The Washington Football Team made NFL history as one of the few teams to post a losing record and win the division. But Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians doesn't see them as a losing team. In fact, he sees them as nearly undefeated.
To be fair, in their current iteration with Alex Smith at the helm, they are nearly undefeated, and this is what Arians pointed to when looking forward to his Wild Card Weekend opponent.
"We're not playing a 7-9 team, we're playing a 4-1 team," Arians said. "When Alex Smith plays, they're a 4-1 team, and their turnover differential is a plus three. So we're not playing Dwayne Haskins, we're playing Alex Smith."
What Arians got wrong is that the Washington Football Team isn't a 4-1 opponent with Smith at the helm. It's actually a 5-1 team, seeing as he suited up as the starter for victories over the Bengals, the Cowboys, the Steelers, the 49ers and, controversially, the Eagles.
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His only loss came in a thriller against the Detroit Lions, which happened to be his first start since nearly losing his leg in a 2018 game and a game in which he led the NFL in passing yards (390) for that week. Pretty incredible for someone whose prospects of ever retaking the field again were long in doubt, wouldn't you say?
Then again, it hasn't been all Alex Smith's doing in the games that he's won. Overall, he only has six touchdowns in six starts, relative to eight interceptions. In the win against the 49ers, for example, he finished with 57 yards on 8-of-19 passing, with no touchdowns and one interception. Thankfully, Chase Young provided most of the offense for them by way of an insane defensive effort.
Still, his wealth of postseason experience — he has 14 touchdowns and two interceptions in seven career playoff games — and the fact that, well, he's not Dwayne Haskins, means that Arians is rightfully weighing the Washington Football Team a little heavier than what their record would suggest.
It all goes down on Saturday night at 8:15 p.m. ET.
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