FANTASY FOOTBALL WEEKLY FEATURES

WAS (3-6) vs PHI (8-1)

Game Prediction: WAS 16, PHI 24

Only the Dolphins have scored less than Washington this season and that's just a mere two points. The Eagles have the third highest scoring offense in the NFC. Put another way, the Redskins have never scored more than 18 points in any game. The Eagles have scored more than 30 points in over half of their games.

Pre-Game Notes - WAS

The Redskins just cannot score more than 18 points. But they never score less than 10. Now that Joe Gibbs has evidently located the negatives from whatever compromising photos that Brunell had on him, Ramsey can try to get the team over that impossible 20 point barrier. This team scores so little, when you say a 20 point barrier it should be read with a trailing echo.

Quarterback: Welcome back Pat! The Redskins finally could no longer ignore the source of most scoring problems last week when Mark Brunell had completed only one pass on eight attempts for six yards and an interception. Perhaps this older version of Gibbs is not very good with subtlety, but that poor of a performance - plus 70,000 screaming fans - are just very hard to ignore eventually.

Patrick Ramsey played little more than one half last week and threw for 210 yards and one score. That dwarfs everything that Brunell has done outside of the Dallas loss and it only required one half of play.

Running Backs: Clinton Portis only had 81 yards last week and he only has three 100 yard games on the season. Even a hint of a passing game can only bring good things for Portis.

Wide Receivers: Ramsey hit Laveranues Coles for 74 yards on six catches last week which if that level would last an entire game would finally make Coles a viable fantasy starter again. So far, Coles has the occasional decent yardage game but only has one score on the year. Rod Gardner has five scores so far but never gained more than 41 yards during the last six weeks. The swap for Ramsey may not big a big help, but there is no way it will hurt this duo.

Tight Ends: Chris Cooley scored his third touchdown for the year last week and of course, it was thrown by Ramsey.

Match Against the Defense: Playing in Philadelphia, running backs have not been very successful this season other than Tiki Barber back in week one. No runner has scored there in the last eight games and no runner has exceeded 78 yards rushing in that timeframe. More than anything, the Eagles get big leads early and runners usually stop at 15 to 18 carries. Expect a moderate game from Portis this week.

The Eagles have allowed every quarterback to throw a score this season since week two and Ramsey brings optimism and hope that has not been crushed (at least so far). Look for just a standard game from Ramsey of around 200 yards and one score. Anything more than that and he'll be submitted for sainthood at a D.C. diocese.

Pre-Game Notes - PHI

About the only impediment to the Eagles stringing out wins the rest of the way is if they lose a sense of urgency and motivation. They already own the best record in the NFC and have a three game lead over the Giants in the NFC East.

Running Backs: Brian Westbrook is healthy again, or at least healthy enough. He ran 15 times for 56 yards and one score against the Cowboys and added 62 more yards on four receptions. He's back.

Dorsey Levens had 12 carries for 73 yards last Monday and he also scored. Westbrook is back - and he is not alone.

Wide Receivers: It must be wildly entertaining for the Philly fans to watch the antics of Terrell Owens after he scores and with a dozen touchdowns already, he'll likely end with more showings than the average Broadway play. He has six 100 yard games and other than the one flop in Pittsburgh, he's as close to unstoppable as they come.

Todd Pinkston had one catch for 59 yards last week that was very notable. It was the first time any Eagle wideout other than Owens had caught a touchdown this season.

Tight Ends: The occasional score but nothing worth relying on and no real yardage while you are waiting for that rare touchdown.

Match Against the Defense: The Redskins defense has been quite good this season, but they've oddly navigated around facing many decent quarterbacks. The only top tier guy they have seen was Favre who threw for 289 yards and one score but no quarterback yet has managed more than one passing touchdown against them.

The rushing defense has only allowed five touchdowns this season as well.

The thing to realize with the Redskins is that yes, they have the second worst scoring offense. But they also have allowed less points this year than any other team. The average NFL game would have around a 41 total point over and under. There has only been one game all year involving Washington with so many points and that was only 42 points (vs GB). The Redskins are like the anti-Colts.

Expect the Eagles to win but for the Eagles to have a much harder time scoring than the 28 point trouncing they gave Dallas last week. Yardage and scores will be down all around. I am projecting one passing score that would have to be awarded to Owens since he catches 12 of them for every one that any other receiver does.