Seahawks-Redskins Preview: 10 Things

[travisduncan]

Rookie cornerback Richard Sherman of the Seattle Seahawks along with first-year corner Brandon Browner will face veteran WRs Santana Moss and Jabar Gaffney Sunday against the Redskins.

10 Things Seahawks-Redskins

1. Expectations.

A lot like last Sunday in St. Louis, the Seahawks are expected to win this week.

Quite a few national experts are predicting a 'Hawks W maily because the Redskins have lost six straight and are on the road traveling east to west. They don't have much of an offense (ranked 24th in the NFL) and the Seahawks defense is playing great.

How does this team handle success? How do they respond win they are expected to win?

The Seahawks haven't won 3 games in a row since 2007.

2. Homefield advantage

At 2-2 the home record is not indicative of how important the Seahawks franchise thinks crowd noise is for its football team. The Redskins have already had a revolving door at quarter back and running back, so crowd noise could have a definite impact on a unit which may not have all their signals down.

Redskins head coach Mike Shannahan was asked about playing in Seattle this week.

“Yeah, I’ve been there before," he said. "I thought the dome was much louder. Even though it’s a great venue, the Seahawks are excellent there and it’s very loud. You have to remind your team how loud it is. Compared to the indoor stadium, I think it’s a little easier.”

3. The Redskins love to rush the QB

Redskins linebackers Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan are among the league's best blitzing linebackers, compiling 6 and 5.5 sacks respectively. Redskins defensive end Adam Carriker has 5 sacks on the season too.

The Redskins and two other teams (Minnesota, New York Giants) lead the NFL in total sacks with 31.

Washington is middle of the road against the rush and against the pass, but the general idea will be to put pressure on Jackson and see if they can sack him or force him into one of his trademark mistakes.

Here's what Pete Carroll said about the Redskins pass rush:

Haz [Defensive Coordinator Jim Haslett] has done a great job of scheming with really good players. He puts them in good positions. They show a tremendous attack attitude, their willingness to come after you anywhere on the field. The variety of things they choose are really as good as you can get — the style, the pressures, the coverages behind it, his willingness to go from the rush zone stuff to man-to-man stuff to no safety in the hole, full-on blitz. That’s everything that you can throw at people. He does it really well. And it’s probably as aggressive an attack as anybody in the league right now.”

4.Losing streak.

The Redskins haven't won a game since October 2 and have lost six straight games. They showed some signs of life last week taking Dallas to overtime in a 27-24 loss.

Carroll said this week he told his team to expect a very hungry Redskins team.

5. Good Rex, Bad Rex

Redskins quarterback Rex Grossman was benched in favor of John beck, stunk it up just as bad, if not worse than Grossman in three losses, resulting in only three scoring drives.

Grossman played well against the Cowboys last week. 25 of 38 passing for 289yards, 2TDs in the air, one running with an interception.

Per the Washington Post, Redskins wide receiver Jabar Gaffney said. “That was the Rex that we expect."

"That’s the Rex from training camp and the first couple of games, and hopefully he can build off of that and we can build off of that as a team.”

"Right now, it was just one game," Grossman told the Post. "Until we prove otherwise, it was just one game. I have a lot of confidence [and] and I feel like something clicked. It’s just a gut feeling of mine that our offense has finally maybe turned the corner. You can’t say that until you go out and prove it week in and week out.”


6. Redskins WR's vs Seahawks corners.

Gaffney is the No. 1 option while Santana Moss is No. 2 both veterans in their own right. Gaffney is in his 10th season and Moss is in his 11th. Moss hasn't played in four games because of a broken hand. He says the hand should not affect his ability to catch passes on Sunday.

Gaffney is coming off a seven catch 115 yard day against the Cowboys last week-both are season highs, typically he's been less productive in the Redskins offense.

Neither guy is going to blow the corners away with speed-though they do have it, but they are both excellent route runners and find ways to get open like any WR's who have had decade long careers such as these two.

It's easy to forget that Seahawks corner Richard Sherman is a rookie and Brandon Browner is essentially a rookie, playing in his first NFL season though he was on the Broncos roster back in 2005. Both are are playing great, but experience can never be underestimated. It will be exciting to see what these guys can do against the Redskins.

7. The Redskins rushing attack or lack thereof

The Redskins haven't been able to do much on ground this season. Tim Hightower went down earlier this season with an injury, and the team has turned to Ryan Torain as the starter but rookie Roy Helu has been getting more carries as of late.

Helu was actually a player that Carroll saw as a high school player and said this week, that he missed on signing him at USC.

Washington picked him up in the 4th round this year out of Nebraska.

Helu also will get thrown to out of the backfield, he caught 14 passes in a game earlier this season against the 49ers.

8. Sidney Rice's knee injury.

Rice missed practice on Wednesday and Thursday and returned on Friday. He is expected to play but there's always a chance he could miss Sunday's game. Rice is Tarvaris Jackson's go to target and his ability to make plays out of nowhere seem to give Jackson confidence in other areas of the offense. Having Rice on the bench could change things drastically.

9. Series History

Sunday’s matchup between the Redskins and Seahawks is the 15th regular season meeting between the two teams. The Redskins hold a 10-4 advantage in the previous 14 meetings.
This will be the first matchup between the two since 2008. The Redskins have won all five regular season games against the Seahawks since 2000.

10. Redskins-Seahawks Connections

Former Seahawks on Redskins:
DE Kentwan Balmer (2010)
T Sean Locklear (2004-10)
T Tyler Polumbus (2010-11)
CB Josh Wilson (2007-09)

Former Redskins on Seahawks:
DE Chris Clemons (2003-05)
Running Backs Coach Sherman Smith (2008-09)

Seahawks with ties to the D.C. region:
WR Deon Butler (Woodbridge, Va.)
S Kam Chancellor (Virginia Tech/Norfolk, Va.)

Redskins with ties to Washington:
DE Adam Carriker (Kennewick, Wash.)
FB Mike Sellers (Walla Walla Community College/Lacey, Wash.)

Pro Connections:
Redskins Head Coach Mike Shanahan was head coach of the
Denver Broncos alongside Redskins Assistant Head Coach/ Bobby
Turner, while Seahawks Tight Ends Coach Pat McPherson coached
there (1998-2008).

Redskins RB Tim Hightower and Seahawks DL Alan Branch
played together for the Arizona Cardinals (2008-2010).

Redskins P Sav Rocca and Seahawks DE Chris Clemons played
together for the Philadelphia Eagles (2008-2009).

College Connections:

Redskins DT Lorenzo Alexander played with Seahawks DT Brandon Mebane, RB Justin Forsett and RB Marshawn Lynch at California.

Redskins DE Kedric Golston played together with Seahawks DE Chris Clemons at Georgia.

Redskins CB Brandyn Thompson played together with Seahawks DB Deron Johnson at Boise St.

Redskins DE Jarvis Jenkins played together with Seahawks CB Byron Maxwell at Clemson.

Redskins TE Fred Davis played together with Seahawks TE Anthony McCoy at USC.

Redskins RB Ryan Torain played together with Seahawks TE Zach Miller at Arizona St.

Family Connections: Redskins LB Rocky McIntosh and Seahawks WR Sidney Rice are cousins

Connections courtesy of Redskins PR.