Washington at New England

Nice contrarian situation here. The Pats are off a 30-3 drubbing of Arizona. Their offense has scored 53 points in two games. They face a struggling Washington Redskins team here that, on the surface, looks like easy pickin's. The Skins have scored just 17 points in their first two games and Clinton Portis is done for the preseason. But, this is why I like Washington here. They are already in full-blown panic-mode. Prior to the preseason they were the talk of the NFC East - picked by many to win it. Yes, it's only the preseason but after getting beaten by an average score of 8.5 to 23 in their first two games, they are wanting/needing a win here. Starting out 0-3 is not a good thing for any team. Head coach Joe Gibbs said after last week's game "I'm concerned all the way across the board. I think it's not playing, and me not coaching. When we show up and do stuff like that at home, I take it real serious. I think our players do too. We're going to do something about it." You can bet that this team is busting butt right now and want to win. Meanwhile, the Pats are sitting pretty. About last week's gaem, New Enlgnad coach Bill Belichick said "I thought our players tried to compete pretty well. We got a lot of snaps on both sides of the ball and I thought that there were some positives things." For Belichick this is saying a lot! This guy is a glass is half-empty guy and that's about as positive a remark as you will hear from him all season. The preseason is much about emotion and situations on here's one where we get a very motivated winless dog against a content favorite off a big win. Underdogs off two offensive terrible outings tend to work hard and bounce back in a good way the next week. Gibbs has confirmed what we know - the underdog is going to try very hard this week. Skins plus the points here.