The challenge of winning their final three games - two of them on the road - is nothing new to the Washington Redskins.
All but two of the 22 players expected to start Sunday at Cincinnati were part of teams that responded to win-or-wait-until-next-year crises by earning wild card berths in 2005 and 2007.
Unlike those teams, which had sunk to 5-6 and 5-7 before rallying, these Redskins have a winning record. However, Washington (7-6) still trails Tampa Bay (9-4), Dallas (8-5), Atlanta (8-5) Philadelphia (7-5-1) and Chicago (8-6) in the battle for the NFC’s two wild card spots. After losing four of five, another loss likely would prove fatal for the Redskins.
“You wonder, why the change from 6-2 to 7-6?” cornerback Carlos Rogers said. “Maybe we [felt] like we got it made. Since I’ve been here, we had always been on the back end and now we were on top. You have to keep that same intensity and that same playing level we had when we were on the bottom. I hope we just finish out the season [strong], whether we make the playoffs or not. You don’t want to be labeled as a quitter.”
The Redskins certainly didn’t quit in 2005 and 2007, especially on the road. Washington won at St. Louis, Arizona and Philadelphia in 2005 and at the New York Giants and Minnesota last year.
“The past is history,” Rogers said. “It don’t give us no hope or no help for this year unless you do it.”
The 1-11-1 Bengals should provide a relatively easy way to start a repeat, but Redskins defensive coordinator Greg Blache doesn’t see it that way.
“When I started looking at film, I was looking to see this bad football team and… they’re not,” he said. “They make some nice plays … but they’ll have a penalty, they’ll miss a third down. It’s a matter of consistency. It’s not talent. … Quite honestly, they’re probably looking at us like a roast turkey, thinking, ’Oh, boy. We have a chance to beat up on somebody.’ We can’t go in there cocky. We better go in very, very aware because they’re looking at us as an easy win.”
That’s not exactly how the Bengals - who lost quarterback Carson Palmer in Week 5 and will be without nine other starters Sunday - are thinking after getting crushed by Baltimore and Indianapolis the past two weeks by a combined 69-6.
“I would’ve never thought we’d be in the position,” receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh said. “I felt bad for teams that I’ve watched go through this - and now I know how they feel.”
Rogers noted that Cincinnati played its best against the rest of the NFC East, tying Philadelphia, taking the Giants to overtime and being a two-point conversion from tying Dallas late in the fourth quarter. The Redskins are 2-3 against their division rivals. And, as Blache said, Cincinnati’s 1-3-1 record in its past five games is better than Washington’s 1-4, a stretch where the Redskins’ offense averaged just 10.6 points.
Not only did the Redskins lose veteran offensive tackles Chris Samuels and Jon Jansen - and probably defensive tackle Cornelius Griffin and safety Chris Horton - to injuries in last Sunday’s loss at Baltimore, but running back Clinton Portis also later ripped first-year coach Jim Zorn for benching him in the second half. Portis and Zorn worked out their differences Wednesday after a players-only meeting, but there was definitely a self-inflicted crisis mentality at Redskin Park this week.
That is a contrast from 2005, when Washington had lost three straight close games, and 2007, when safety Sean Taylor’s murder shocked and then galvanized the Redskins into a tight-knit bunch who refused to lose.
“In a time of crisis, your belief system gets challenged,” Zorn said. “When things get bleak and when things aren’t going well, do you really believe in what we’re doing? And if you can say yes, then you set your mind, you set your heart, you set your job and start getting after it.”
Quarterback Jason Campbell said the Redskins believe in Zorn and each other. On Sunday, they have to start proving it - or they can start thinking about next year.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.