was a lot of fun to be around. That place is going to be rocking on Sunday. Like I said before, he’s like the God of Charlotte. Everyone loves him up there. So, it will be his first home game there. It’s going to be loud and it’ll be an exciting game. He’s very animated and likes to have fun out there. So yeah, it’ll be cool.”
QB Taylor Heinicke about facing Cam Newton
Washington lost Chase Young for the season, and WR Curtis Samuel (groin) is questionable out with TE Ricky Seals-Jones (hip) ruled out for this game. TE Logan Thomas was supposed to be activated off of the IR and was not as of yesterday.
Date/Time: Sunday, Nov. 21st | 1:00 p.m. ET
Location: Bank of America Stadium | Charlotte, NC
TELEVISION: FOX
Kevin Kugler (play-by-play), Mark Sanchez (analyst), Laura Okmin (sideline)
VEGAS ODDS:
Money line: Washington +145 (bet $100 to win $145) | Panthers -180 (bet $180 to win $100) Against the spread (ATS): Washington +3.5 (-117) | Panthers -3.5 (-103) Over/Under (O/U): 42.5 (O: -117 | U: -103)
They call Tom Brady the G.O.A.T., and statistically, he has earned that title as perhaps the greatest football player ever. As Brady and the reigning Super Bowl champs are in the D.C. area today to face the Washington Football Team, it comes in the shadow of the passing of the great Sam Huff. Not only was Huff a great football player for Washington, he was also one of the radio voices of the Redskins for decades. Win one for Sam!
Where do you go from here is a common question when your season seems to be over nearing the halfway point in the season. The Washington Football Team enters today with a 2-5 record, and if they just won another game and had a 3-4 record, you may feel differently. Today’s opponent, the Denver Broncos have that 3-4 in the standings and a win for them today would get them back to .500. A loss for the WFT would sink them to 2-6. A win for the WFT would give a small glimmer of hope at 3-5. More than anything this team is playing for self-respect. The rest we will know in the next nine games. They say to take it one week at a time. So here we are with a hole dug that they have to climb out of.
Washington enters today’s game with a 2-4 record and on the brink of their season slipping away before the halfway point of the season. They are a steep 8.5 point underdog today against the 5-1 Green Bay Packers in this game in Wisconsin. The cheeseheads will be loud and proud in this one as the WFT will face an NFL legend in Aaron Rodgers. The WFT has put themselves in this position by losing last week with a chance to get to 3-3.
Washington Football Team’s matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs will honor nearly 100 alumni at FedEx Field, while also paying a special tribute to one of its greatest stars and beloved players who was taken from us too soon at the age of 24. Sean Taylor was brutally murdered in 2007, during a robbery at his home. His family will join the team on-field for a pre-game ceremony in which Taylor’s contributions to the team will be remembered alongside the retirement of his jersey number, 21. This will mark only the third time in the team’s 89-year history that a jersey number will be officially retired.
Washington has a chance today to win and move to a winning record for the season with this game against New Orleans. It is a showdown of 2-2 teams that have more defined areas of strengths and weaknesses that you can see after four weeks of football. By the numbers, these teams are very close to even with a Vegas spread of only 2.5 points. What is troublesome for the WFT, is that their vaunted defense was supposed to be a strength for this 2021 team, and so far, they are third from last in scoring defense at 30.5 points per game surrendered.
Washington is in Atlanta for this showdown of 1-2 teams that are struggling near the bottom of every statistical category. By the numbers, the Falcons have the slight edge overall with their 18th ranked defense going up against the WFT’s 22nd ranked offense. On the other side and more of a shock is that the WFT’s defense is ranked 30th in the NFL. But they might get some help since Atlanta’s offense is 28th ranked. If it feels like two lousy teams facing each other on this Sunday, the numbers don’t lie, they are lousy teams at the moment and for Washington, they are under-achieving. They aren’t even bottom of the barrel in matchups today because the Dolphins face the Colts.
