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News | Washington Commanders - Commanders.com

Redskins Hoping To Shake Road Woes In Carolina

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While the Panthers are riding the longest home winning streak in the NFL right now, the Redskins expect to have a strong turnout of fans as they look to get to a .500 record on the season.

Not only are the Carolina Panthers one of just two remaining unbeaten teams in the NFL through the first 10 weeks of the season, they're currently riding a seven-game regular season home winning streak at Bank Of America Stadium.

It is the longest such winning streak in the NFL right now.

As any game on the road, the Redskins will be presented with the challenge of crowd noise and unfamiliarity of the stadium's nuances, whether that be how the wind swirls within the confines or how and when shadows might come into play.

"I think noise is a difference as far as our mechanics as an offense," said Kirk Cousins, of some of the implications of playing on the road. "We're going to be able to have a little bit better command when you're at home and don't have to deal with the noise. The noise is something you expect and you have to operate well in it. We've played really good football teams on the road too. Not a lot of people go into Foxborough and win or go into some of these tougher environments. So you consider the opponent a little bit as well whether it's at a neutral site, home or away."

While the Redskins have compiled a 4-1 record at FedExField this season, and could very easily be undefeated on home turf, they haven't had the same success away from the home crowd.

They are currently 0-4 on the road this season and have not won away from FedExField since Week 8 of the 2014 season, when they defeated the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.

"We have a lot of games that we can look back on and say, 'Why did this happen on the road?'" head coach Jay Gruden said. "But we have to treat this as another game. We're a developing football team. We're a different football team than we were two weeks ago. We are a different team than we were Sunday. So, we've just got to continue to develop and do what we do best and have the confidence that we can show up and play good on the road. That's the biggest thing."

This week the Redskins could very easily have their biggest road crowd turnout yet.

While teams like the Panthers, Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans have been established over the years in the South, there are still a lot of Redskins fans in the region, especially in the Carolinas.

A look back at some of the top images in games between the Washington Redskins and Carolina Panthers.

Gruden expects to see a lot of burgundy and gold sprinkled in with the Carolina blue, black and silver.

"The good thing about our fans is that we travel well and we're going to have a good crowd at all our road games and I understand before Carolina was there I think Washington was their home team because they were the only team they got on television, so I know we're going to have a lot of fans there like we do every week and hopefully we can drown out some of the noise from Carolina because I know they're playing well," Gruden said via conference call with Panthers beat reporters. "Playing on the road, I tell people all the time, in pro football it's the greatest advantage because it really alters your game plan or your ability to communicate offensively, so it will be a great challenge for us to handle the silent count and the snap count and get the calls off and our audibles and hand signals and all that and try to figure out a way to slow down Carolina's pass rush."

And while the Panthers may be the favorites before the opening kick, Ricky Jean Francois said the message within the Redskins locker room is clear.

"I understand they're an undefeated team. We could care less," Jean Francois said. "We know they're a great team, they have a great quarterback, we could care less. All we care about is the people inside this locker room that want to go out there and execute their assignment and execute every phase of the game, to actually get that W, just like we did last week against the Saints."

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