Sorry I was a little slow getting this posted, and it ends up being more of a past tense prediction, but here it is was. As always, this was cross-posted on crossingbroad.com. Look for the Week 5 Unidiction on Sunday.
This has been a bad week for the uniform department of Crossingbroad.com. First, the Eagles show up in White over White last week, and we've just found out from some of our more astute readers (and Eagles Gameday) that they'll be wearing White over Green at home. And I thought they were only having a QB controversy! Updated Post is below. Thanks for the heads-up, readers.
Wow. Speaking of us being wrong. I march in with a confident, "Eagles will be wearing White over Green," and what happens? They break out the normally-preseason-only White over White. Of course, I will shamelessly point out that I also mentioned that the White over White would be a much better option than White over Green, so maybe Andy Reid isn't all that out of touch… maybe. Oh yeah, in terms of outright wins and losses, my Unidictions are 3-0, and updating for last week's surprise appearance of the aesthetically more appealing White over White, I'm seeing increased scores in the Pants/Socks and Intangibles category, so we're looking at +3 for intangibles and +3 for pants. The (retrospective) Unidiction: Eagles 25, Jaguars 6. Actual score: 28-3. That's pretty darn close.
On to the hotly anticipated Redskins vs. Eagles match-up.
The Redskins have a generally traditional uniform, with their only "outside the box" detail being the Maroon over Maroon combination. With the Eagles wearing White jerseys this week, the Redskins are wearing their rarely seen Maroon over White combination, according to the Redskins official Twitter account. They also have an "all maroon, all the time" combination, as well as a new-as-of-2010 Maroon jersey, Yellow pants look, but . (note: the Redskins officially call the color "Burgundy," but more often than not, it looks Maroon, so that settles it. AND look at the RGB triples on Wikipedia which show that Burgundy is Maroon with some blue added. I'm not seeing any blue in their color. In more color semantics, they call the yellow "Gold," but it looks like plain yellow to my eyes.)
Prior to this season (with their snazzy new yellow pants), the Redskins had been a "White at Home" team, so like the Cowboys with their Blue jerseys, the Redskins' Maroon jerseys over White pants were a rare sight. Apparently, the Yellow pants look to be a "home games only" option, though this is the first week in 2010 where they're wearing Maroon and are the visitors.
Thinking the Eagles were wearing Green over White this week, I originally wrote, "[the Redskins'] new Maroon over Yellow combination is pretty spectacular, so in terms of the Eagles chances this week, let's all be glad they won't be wearing those.", so let's hope Andy Reid knows what he's doing…
The UniDiction
Either 2, 3, 6, or 7 points awarded for each category (safety, field goal, touchdown, touchdown+point after, of course)
Helmet
Eagles: 7 — Same as always. Definitely one of the best helmet designs in the league.
Redskins: 6 — It's a nice color combination, but regardless of the political correctness of the logo, it's sloppy that the man pictured is wearing feathers, and the logo itself is "wearing" feathers. This helmet seen with throwbacks every now and then is much better, combining symbols without both redundancy and caricature. And for retro for the sake of retro, also seen on throwbacks, this rather ugly design also ends up "cleaner" than the official helmet.
Jersey
Eagles: 3 — The White jerseys are unfortunately nondescript compared to the Midnight Green. I've said it before, so I'll say it again, the White jersey just doesn't say "Eagles" the way that the Green one does.
Redskins: 7 — Now then, speaking of jerseys that are intertwined with the team's identity. They have a unique color scheme (quick: name another team who uses maroon as the main color. Answer: the Cavaliers.), the colors complement each other, and while they lack a graphic (like the Eagles heads on the shoulders of the all of the Eagles jerseys), they don't look like they're missing anything.
Pants + Socks
Eagles: 3 — I didn't like them last week, and I won't like them this week. The green pants aren't my favorite. The Midnight Green tends to look generically "dark" on the lower half of the body, not an immediately noticeable color. The two-tone socks also work better with the white pants than the green pants.
Redskins: 6 — The pant stripes are just the right thickness, and the maroon/white socks bring the whole thing together nicely. It's always nice to see a uniform without black in it.
Intangibles
Eagles: 6 — While I don't like the White over Green combination, I'm going to give Andy Reid credit for rocking the boat, and thinking outside of the "this is what we normally do" box.
Redskins: 3 — Even though the Maroon over White look is just about as rare as the Cowboys' Blue over Silver, it doesn't have the same mystique (whether positive or negative) of a well-known but rarely seen uniform. It's a good look, but knowing that the Maroon over Yellow is out there, these can't compare.
Eagles 19
Redskins 21
Special Note: Make sure you don't miss the ridiculous pink accessories seen throughout the league today for breast cancer awareness.
The game gets three-and-a-half stars out of five. The Redskins Maroon over White combination is rare enough that it’s notable on its own, and neither team’s uniform is patently offensive.