If you were to take a blind resume of both teams heading into this game on Sunday, it seems pretty clear which should have the upper hand. One team is riding high on a three-game winning streak, coming off of their biggest win in several years, with a top-five defense in the NFL that has been nothing short of dominant in the second half of games.
The other team has been ravaged by injuries this season and is without both their starting QB and All-Pro tight end, forced instead to rely on a middling QB and a who’s-who of running backs and receivers to get the job done. Their defense is solid, but they’re missing their best player on that side of the ball as well.
Both teams have the same record; both teams are on the outside of the wild-card race looking in; both teams have a ton to fight for on Sunday. So why the are San Francisco 49ers favored by three points on a neutral field?
We don’t have an answer for you, but we can say that we feel confident in Washington’s chances to continue their winning streak this weekend, even if rookie RB Antonio Gibson is unable to play with a turf toe injury suffered last week. In order to pull out a win, though, Washington is going to need to what they’ve been doing for most of the season — rely on their defense and get a mistake-free game from Alex Smith. Here are our biggest keys to victory for Ron Rivera and his squad.