The Schedule

This year's schedule looks pretty good to me.

Games the Skins Should Win (On Paper) - 6

• St. Louis
• Detroit
• Tampa Bay
• Kansas City - I think this is the toughest of this group, if Cassel's healthy
• Denver
• Oakland

Granted, teams can turnaround from the last year, and all of these teams have new head coaches, so anything's possible. Plus the Skins lost to the Bengals, the Rams and the 49ers last year, so they could lose each of these games. On paper, and in any successful season, the Skins should win these six games.

Note: Skins play at San Diego in Week 17, and presuming that they will have the AFC West sewn up by then, there's a fair chance that the starters will sit this one out, which should equal another win.

Divisional Games - 6
As always, the NFC East is a gauntlet, with every inch of every game fought over. If the Skins are 0-6 here, goodnight playoffs. The safe bet is that the Skins go 2-4 or 3-3 in the division. I think that's possible, but so is 4-2 or 5-1. Eagles most likely to win one in Philly, then the Giants in Jersey. I'm hoping the Skins win 2 of 3 at home.

Other Tough Games - 3

• Carolina
• Atlanta
• New Orleans

The last two will likely be high scoring, and the first, punishing. Can't say why, but my gut says the Panthers game is the most likely loss of the season. Winning one of these, through the front four against Atlanta, or the secondary against New Orleans, would be great.

My optimistic prediction is that the Skins go 11-5, with wins over St. Louis, Detroit, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Denver, Oakland, San Diego two over Dallas, and one apiece from Philly and New York.
The losses would be to New York, Carolina, Kansas City, Philly and New Orleans.

What do you think?