Redskins Big 'Dogs In Atlanta

NFL News - November 3rd, 2009 - Written by Scott

The Washington Redskins finally shook loose from their regular-season parade of playing nothing but winless teams through Week Six, losing four of those games to field loud criticism from fans. The problem is, playing teams with winning records means the patsies are gone and the road to recovery has only gotten harder. They travel to Atlanta this week to play a Atlanta Falcons team that hung with the NFL's best offense on Monday Night Football, and is hungry after a recent two-game skid. It is a match-up between the two most-recent losers on MNF.

The Falcons are favored by 10 points at home with a payout of -110 both ways, according to our Week 9 NFL Betting Odds. The over/under is 42.

The Redskins are 3-12-3 ATS overall recently, primarily due to the fact that their skill players have yet to show much skill. It has also kept six of their last nine roads games under the line. The arguement for an under only grows when considering games in the Georgia Dome have been held low in nine of the last 12.

That wasn't the case last week when Atlanta lost in a shootout against the New Orleans Saints. Michael Turner rushed for a season-high 151 yards and a score, but Matt Ryan was picked off three times to stump any chance to climb back in the game in which they needed to score 36. Ryan has been picked off eight times in the last four games, two of them resulting in losses, and will surely need to improve against Washington's 2nd-ranked pass defense.

Meanwhile, the Redskins are still weathering the media storm that has spotlighted head coach Jim Zorn after he was stripped of playcalling duties. The offense improved moderately with 17 points against the Philadelphia Eagles, but Jason Campbell lost one of his favorite targets when Chris Cooley chiped part of his tibia in the game. He'll be out for four weeks.

That means the short-yardage passing game will likely benefit Clinton Portis in the flats. He currently has but nine catches for 57 yards and a score on the year. His main damage has been carrying the ball, averaging 4.1 yards on 120 carries.

In all, the two teams have met four times this decade with an even 2-2 split. The favorite covered in three of the four games, with the only exception coming when Washington won by two the last time they played in Atlanta.

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