Eagles vs. Washington Week 15 preview and predictions

The Philadelphia Eagles are going to beat the Washington football team today.

I’m feeling a confidence similar to how I felt about last week’s game against the New York Giants. That game ended up being too close for comfort, for sure, but the Eagles ultimately won in part because of a big reason I expected them to emerge victorious: poor quarterback play from Eli Manning. Manning had some success in the first half before only leading the Giants to a mere 29 yards in the second half.

The Eagles’ defense will similarly find a way to contain rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins in Landover. Haskins is sporting a mere 61.2 passer rating this season. There was a reason Washington’s coaching staff was reluctant to play him earlier this year and that’s because he doesn’t look ready for the moment. When watching Haskins this year, I can’t help but think back to how lost Mitchell Trubisky looked at times back in his rookie season. And a common thread between those two quarterbacks is that they were one-year full-time starters in college.

Haskins has taken a whopping 26 sacks compared to 88 completions this season. His ranks towards the bottom of the league in time-to-throw. His penchant for holding on to the ball is going to play into Jim Schwartz’s hands and allow the Eagles to hit him often. We could be looking at a strip-sack or two in this game.

Turnovers forced by the Eagles’ defense will go a long way in assisting a short-handed Eagles offense. Due to multiple injuries, Carson Wentz’s supporting cast is limited to the following options:

Running back — Miles Sanders, Boston Scott, Jay Ajayi

Wide receiver — JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Greg Ward, Robert Davis, Joshua Perkins (WR/TE hybrid)

Tight end — Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert

On paper, that’s far from an ideal group to be working with. But perhaps there’s something to the young guys being more hungry for this opportunity to establish themselves in the NFL. They should hardly be expected to light this Washington defense up but they should be able to contribute enough to help the team win.

The Eagles’ coaching staff needs to build on their adjustments from the second half of the Giants game and get Wentz into a rhythm. No. 11 needs to be sharp on his end. He should have opportunities to throw to his favorite target in Ertz since Washington has surrendered the ninth most fantasy points to tight ends this season. Maybe we can even see a big game from Goedert as well.

Running the ball — everyone’s favorite past-time — will also factor into this matchup. Washington’s allowing 4.3 yards per rush attempt, which is tied for 18th in the NFL. Sanders and Scott should split touches and allow the Eagles to not be over-reliant on an undermanned passing attack.

The biggest concern when it comes to the Eagles potentially losing this game is that Terry McLaurin absolutely goes off against the secondary. You certainly can’t rule that out. The Eagles really need to do whatever it takes — double teams or anything else that works — to eliminate him from killing them deep. The Eagles should be daring literally anyone else on this Washington team to beat them. I think Schwartz can manage to figure out that much.

And so I have the Eagles keeping their playoff hopes alive with just two more games to go after today’s matchup. I mean, they can’t possibly lose and let everyone down at the Week 15 BGN watch party! Hope to see you there in a few hours!

For more, check out BGN’s weekly NFL game predictions and our NFL picks against the spread.

Suggested format:

Score prediction:

Bold prediction:

My predictions:

Score prediction: 21 to 13, Eagles win.

Bold prediction: Boston Scott, Greg Ward, and Robert Davis all score touchdowns

Your predictions:

Leave your own score predictions in the comments.