Been through the fire

Clinton Portis had an interesting take on the task his Washington Redskins faced with three NFC East road games during the season’s first five weeks.

“The NFL was trying to throw us in the fire, trying to get us out of this division quick so you don’t have to worry about the Redskins,” Portis said.

If that was the schedule makers’ plan, it failed miserably.

After a 16-7 loss at Giants Stadium in Week 1, the Redskins defied odds with victories at Dallas (4-1) and Philadelphia (2-3) in Weeks 4 and 5, respectively.

“We play our best football when our backs are against the wall and I think we did,” Portis said.

Indeed, under coach Joe Gibbs, Washington finished 5-0 in 2005 and 4-0 in 2007 to overcome starts of 5-6 and 5-7, respectively, to earn playoff berths as a wild card.

But that mentality is gone now because it seems the Redskins have surmounted their toughest regular-season challenges. Washington’s first five foes are a collective 15-9 with none worse than 2-3. The final 11 opponents are a combined 20-29 with only the Giants, Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens better than 2-3.

When reporters asked coach Jim Zorn on Monday about the likelihood of his 4-1 team improving to 7-1 after facing St. Louis (0-4), Cleveland (1-3) and Detroit (0-4), he said, “That’s the scariest thing out there. I’m not going to dance the jig because of that.”

Neither is Jason Campbell. But the quarterback said the Redskins can no longer keep “flying under the radar.”

“Anytime you’re winning in the [NFL] and especially in this division, people start to talk about you,” Campbell said. “One thing that we have to do as a team is continue to understand that we must improve because now teams are going to put that ’X’ on our back, they’re going to turn it up a notch more when they play us.”

Norv Turner and the 1996 Redskins started 7-1 but finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs. However, the 2008 Redskins’ NFC East success forecasts a postseason berth. Washington has posted a winning road record in the division in nine previous seasons and reached the playoffs all but one of those years, winning three Super Bowls and two other NFC titles.

In a division where the teams own a combined 14-5 record, Washington is 2-1 with all of its home division games still to play. That’s just its second winning road record in the division since the 1991 Super Bowl season. The only other such year was 2007 when victories at Philadelphia and New York proved critical in the Redskins’ playoff push.

Since the NFL adopted eight four-team divisions in 2002, only last year’s AFC South (three playoff teams, 20 games over .500) topped the 2007 NFC East (three playoff teams, 16 games over .500). And only the 1984 AFC West (three playoff teams, 22 games over .500) topped the 2007 NFC East under the six-division format from 1970-2001.

And considering that four of the NFC East teams’ five losses have come against each other, this division could well become one of the best in NFL history

“I think it’s all it’s cracked up to be,” Zorn said. “We’ve got everybody at home now and they won’t be coming in here intimidated by us because they’re that good. We’ve been very fortunate to win.”