They were pitied by the public and scorned by the critics, painted as a team headed nowhere. With an aging, and past-his-prime, coach. With an offense that wasn’t working. And with a defense that lost its best player.
Four weeks later, the criticshave vanished, their harsh words replaced by songs of praise. They’ve become the team of destiny, embraced for what they’ve overcome. Joe Gibbs, ridiculed for his botched timeout at the end of the Buffalo game, is credited with performing one of his best finishes.
Not that the Redskins (9-7) are paying attention. They didn’t listen then; they don’t want to hear it now. So don’t expect them to abandon the mindset that produced four straight wins as they enter the postseason against Seattle (10-6) on Saturday.
“We won’t relax,” Redskins left tackle Chris Samuels said. “That’s not what we want to do. We want to win a Super Bowl.”
And they’d like to do it without a legion of new fans.
“We don’t need the hype,” Redskins running back Clinton Portis said. “We need them to keep the hype down. Don’t jump on our bandwagon. We don’t need all the people who said we were overpaid and underplaying. … We need to stick together as a team and not get caught up in it.”
Some teams might carry a happy-to-be-here mentality; the Redskins say that’s not for them. Which is why defensive end Phillip Daniels ventured to Redskins Park on Monday, a day the players were given off, save for those who needed treatment. He didn’t need treatment; he didn’t want the day off.
“I don’t want to let anything slip,” he said. “It’s a new season now. We’ve got to start off strong. It’s all about being a pro. You’re happy about [Sunday] and who we beat to get there, but it’s time to move on.”
Gibbs wasn’t worried about the team somehow adopting a different attitude now that they reached the first part of their goal. Gibbs changed his philosophy during practices in the last month. Rather than the physical practices they conducted last year — and in the past — Gibbs called for more walk-throughs and less contact. One reason he did so was because they played three night games in their last four and he wanted to give them extra rest. He also trusted their work ethic.
“This team gets so much done in practice,” he said. “The thing that gets you going as a coach is that they have kind of done it on their own.”
