Week 5 Monday Night Football open thread: Seattle at Washington

Week 5 of the 2014 NFL season draws to a close in tonight's contest, as the Seattle Seahawks (2-1) travel to the east coast to face a Washington team (1-3) that's sitting in last place in the NFC East.

After a week 3 26-20 win in overtime against the Denver Broncos - one that, you may recall, had Broncos faithful complaining about how unfair it was that Peyton Manning didn't get his hands on the ball despite their team having benefited from the exact same thing in the wild card round of the 2011 season in an OT win over the Pittsburgh Steelers - head coach Pete Carroll gave his team the early bye week off as they return to play in 13 straight weeks to the end of the season.  For what it's worth, Seattle have won eight straight Monday night games.

Washington, on the other hand, are coming off at 45-14 hammering at the hands of the New York Giants, one that may have saved Robert Griffin's starting quarterback role as Kirk Cousins - rumo(u)red to be head coach Jay Gruden's preference at the position - had a poor game, throwing four picks.  Griffin remains out with a knee injury suffered in week 2, so Cousins will get another chance to stake his claim.  If Gruden has any sense, he'll use a heavy dose of the league's fifth-leading rusher Alfred Morris (316 yards) rather than ask his QB to beat the Seahawks' secondary on a regular basis.

Fun fact: These two teams met in the 2012 season playoffs, with Russell Wilson and Robert Griffin starting as rookies; the Seahawks overcame a 14-0 deficit to win 24-14, in no small part thanks to the 132 yards on the ground on 20 carries from Marshawn Lynch, and Griffin suffered his (thus far) career-altering knee injury in that same game.

As always, to use Steven Schweickert's customary reminder: Open Thread Responsibly (TM).