The aging backup quarterback is going to play, flanked on one side by a couple reserves. On the other side of the ball, a number of backups will play key roles.
It’s been the same thing for a couple weeks now, during which time the Redskins haven’t lost.
So don’t expect them to take anything for granted should Dallas choose to rest its own key starters. The Redskins have played most of the second half without some of their best players. Washington (8-7) has three starters on offense, including 36-year-old quarterback Todd Collins, and three more on defense, who opened the year as backups. Yet the Redskins have won three straight.
“Those backups might be like our backups,” Redskins safety Pierson Prioleau said. “That’s exactly why we have to prepare for that team.”
Besides, Prioleau was in a similar spot in 2004 with Buffalo. That season, the Bills hosted Pittsburgh in the season finale with a chance to earn a playoff berth. They got some help from other teams, but the Bills lost to the Steelers, who were resting key starters because they’d already clinched a spot.
“We went home,” Prioleau said. “I’ll tell [teammates] again today.”
But Redskins linebacker London Fletcher, also on that Bills’ team, said he doesn’t feel a need to share the story.
“The way our team is and how hungry we are right now, there won’t be any overconfidence,” he said. “We’ve fought too hard. We know Dallas would love nothing better than to knock us out of the playoffs.”
That sense of purpose developed after the Sean Taylor tragedy. The day after his funeral, coach Joe Gibbs addressed the players about the direction their season could take following as adverse a situation as they could imagine.
“He said normally when you do great things in life is after you’ve gone through some very difficult times,” said Fletcher, who reminded his teammates to stay humble after the Vikings win. “That really hit; he’s absolutely right. That’s the way this team has approached it. We feel that we went through some extremely difficult times, and now we’re about to reap some great rewards.”
Gibbs also has adopted a business as usual demeanor, filtering down to the team. Considering his team was 5-7 at that point, he also tried to inflate their egos.
“He kept reiterating what kind of team he thinks he has,” Redskins center Casey Rabach said. “It’s good at any point to get buttered up a little bit. That’s what we’ve been doing the last couple weeks, showing them what kind of talent we have.”
