About the Redskins Season They were high times indeed as we celebrated the addition of Alex Smith to the Redskins back in January. After Washington drafted Derrius Guice White Paul Richardson Jersey , who plummeted to the Redskins in the second round back in April, we raised our glasses yet again. From the “magical third-year for wide receivers” that has us breathlessly waiting for Josh Doctson to explode, to Jordan Reed’s preseason health and more, we as a Redskins fanbase have been rather excited about the offensive side of the ball headed into the 2018 season.I can’t say I have steered clear of all this bleary-eyed revelry...ummm...because I have NOT. This is the modern NFL, in which rules are made to keep fans of offense and scoring and stats as happy as possible. Jay Gruden has what he needs to run a productive and efficient offense. Even losing a promising rookie Guice doesn’t change that fact.While most people spend their time living and loving the offense, it is on the defensive side of the ball where I think the most eye-popping improvement will occur for the 2018 Redskins. Last season, Washington’s defense was 21st overall in total defense. They were abysmal against the run, ranking among the league’s worst teams in rushing yards given up, rushing yards per carry and total points given up. Going into the 2018 campaign, the Washington Redskins are suiting a pair of first-round picks who also played together in college. Jonathan Allen and Da’Ron Payne were a dominant duo on the same defensive line at the University of Alabama. Today, they wear burgundy and gold and represent the middle of what all of a sudden appears to be a very stout defensive front. Allen lost a huge chunk of his rookie season in 2017 to injury, but it bears mentioning that when he was healthy for the first month of the season, the Redskins defense was ranked as a top-five unit. Offensive lines struggled to push him around, and the attention he drew enabled others along the line to make plays.Teaming up the pair of Crimson Tide defenders is a dream scenario for Redskins fans paying attention. We have likely not seen that kind of interior defensive line tandem since Darryl Grant and Dave Butz—back in the 1980’s. Payne and Allen have already shown in limited preseason action that they are capable of having their way with starting-caliber offensive linemen. Nothing matters until September, of course, but it stands to reason that they are up to the task.When you invest two first round choices to bolster the middle of the defensive line, the impact can and will be felt all over the field. The secondary spent last season getting run over. On passing downs, opposing quarterbacks enjoyed more than enough time to let routes develop, exposing the defensive backs to prolonged attempts to cover. If you watch enough football, you know that you simply can’t cover NFL receivers for that long. As for the linebackers, it was an all too frequent sighting to watch them be manhandled by opposing offensive linemen. Offenses were able to get their blockers to the second level with a lot more ease than anyone would ever want to see. Enter Allen and Payne.Together, these two mountains in the middle of the Washington defensive line will succeed in putting more pressure on the quarterback, and will simultaneously also make it harder-to-impossible for blockers to release into our linebackers. Both Allen and Payne are three-down guys, so they will be asked to do all of this, as opposed to other big men who find themselves playing more situational ball.I am still mourning the loss of what would have been one of the more fun stories to watch as a Redskins fan—that of rookie Derrius Guice. I have no delusions of a 33-year old Adrian Peterson coming in and looking like a 25-year old AP, but I believe Alex Smith and Jay Gruden will cobble together a competent product.For my money, I am most looking forward to watching second-year defensive coordinator Greg Manusky deploy his new twin towers in the middle of the defense. Their names are going to get called. Frequently.It is the perfect combination of incredible and youthful talent on the heels of a season where things were statistically almost as bad as they could be. The improvement will be visible. It will be obvious.And oh yes...it will be exciting.The 5 O’Clock Club: Wildly celebrating the results of the inaugural Matt Shaub Pick-6 Prediction contest The 5 o’clock club is published Wednesday to Saturday during the season, and aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.The contestPrior to the opening game of the season, the 5 o’clock club sponsored a prediction contest.Entrants had to correctly predict the records for six teams through the first three weeks of the season.As a tie-breaker, entrants had to predict the Redskins point differential (+/-) through the first three weeks.Here are the actual results:Eagles 2-1Cowboys 1 - 2Giants 1 - 2Browns 1 - 1 - 1Vikings1 - 1 - 1Patriots 1 - 2Redskins point differential: +20That’s right... 5 of our 6 teams have mustered only a single win so far in the 2018 season, and the Eagles are the only team in the contest to record two victories.No one who entered the contest saw that coming.In my personal predictions from the contest article, I correctly predicted the records for the Eagles and Patriots, and I got the win-total correct for the Vikings.So http://www.authenticswashingtonredskins.com/cheap-zach-brown-jersey , counting win-totals, I would have scored 3 points; based on exact record predictions, I would have scored 2 points.Neither would have been good enough to win, and several people outscored me.Now it’s time to unveil and celebrate the winner(s).The conundrumBefore I do, though, I’d like to point out that two of the six teams that were part of the contest (the Browns and Vikings) each had a tie in the first 3 weeks, which had an effect on the contest, since no one predicted ties, and in my article setting up the contest I implied that ties wouldn’t be part of it.I saw two possibilities to resolving this conundrum: 1. I could give a point to anyone who correctly predicted the total wins for the Vikings & Browns (which several people did) instead of correctly predicting their actual records (whichno one did).2. I could simply give no points to anyone for the Browns or Vikings, since no one predicted the ties.Good newsAs it turned out, I didn’t really have any difficult decision to make, because either method gave me the same results.Multiple people tied for the same score, which moved us to the tie-breaker.Only one entrant, McLovinLife, correctly picked the Redskins to have a +20 point differential, but he was one point behind the leaders, so he was not involved in the tie breaking portion.Depending on the scoring method used, I had either an 8-way tie or a 10-way tie for first place.And the winner is...Going to the tie breaker, two entrants who tied for first place in the contest had projected +18 point differential, making them the closest of the first-place finishers to the actual number of +20.Also, both entrants tied for first in both methods because — not only had they both predicted a +18 point differential — the two entrants had made identical picks for all 6 teams as well.Given the fact that the NFL had a tie in each of the first two weeks of the season, and that our contest involved a team from each of those two draws, it seems fitting to simply declare the Pick-6 contest a tie as well.I give you, then, our co-champions:tao9087 and sunshine_skins Results for all entrantsHere is a summary of the outcomes.The top chart rewards entrants for getting the correct number of wins (max possible score of 6), while the bottom chart rewards only getting the team’s record exactly correct (a max score of 4).Getting the number of wins rightGetting the records exactly rightI’d like to congratulate our co-champions, sunshine_skins and tao9087 who managed to play to a draw.Browns and Vikings fans appreciate your efforts as well.You may brag about your achievement in the comments section of the 5 o’clock club posts until kickoff of the Saints game on MNF next week, at which point you will no longer be able to brag about your cousin-kissing level of achievement.Additionally, you may, if you wish, add the following to your signature line in perpetuity:“I tied for first place in the 2018 inaugural Matt ShaubPick-6 prediction contest”I’d also like to thank all 25 readers who took the time to participate in this contest. It’s nice to have something to celebrate this week while the Redskins are enjoying a week off from football.