Holiday cheer won't be on the docket on Saturday night in the City of Brotherly Love.
The Philadelphia Eagles' season hangs in the balance against the Washington Redskins in Week 16, and the fantasy matchup between Kirk Cousins and Sam Bradford could be a great indication of how this pivotal NFC East battle is going to play out.
You can find weekly head-to-head fantasy matchup odds at BookMaker.eu.
Cousins is the first quarterback in Redskins history to head into Week 16 having thrown at least one touchdown pass in 14 games. He hasn't been a complete and utter stud, but he does have four straight games with at least a 101 quarterback rating. QB rating isn't covering fantasy matchups, but that's still a good indication of how efficient he has been.
Let's not forget that there's a correlation between Cousins' great quarterback ratings and the return of DeSean Jackson from injury. D-Jax loves nothing more than to stick it to the team which unceremoniously released him a couple seasons ago, and this game will take on some extra motivation knowing that a big game on his behalf can end Philly's season.
Cousins has averaged 21.7 fantasy points per game this season. Those numbers aren't fantastic, but if you just take the games in which both Jordan Reed and Jackson have both started and finished, that average comes up to 31.2 fantasy points per game, numbers which are truly elite.
The Eagles still don't have worthwhile corners, and they still struggle against vertical passing games. The Patriots really ran more short passes than verticals up seams or down the sidelines, and that's why they ended up falling victim to arguably the biggest upset of the season.
On the other side of the ball, the Eagles are all about their running game. If they run for 100 yards as a team, they generally win. If they run for less than 100 yards, they generally lose.
Bradford hasn't been anything to write home about. He's been picked off 13 times already this season, and he's often guilty of holding onto the football far too long while he diagnoses his options. The Oklahoma product hasn't had a 100 quarterback rating in a game since hurting his shoulder against Miami in Week 10, and that's a bad sign against a Washington defense which has some savvy corners.
There aren't many starting quarterbacks with worse numbers by BookMaker's scoring standards than Bradford. He's averaging just 17.3 fantasy points per game, and it's going to take at least 20 in all likelihood to have a shot at covering against Cousins.
In the first meeting of these two rivals, the Redskins claimed a 23-20 victory. That win came without Jackson though, and Reed really hadn't started to make a big impact in the red zone on opposing defenses.
Bradford won the fantasy matchup due to three touchdown passes, but we can't count on him hooking up with Riley Cooper for 62 yard touchdowns and Miles Austin for 39 yard touchdowns on a weekly basis. In fact, the fact that Cousins came so close to beating Bradford in that first meeting, getting outscored 28.1-25.6 is a testament to just how strong of a play he is in this one.
Expect to see Bradford need to account for at least two touchdowns in this game to have a shot at topping Cousins, something that we just don't see happening often enough to make him a worthwhile bet.
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