1. Running back Tim Hightower was limited in practice because of his sore left shoulder. It’s still uncertain who will start at running back vs. the Eagles. Coach Mike Shanahan could opt for the hot hand in Ryan Torain, who rushed for 135 yards vs. St. Louis, which also would give the banged-up Hightower a break. Hightower could then be used on third downs.
Shanahan isn’t going to say who will start, but it makes sense to go with Torain. He also has a knack for energizing a sideline with his shoulder-lowering runs.
Shanahan said it’s “nice to have [Torain] back at full speed. Everyone saw what he did against the Rams. Hopefully he can stay at that level.”
2. Also, tight end Chris Cooley (knee), receiver Anthony Armstrong (hamstring) and corner Phillip Buchanon (neck) also were limited. Cooley was a new one and something we did not know about until after the injury report was released. He seemed relaxed during the open locker room, for whatever that’s worth. But my guess is if he were concerned about his knee he would not have been in the room. Still, coming off a bye week it’s interesting that he was limited.
Meanwhile, both Armstrong and Buchanon have expressed optimism over their chances for playing Sunday. Fullback Darrel Young (hamstring) participated the entire practice and is expected to play.
Young missed the past two games.
“It was miserable,” Young said. “After getting cut in ’09, getting hurt and missing two more games it’s like why now, why me?”
Young said he started doing more stretching before practices to help his hamstring.
3. Buchanon has taken snaps at nickel corner, covering in the slot, which is something he has not done in Washington. But he has done it in his career and did it a lot in college. Kevin Barnes has continued working in the slot this week as well. It may take Buchanon another week to take that job over, once he’s fine physically and in football shape, as Shanahan loves to say.
But Barnes said, “I staked my claim that I should be playing now,” Barnes said.
4. It’s a sign of how starved the fans here are and how little success the team has had when talk about division titles starts flowing after only four games. And the Redskins have yet to win a game they shouldn’t have. That’s not to take anything away from them, but it is to say: 12 games remain.
Here is Cooley on the topic: “The sense for me of what a division title would be and what a great playoff team would be comes from guys around here that have done it. It comes from talking to Joe Theismann, it comes from talking to guys like Gary Clark. Joe Gibbs was a part of it. I’m aware of what it could be like, but I just don’t know what it will feel like. I’m excited for that. I’m excited for our fan base. I’ve been here long enough, I’m a fan and I know how people here feel. We want to make them happy. I couldn’t imagine anything better than to feel the excitement that we would if we won some more games.”
And Cooley can’t wait for Sunday.
“I’m excited to play a game where we have a chance to really establish a lead in the division,” he said.
5. Meanwhile, Shanahan scoffed when asked if being in first place this late in the season for the first time since 1999 meant anything.
Short answer: no.
“We’re four games into the season,” he said. “I don’t even think about first place. That’s the furthest thing from my mind.”
Just a hunch, but coaches that have won Super Bowls in the past don’t celebrate a 3-1 record. But, again, it shows you how bad things have been here.
6. Practice bubble update: When the project was announced, Shanahan said it would be ready by November. Um, not a chance. There’s still no foundation.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much rain in a three week or four week time frame in my life, even if you’re in Seattle,” Shanahan said. “And I know one thing about construction: You can’t lay a foundation if it’s raining outside. There’s nothing we can do about it. I really don’t mind practicing in the rain. The thing that’s tough is when it’s lightning…. Sometimes you can’t practice and that really sets you back.”
One sidenote: It rained for like a month straight before the Redskins playoff game in Seattle several years ago. Lucky us arrived when it was still raining every day. But, yes, this fall has been bad as far as rain goes.
7. Andy Reid was a disaster on the conference call. Easily the worst coach in the league to interview. Even Bill Belichick will expound on some answers, especially when it’s about football minutiae. Thing is, Reid is said to have a good sense of humor and we see occasional flashes of it on these calls. But today was his worst one in a long time and maybe ever.
When a reporter asked him if there’s a common thread among his teams that have won a division, Reid replied, “Yeah, there are some things.”
When asked to expound on his answer, Reid said, “I don’t think I’m going to go on that right there. I’m just going to leave that one alone.”
8. Reid also said it wasn’t true that the Eagles had hired, or were considering hiring, a defensive consultant. But you’re now starting to read anonymous sources out of Philly saying they don’t like the scheme. And even some Redskins say they’ve heard Nnamdi Asomugha wants to play more man coverage.
9. Speaking of Asomugha, he was the anti-Reid in the conference call. He probably said more words in two answers than Reid said in the entire five minutes or so he was on the phone.
Asomugha on the rough start:
“The only people that knew this thing wasn’t going to be a perfect well-oiled machine overnight are the people that are here. The criticism is going to come from the people on the outside that think all you have to do is snap a finger and this thing is a perfect running deal. That’s not the way it is. Our goal is to be in the playoffs and that goal has not left.”
Asomugha on the defense, which has undergone changes: “Obviously when you go from doing one thing to a completely different thing, and we haven’t been the most successful at that, it’s not going to be an easy thing to deal with. It’s not going to be something that you just pass off.”
He said the cure for all the missed tackles is to have more defenders running to the ball. That way, a missed tackle isn’t highlighted because another defender is there to clean up. Every defensive coach preaches that. The question they must answer is: how can they get more guys around the ball?
10. Finally, Asomugha on Rex Grossman:
”He’s a confident quarterback. He understands the offense. He knows what match-ups he wants to attack and, on any particular play, he does a good job of reading the defense to figure that out. He’s been smart with the football so far.”
11. You’ll hear a lot about the wide-9 scheme the Eagles us up front. It allows linemen to just rush the quarterback and disrupt runs in the backfield.
“Their ends get in a 40-yard dash sprint and pick a spot and go to it,” Cooley said.
That’s not the problem; the problem is that the linebackers must do a good job reading plays and avoiding blocks. That requires speed and experience. The Eagles have put little emphasis at linebacker of late and that’s left them with inexperienced starters. It’s an issue.
“Watching them play it seems like they get out of position a little bit,” Cooley said. “They’re physically talented in the run game. They’re not sound in their system and that makes sense based on an offseason without OTAs and a new staff or new system. You’ve got to expect that they’ll play well and do the things they’re supposed to do. We’re not going to go into the game assuming we can run the ball because other teams have.”
12. Here’s the Redskins 2012 opponents, according to NFLmedia.com (CSN Washington’s Ryan O’Halloran tweeted it earlier Wednesday). They’ll host: Dallas, the Giants, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Carolina, Baltimore, Cincinnati and a common finisher in the NFC North.
They’ll visit: Dallas, the Giants, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and a common finisher in the NFC West.
13. To sign up for Redskins insider emails every Friday, click here.
14. To submit a question for Redskins mailbag, click here.
