After a week off, the Washington Redskins will look to snap their three-game losing streak Sunday against the struggling Philadelphia Eagles, but history suggests that the chances of their skid extending to four are quite high.
Washington has lost four consecutive post-bye games, including the last two to, you guessed it, the Eagles.
But that is not the most concerning/laughable statistic. This is: the Redskins have lost eight straight games when a rookie quarterback starts for the opposition. That is the longest losing streak since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. That's also not good.
Michael Vick is out with a concussion, so unheralded rookie Nick Foles will start for Philadelphia Sunday.
Here are the rookies that have combined to defeat the Redskins eight consecutive times:
- Christian Ponder (Dec. 24, 2011)
- Cam Newton (Oct. 23, 2011)
- Sam Bradford (Sept. 26, 2010)
- Matthew Stafford (Sept. 27, 2009)
- Joe Flacco (Dec. 7, 2008)
- Trent Edwards (Dec. 2, 2007)
- Brad Gradkowski (Nov. 19, 2006)
- Vince Young (Oct. 15, 2006)
If my calculations are correct (and I warn you that I suck at math), the last rookie quarterback that the Redskins defeated was Ryan FItzpatrick in a 24-9 win over the St. Louis Rams on Dec. 4, 2005. In fact, the 'Skins beat three rookie quarterbacks that year: Fitzpatrick, Kyle Orton (Chicago Bears) and Alex Smith (San Francisco 49ers).
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