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Fresh off getting blanked in heavy rain 9-0 against the San Francisco 49ers dropping their record to 1-6 on the season, the Washington Redskins have a quick turnaround to dry themselves off and face the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday Night Football.
The oddsmakers have little confidence in the Redskins to put up much of a fight against the Vikings and have pegged them as a huge 16 point underdogs. The point spread is the largest of any game on tap for the Week 8 schedule. Minnesota (5-2) is 3-0 against the spread at home this season.
Playing on the road against their former Pro Bowl quarterback Kirk Cousins, Washington will have a chance to play spoiler and end the Vikings (5-2) resurgent three-game winning streak.
In the team’s last outing against each other on November 12, 2017, the Vikings defeated the Redskins 38-30 at FedexField. The last time the Redskins traveled to the northwest to take on the Vikings they lost 29-26 at TCF Bank Stadium. This will be the first contest ever played by the Redskins at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The two-year-old stadium holds nearly 67,000 fans and the Vikings hope to give them another reason to feel like they have become a legitimate NFC and Super Bowl, contender.
Minnesota leads the all-time regular-season series 11-10, but the overall all-time series including playoff games is tied at 13-13.
Washington, on the other hand, has had a nightmarish first half of their season that has seen former coach Jay Gruden fired and replaced by interim coach Bill Callahan. Washington has also had struggles at the quarterback position and could be a few games away from turning to rookie first-round draft pick Dwayne Haskins.
On defense, the Redskins have performed better over the past two games. They will need another stellar performance going up against the Vikings sixth-ranked offense.
While speaking to the media from the INOVA Sports Performance Center at Redskins Park in Ashburn, Virginia, Callahan spoke about Cousins and the if the team has an advantage in knowing the former Redskins signal-callers tendencies.
“He’s in a different system now, so that all changes and I’m sure his progressions, his reads, what they’re asking him to do, that’s all changed,” Callahan said. “There are some similarities because the plays are pretty much by in large in the drop-back game are similar across the league. How they feature those from a formational aspect, they’re always different. We’ve got a lot of respect for Kirk and we anticipated that he’ll be at his best. He’s been pretty good the last few games out. We’re looking forward to the challenge to say the least.”
Washington will try to pick up their second straight road win and their first win against an NFC opponent this season.