Jeremy Fowler really feels like going out on a limb at this early stage of the NFL season.
The ESPN national NFL writer picked the Washington Redskins to beat the New England Patriots on Sunday in their Week 5 matchup. The 4-0 Patriots are 15 1/2-point favorites over the 0-4 Redskins, but Fowler believes Washington will upset the odds.
Here’s why:
“I’ll probably regret this one, but Washington won’t go out like this,” Fowler wrote Wednesday. “It has enough talent to avoid 0-5. Perhaps Colt McCoy can spark the offense for one game. Tom Brady averaged fewer than 4 yards per passing attempt at Buffalo, and though he won’t replicate that performance, the (Buffalo) Bills showed why New England misses Antonio Brown by limiting big plays.”
Brady endured a performance to forget last Sunday in the Patriots’ 16-10 win over the Bills. He completed just 46.2 percent of his passes for 150 yards with an interception and threw for just 3.8 yards per attempt. Brady finished with a 45.9 passer rating, the worst of his career in a game the Patriots won.
Those statistics prompted one NFL observer to rip Brady for the “awful” performance and another to suggest the 42-year-old quarterback is nursing a “legitimate injury.”
However, assuming Brady’s struggles against the Bills represent a trend that will sink the Patriots’ fortunes against the Redskins this Sunday seems to be a giant — and probably regrettable — leap of faith on Fowler’s part.
