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