Good work

Houston is better than pretty good on both sides of the ball so I chose them out of the three. I would hope, and believe, that the Boys will take this season one game, and one play at a time. No hurry to get to the Bye week now as there is much to enjoy before then starting with seeing who makes this years squad.

Excellent writers along with well schooled fan posts makes this a super site. I am greatful.

It worries me that Dallas won’t have much of a scouting report on the Skins when we play them. Preparation is a huge part of winning, so the Skins have the upper hand there. Plus they usually play Dallas close, even when they’re bad.

They always play us well. Skins will be in part one of getting used to playing with the new faces and new scheme. Bears are an unknown quantity at this point but I like our chances.

I’ll pick Washington for the rivalry factor and because as others have said they’re tendancies won’t be clear when the Cowboys play them. I just hope McNabb gets knocked around early. That always makes my day.

Texans are the toughest of the three and we play them away.

But I think the Redskins may be the biggest risk of a loss:
 - this rivalvry has always gone against the trend. We beat them when they are on top and they return the favour when we are strong.

 - we are playing them in the first game of the year – probably THE worst game to play them. They are changing both O and D so they are going to be extremely difficult to prepare for. That should mean their execution is much worse but they may be hot early until teams figure out exactly what they are doing. I think ultimately they will suck for the season overall, but it wouldn’t shock me if they are winning for their first few games.

I don’t fear Chicago. Its a home game and I think Martz’s system simply means Culter’s will accumulate his interceptions that much faster. Hopefully we finally have a def backfield that can snag some!

So Redskins for me.

We’re fortunate with this part of the schedule, because the first 2 teams are both installing new systems, I’d expect them to be a bit less polished than our guys should be out of the gate, and I think that gives us an edge (in addition to just being a better team).

I agree with Oz, Redskins games are always unpredictable, even when we think we should beat them you can’t count on anything, and now with the combo of McNabb and a new system, who knows what to expect. But I’d say playing @ Wash the first weak is actually ideal to try to take advantage of them being in transition and pick up a division road win. It may be harder to plan for them, but that’s always the case somewhat with the first game, and every team changes up their offense enough that you can’t count on tape from last season to plan too much. I’d say them trying to learn a new system is a bigger disadvantage than us trying to plan for it.

also good to play the Bears early, installing new system and who knows whether Cutler and Martz will mix, hopefully get some INTs to get our takeaways rolling… need to win this one at home.

The Texans we’re also fortunate to play early because Cushing is out. They are a dangerous team with a quality QB and some potent weapons who always seem to be on the verge of contending, and I expect them to be good this season. Could be a tough road game and I give them the vote as the most challenging.

dallas like their own playoff game; so based on that they will probably be playing the game like a reg. season one.

The Tex-anns will definitely treat the reg season game like a playoff game, especially since they won’t make it this year either.

These 3 opponents all seem at least a little challenging, but I guess you’d say that about almost any team in the league. All 3 have notable pass rushers on the end (Peppers, Super-Mario, and Orakpo), but nobody would call these defenses frightening. The Cowboys should be able to score.

What is a bit worrisome is that we’ve got Shanahan in Week 1. He is one of the best coaches in the past few decades at scripting an offensive gameplan and planning for a specific defensive opponent. Wade’s defense will have their hands’ full with whatever he comes up with— I think we can expect a significantly superior offensive approach compared to what we’ve seen from the Skins in recent years. Whether or not the players can execute that approach is another story, of course.

with texas they can score but thats about it….i feel confident playing a good shannahan team and this is not one of them…and we should wack the bears…martz loves to pass and wade loves to bring the heat so i’d put my money on wade winning that one….besides our offence should rip the bears a new one….

That’s all I got.

I voted Redskins, they’ll be the 2nd best team in our division this year, and have Shanahan to go along with a tough D.
  I can see why most people think Houston will be tougher, they’re a tough team.

But the Bears?? C’mon

And after that one, the Chicago game will have be worried, and after that one, the Texans game will keep me up late on the Saturday before……
Then I’ll start thinking the bye is too damn soon.
And then…..

First – this is still the prime rivalry for both teams. The form charts seem never to be followed in our games against this team.

Second point – Washington comes first and we have to consider the next game our toughest game every week.

Nice work Aaron. I always appreciate the video touches.

I think of them as the Texas Aggies to us, the Texas Longhorns. Trying to knock off the big dog in the state. I also think that the Texans defense is in the best shape to upset the ‘Boys. Haynesworth is a huge cancer with the Redskins, and doesn’t it always seem that there are problems in the locker room (more than the usual NFL team) ever since Daniel Snyder took over?

We will win what games our offensive line wins. If they turn out to be black holes of suckitude it really won’t matter which team is tougher than the others. Wins will be especially hard to come by.

I see him as a mediocre QB, and I know some people will tell me it’s all about the system, but that’s basically the same B.S. that Roy Williams tells us, too.

The biggest concern will be Schaub-to-Johnson.

a) The Washington game will be a nice dress rehearsal for our defense as they prepare for the Week 3 match up with Houston since both teams run Mike Shanahan’s version of the West Coast Offense.

1) Passing Offense [Houston will be really tough here]
—play action off the stretch play, bootlegs to get the deep bombs
—heavy dose of passes to the tight end over the middle of the field
—the occasional swing pass to fullbacks and running backs
(expect more of these from Houston, as Slaton is a better receiver, so on that note expect screens as well).
—Look for more shotgun/spread formations from Houston as their offensive line isn’t as strong as Washington’s.

2) Rushing Offense [Washington will probably give us the best challenge here]
—stretch plays to the strong side
—counters to the weak side
—quick tosses and pitches to the open field
—look for traditional I formation/off balance I sets as they get closer and closer to the goal line
—I’d expect to see a lot of single back formations, especially from the Texans.

Overall, because Schaub is a much more accurate passer than McNabb, and because that Houston offense will be in its 3-4th year under Kubiak, I’d expect to see Houston employ 60-40 Pass:Run ratio. On the other hand, I’d expect to see a more balanced approach from Washington, which means Washington will probably use more play action against us. Still the plays and the formations should be pretty much the same. As always, it will be the snap counts, and the line calls for audibles which will be different. In my opinion the Redskins game should be the toughest. However, I’d expect to see us go 2-0 here.

b) Surprisingly, I am more worried about the Bears game because the last two times we faced Mike Martz’s teams we played like ass (both games against the Lions). And while we do have Roy Williams and Jon Kitna to shed light on the Martz attack, the scary part about that offense (when it is run correctly) is that it’s very similar to Steve Nash’s offense with the Phoenix Suns. You have no idea what they will run from one play to the next, and not only do you have to guess what routes are being called, but DBs also have to decipher whether or not the receivers will break their routes. All you do know is that they want to throw down field. Given all this plus the fact you have no idea which Cutler will show up from 1 game to the next, I can easily see us losing this one only because the defense gets gassed from having to defend the pass most of the time, and because I worry, that Jason might get sucked into a passing contest and neglect the running game when this is the game to employ a heavy dose of it.