The Washington Redskins are fresh off the heels of their biggest victory of the young 2017-2018 season. Of course, that's before Monday night, when they'll play the biggest game of their NFL season, again. The Redskins will travel to Kansas City, a hostile environment (Arrowhead Stadium) that the team is 0-4 playing in historically, to take on the 3-0 Chiefs, who are led by a coach the Redskins are all too familiar with, former Eagles head coach and offensive guru Andy Reid.

Keys to victory

  • In order for the Redskins to get the win on Monday night, they must find a way to play with the same defensive aggressiveness that they displayed against Oakland last Sunday night. Washington's defense was easily the reason behind the Raiders inability to do, well, anything at all. They held the Raiders to under 100 yards total as a team until late in the fourth quarter during garbage time. Redskins safety DJ Swearinger has been the drive behind the shift in aggression this season along with new defensive coordinator Greg Manusky's pressure-heavy scheme. Swearinger has been using the doubters as fuel to the fire. “When I had the meeting on Tuesday, I said nobody’s going to give us a chance to win,” Swearinger said. “The NFL wants the Raiders to come in Washington and beat up on the Redskins, and as a defense, we are not going to let that happen." In order for the Redskins to get the win Monday night, the team will need to use the same motivation as most "experts" will not pick them to win this week either.
  • The Redskins offense must find a way to continue to run the ball effectively. While the rushing attack has yet to produce an individual 100-yard rusher, last week the team rushed 34 times for 116 yards. That kind of commitment keeps certain teams honest and also sets Washington up for well-timed play-action passes as well as the type of screen-passes runningback Chris Thompson excels at. Coming out of the backfield, Thompson has been the engine behind a lot of the Redskins offensive fire-power. Against the Raiders alone Thompson had six catches for 150 yards and a touchdown. Kirk Cousins won NFC Offensive Player of the week in week three by taking over on the field and finding eight different receivers, the team will need that same vision Monday night. Cousins missed out on some team reps Friday when he had to leave practice for the birth of his first son, but backup Colt McCoy was able to include him in team meetings via FaceTime.
  • The Redskins need to play mistake-free football. Against the Raiders the team lost two fumbles including one by punt returner Jamison Crowder. A replay of those mistakes against a team like Kansas City will result in a lost football game. Andy Reid has diabolically made a career out of winning those types of football games.
  • The defense has to find a way to focus on the Chiefs talented rookie runningback Kareem Hunt, the current rushing yardage leader in the entire league rushing 47 times for 407 yards and four touchdowns in four weeks, while not letting Alex Smith dink and dunk them to death. Hunt presents an interesting matchup, the back is averaging 8.7 yards per carry and has nine catches for 137 receiving yards and two touchdowns this season. Hunt is also the first player in NFL history to rack up a 50-plus-yard touchdown in the first three straight games of his career. The Redskins will likely have to let speedy linebacker Zach Brown shadow Hunt in some situations. Smith is most certainly playing some of the best football of his career and is a very destructive weapon himself when he goes mobile from the QB position, Washington will have to keep him held in check as well.
  • The team also needs to somehow keep speedy receiver Tyreek Hill away from making big plays. Hill has become the ultimate "gadget player" for Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. Washington will have to keep a tab on him at all times.

Redskins injury report

The Redskins released the team's last injury report before Monday night's game on Saturday afternoon.

In all, six players currently have questionable status; LB Mason Foster (shoulder), RB Rob Kelley (rib), TE Jordan Reed (sternum, sore ribs), WR Jamison Crowder (hamstring), safety DJ Swearinger (hamstring) and LB Will Compton (ankle). Reed and Kelley have already said they intend on playing Monday night.
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