The Redskins have lost starting tight end Chris Cooley for the rest of the season due to a broken right ankle.  Cooley played in all 7 games for the Redskins this season and he caught 29 passes for 332 yards (11.4 avg) with 2 TD grabs.  He will be replaced by second year TE Fred Davis.  Davis has played in all 7 games for the Redskins this season and he has caught 15 passes for 123 yards (8.2 avg) with 1 TD grab.  The Redskins are hoping that Davis keeps up the good work because the TE is very important in the offense.

UPDATE:  It appears that Cooley will now only miss four weeks and that is a good thing for the Redskins who need him badly.

30-year old DE Andre Carter has been really solid for the Redskins this season.  He has played in all 7 games for the Redskins this season and he has made 34 tackles, he has 6.5 sacks, 2 tackles for a loss, 3 forced fumbles and he has defensed 3 passes.  Carter is the best player on the defense right now other than London Fletcher.  The one person that both Fletcher and Carter owe a little of their success to is DT Albert Haynesworth who is keeping Fletcher clean to make plays and Carter isn’t getting double teamed allowing him to get to the QB.

The Eagles took it to the Redskins last night as they had a 27-10 lead at the half and then they rode it out in the second half.  Jason Campbell completed 29 of 43 passes for 284 yards with 2 TD passes and 1 interception (it was returned 9 yards for a TD by Will Witherspoon).  Campbell also lost a fumble in this game.  Clinton Portis didn’t have his best game carrying the ball 14 times for 43 yards (3.1 ypc).  TE Fred Davis led the way in the passing game for the Redskins last night as he finished up with 8 catches for 78 yards (9.8 avg) with 1 TD grab.  Santana Moss also had a good game with 6 catches for 74 yards (12.3 avg) last night.  Devin Thomas finally did something positive for the Redskins in a regular season game as he caught 3 passes for 45 yards (15.0 avg) with a TD.  The Redskins finished up with 308 total yards on offense (62 rushing, 246 passing) in this game.

I thought the defense played pretty well against the Eagles minus two long plays that Desean Jackson scored on.  DE Andre Carter was living in the Eagles’ backfield as he finished up with 6 tackles, 1 sack, 2 tackles for a loss and 2 QB hits.  London Fletcher had another solid game with 6 tackles and a pass defensed.  The Eagles finished up with 244 total yards on offense (122 rushing, 122 passing) in this game.  The Redskins are now 2-5 on the season.

The Redskins have given 27-year old Jason Campbell five years to prove himself and he seems to be the same QB he was when he first started.  He has started all six games for the Redskins this season and he has completed 107 of 163 passes (65.6%) for 1,197 yards with 6 TD passes and 6 INTs (84.3 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 20 times for 95 yards (4.8 ypc) this year.  But Campbell was benched last Sunday against the Chiefs and he will likely be on a very short leash going forward.  37-year old Todd Collins replaced Campbell last week and he didn’t look too good completing 6 of 14 passes (42.9%) for 75 yards with 0 TDs and 0 INTs (60.1 QB Rating).  Collins would just be a stopgap if he were inserted in the starting lineup for the Redskins who will likely be looking for a new QB next season.  Collins has played in 45 games in his NFL career and he has completed 375 of 665 passes (56.4%) for 4,410 yards with 22 TD passes and 19 INTs (75.6 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 83 times for 152 yards (1.8 ypc) in his career. 

This game is no doubt going to be a defensive battle on Monday Night Football.  The Eagles can’t afford to throw the ball every down in this game to have success.  The Redskins will be likely blitzing a little bit more than usual taking a page from the game plan the Raiders used last week to shut the Eagles down.  To slow the blitzing the Eagles must run the ball and throw screen passes to Brian Westbrook and Lesean McCoy.  If the Eagles don’t have any threat of a running game than Donovan McNabb will be a sitting duck like last week.  The Redskins give up 118.0 yards rushing per game so the Eagles would be smart to mix things up better on offense in this game.

It will be interesting to see how new offensive co-ordinator Sherm Lewis plans to attack the Eagles’ D.  The thought here is that Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts will be very busy running the ball against a Eagles’ D that is allowing 103.8 yards rushing per game but only 3.6 yards per carry.  The Eagles will be blitzing from the minute they get off the team bus so look for Jason Campbell to throw a lot of short passes to TE Chris Cooley.  The Raiders’ TE Zach Miller repeatedly torched the Eagles last week so look for Cooley to have a big game.  If the Eagles start to sneak up to stop the running game and the TE look for the Redskins to throw the ball downfield no matter who the QB is.

PREDICTION:  EAGLES 16, REDSKINS 13

The Redskins have released 29-year old punter Glenn Pakulak with Hunter Smith ready to return to action.  Pakulak punted in 2 games for the Redskins this season.  He punted the ball 13 times for 498 yards (38.3 avg) with only 1 touchback (7.7%) and he pinned the opposition inside the 20-yard line 4 times (30.8%).  The Redskins will likely look for someone else to punt if Hunter Smith gets hurt again.  The Redskins have re-signed veteran DE Renaldo Wynn to replace Pakulak on the active roster.

The Redskins have signed 30-year old OT Levi Jones.  Jones is a big guy at 6’5″, 307 pounds and he has a lot of experience so if he is healthy he will likely earn a starting job soon for the Redskins.  Jones played in 10 games (all starts) for the Bengals last season.  He has now played in 94 games (89 starts) in his 7-year NFL career.  This was a good signing for the Redskins.

The Redskins have signed running back Quinton Ganther.  The 25-year old Ganther played in 13 games for the Titans last season and he carried the ball 9 times for 61 yards (6.8 ypc) and he also caught 6 passes for 43 yards (7.2 avg).  Ganther will help the Redskins on special teams and he will provide depth in the offensive backfield.  This was a good signing for the Redskins.

The Washington Redskins (2-4) looked awful on Sunday, losing to a win-less Kansas City Chiefs (1-5) squad.  The Redskins failed to score a touchdown and only got two field goals from Shaun Suisham in the third quarter.  Jason Campbell looked bad again and after only getting 89 yards on 9/16 and an interception in the first half, he was benched in the second half.  Todd Collins came in and wasn’t much better.  Collins went 6/14 for 75 yards and failed to reach the end-zone.  Head coach Jim Zorn has to take a lot of the blame and it looks like he is probably on his way out as it was announced today that Zorn has lost his play-calling authority.  Sherman Lewis is taking over the play-calling duties and is apparently a west-coast offensive guru.

The Redskins defense did a pretty solid job in this game, keeping the Chiefs out of the end-zone and limiting them to four field goals.  They got nothing out of their offense though, so there was not much they could do other than try and force some turnovers, which they failed to do.  They held Matt Cassel to 186 passing yards on 17/32 attempts.  They also limited running back Larry Johnson to only 83 yards on 23 carries.  Chiefs’ receiver Dwayne Bowe did too much damage though, going for 109 yards on only six catches (18.2 avg).  Clinton Portis was the only bright spot for the Redskins offense, rushing for 109 yards on 15 carries (7.2 avg) including a 78 yard run.  The Redskins look like they get worse week by week, and hopefully Sherman Lewis can revamp their offense.  Zorn still gets to decide who his starting quarterback will be though, and will decide sometime this week.  They will look to turn things around against the Philadelphia Eagles next week.

 The Washington Redskins (2-3) are at home against the Kansas City Chiefs (0-5) Sunday.  This will be the six game in a row that the Redskins are taking on a win-less team (including week one against 0-0 NY Giants).  They have not fared well against those teams, as the Detroit Lions ended a 19-game losing streak and the win-less Carolina Panthers beat them last week.  The Redskins do a terrible job of keeping a lead, proving that last week when they blew a 17-2 lead in their loss to the Panthers.  They are facing a Chiefs team that is improving and almost beat the Dallas Cowboys last week, falling in overtime 26-20.  They did have a late game comeback with 2:16 left in the 4th quarter to send the game into overtime, so this is going to be a tough game for the Redskins.

Quarterback Jason Campbell needs to step it up and play more consistently.  The Skins running game has been effective, with Clinton Portis having 338 yards on 91 carries (3.7 avg) and a touchdown.  Campbell has been very inconsistent and seems to be afraid to throw the ball down field.  He has a high completion percentage (67%) because he dumps it down almost every pass and struggles to get passed 200 passing yards.  The Redskins are going to need Campbell to have a good game, and he should since the Cheifs are giving up over 270 passing yards per game.  I think the Chiefs are improving a lot though, and the Redskins seem to be taking a step back each week as they either lose or barely beat win-less teams.  With the schedule they have had so far, they should be 4-1.  I think the Chiefs are going to upset the Redskins in this one, with Matt Cassel leading the way.  Cassel is a good quarterback when he is healthy, and has thrown seven touchdowns on 711 yards and only two interceptions with a 59 % completion rate.  The Redskins are going to fall again to a win-less team in a close game.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Kansas City Chiefs 23, Washington Redskins 21