Ray Hagan
It’s that time of the week again. NFL’s Week 7 is upon us, so let’s not waste any time, ladies and gentlemen. Last week, I went 1-2 on winners (6-3 overall) and 1-2 against the spread (5-4 overall). Damn you, Washington.
Let’s get to this week!
Washington at Detroit (-1.5)
Washington is on a four game roll to bring their record to 4-2 while Detroit just ended a three game losing skid to bring their record to an even 3-3. Detroit ranks 21st against the run and 23rd against the pass, so a Redskins offense that seems to be finding its footing should be able to move the ball well against this Detroit team. Washington is currently the 4th best passing team, so that 23rd ranked passing defense is likely to struggle against the wide variety of Redskins weapons. Jordan Reed returned to practice on Friday and could give an already deep receiving corps its best weapon back for the weekend tilt. The ‘Skins rank 15th against the pass and 28th against the run; fortunately for Washington Detroit has struggled to the run the ball. This is the opposite of last week’s Dallas/Green Bay matchup on the ground. It’s the entirely resistible force against the extremely movable object. We’ll see which meager unit wins the battle.
Using my newly tweaked method of comparing the scoring and points allowed of each team for the last 4 games vs. the league average and factoring in home field advantage we come up with the PhillyInfluencer.com predicted score of Washington 30, Detroit 26.
If betting were legal: Take Washington plus the points.
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New York (-3) vs. Los Angeles (in London)
New York broke their losing streak last week in the same manner that the Lions did. After losing three straight they notched one in the win column to make sure the NFC East was the only division in the NFL without a single team below the .500 mark. The Giants are going to throw the ball in this game, we all know that. We know that because they flat out can’t run the ball. They’re the 30th ranked team in the league in that regard. While Los Angeles ranks 23rd against the run, I just don’t see the Giants being able to take advantage of that. So they’ll have to challenge the basically league average (17th) ranked pass defense. Fortunately for the Giants, they’re facing a Los Angles team that doesn’t run or pass the ball well, ranking 28th in rushing and 28th in passing, good for the 31st fewest yards per game in the league. Somehow though, L.A. has been able to score points, they’re averaging over 25 per game over their last four compared to just 20 per game for the G-Men. Because of that, I’m predicting Los Angeles 26, New York 23.
If betting were legal: Take Los Angeles plus the points.
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Each week I’m going to take a look at three of the NFC East individuals that are flying high, and three that have come crashing to Earth a bit recently. I like to call it ‘Three Up, Three Down.’
Three Up:
- Ezekiel Elliott, RB, Dallas
Elliott had to be here after continuing his dominance, this time gashing Green Bay for over 40% of what they’ve surrendered on the ground through 5 games in just a single game. Elliott has been smashing teams for weeks and I’m not sure that there’s a team that can stop him. I’m pretty sure he’s about to run for 150+ against the bye week. I didn’t give him the Beast of the Beat award this week, but he’s still the single scariest offensive player in the division right now.
- Ben McAdoo, Head Coach, New York
I was hard on McAdoo last week. I thought he handled Beckham poorly, and that having his team on a three game losing streak put him directly in my crosshairs. Last week the Giants responded. McAdoo’s offense finally looked like it did over the last couple of years as Manning had his best game of the season and Beckham had arguably the best game of his career. McAdoo didn’t play the game, but he deserves credit for designing a gameplan that got his biggest threat going and helped his quarterback take advantage of that. Good work by the coach this week.
- Eli Manning, Quarterback, New York
Manning got ripped to shreds by me last week too. As much as McAdoo hadn’t done a good job of managing Beckham and didn’t seem to have his guys in the best position to win, the trigger man of the New York offense was the biggest reason the Giants had lost three straight. Combined with his top target last week he was one of the biggest reasons that they pulled out the win against the Ravens. Manning went over 400 yards and delivered in crunch time to get the Giants the win. This was the Manning the Giants needed all along.
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Three Down:
- Sterling Shepard, Wide Receiver, New York
In his first three games Shepard had 233 yards along with a pair of touchdowns. He did it while averaging over 14 yards per catch in every game. Those were great numbers for the rookie. In his last three games he hasn’t gone over eight yards per catch, has had a combined 69 yards, and hasn’t gotten into the end zone. So you’d likely think that while the Giants have been force feeding an unhappy Beckham Shepard’s numbers dipped. But that’s not the case. He’s actually seen three more targets over the last three games than he did in the first three. With those three extra targets he’s had six fewer catches. While Manning hadn’t been playing well, Shepard didn’t do him any favors.
- DeSean Jackson, Wide Receiver, Washington
The Redskins absolutely destroyed the Eagles last week; it was not nearly as close in my eyes as the 27-20 score indicated. I had fears going in of number eleven flying down the field faster than our defensive backs could keep up with. But at the end of the day Jackson had his third straight underwhelming performance. He managed only four catches on nine targets and delivered a whopping 55 yards. He had fewer yards than Pierre Garcon, and just a few more than Crowder and Davis who both added touchdowns. Jackson is no longer the explosive weapon he once was.
- Dez Bryant, Wide Receiver, Dallas
Dallas has been nearly unstoppable over the last few weeks. They seemingly haven’t missed Bryant at all. Combine that with the fact that Dez tried to go all Bobby Flay and nearly ended up all JPP instead and it’s not a good week for the Dallas wideout. Bryant suffered cuts on his hands cutting carrots for soup. After returning to practice this week, my guess is that Bryant returns to the field in Week 8 after the bye. He’s still an elite receiver as his seven catches for 102 yards against Washington in a big divisional game Week 2 showed. The question is how long it will take him to round back into form after such a long layoff?
Well folks, that’s it for this week. Don’t forget to check out all the other great content here at the site. Our writers are second to none. I’ll see you next week with a review of all the week 7 action in the NFC East, thanks for reading. Want to discuss the column or football in general? Find me on Twitter (@faux_philly). Thanks for reading and have a great weekend of great football!