Lions Game a ‘Must-Win’ for Washington?

ASHBURN, Va. - It's off to Detroit they go for the Washington Football Team and if they don't start banking wins now, they are in major trouble.

They're already in trouble, actually, but at 2-6 at the exact NFL midway point, they could be still in decent enough position in the NFC East if they have totaled three wins Sunday night instead of two.

Dallas is off this week and the 2-7 Giants host the 3-4-1 Philadelphia Eagles. If Washington wins and the Giants beat the Eagles, the WFT would still trail 'Big Blue' and obviously be staring way up at the tie-breaker, but it would be a conference win and they’d still have a chance.

If the Eagles win and the WFT wins, they still are in shouting distance as Philadelphia would only be 4-4-1 and they’d have the head-to-head advantage over the Birds.

Washington is running out of so-called 'easy' games and already blew a couple of opportunities in tight losses to the previously winless Giants.

Now, you have Detroit, then Joe Burrow and the Bengals, followed by the Cowboys on Thanksgiving ... all before the schedule and weather turns more challenging.

Win and you're in....contention. Lose and you might as well throw in the towel.

Friday's "Locked on Washington Football Team" podcast features coach Ron Rivera and starting safety/captain Deshazor Everett.

In our daily Google News updates, we break down the keys to a Washington win, just as we did here on SI.com.

We also discussing the final round of injury updates here.

Saturday should be an interesting day. We would expect a promotion of kicker Kaare Vedvik but we believe Bryce Love will not be activated to play on Sunday.

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