THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 21, 1996 TAG: 9610210127
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: 71 lines
The so-called quietest 5-1 team in the NFL is now the quietest 6-1 team in the NFL. Beyond that, was anything else learned Sunday about the actual worth of the Washington Redskins?
Hate to harp on the weak-schedule thing, so let's get it out of the way; this 31-21 victory over the New York Giants means the Redskins still have yet to beat a team with a winning record. And, before Sunday, those defeated by Washington had managed only two wins combined over opponents with winning records.
All of which still means the Redskins, who do not schedule the games, have played seven teams of highly paid professionals like themselves, and have won six times. Counting the final four games of last season, the Redskins are 9-2 over their last 11 appearances on a football field.
Now, this is a .818 winning percentage in any league, even one as obviously recessionary as this year's NFL. Having said that, the Redskins themselves know that the world is reserving judgment on them until their ``tough'' second half of the season with the six of nine games against playoff contenders.
And already, this week's meeting with Indianapolis at RFK Stadium has lost some shine because the Colts coughed one up at home Sunday to the Patriots, whom the Redskins dumped for win No. 5.
This, too, will work against the Redskins should they go 7-1 against suddenly suspect Indy. Then the Nov. 3 game in Buffalo will be the proverbial litmus test, though that one suffered a blow Sunday, too, when the Bills barely beat the good-for-nothing Jets.
Then comes lowly Arizona. So before you know it, it'll be the Nov. 17 rematch in Philadelphia against the Eagles, who beat the Redskins on opening day, and we might still be considering the same questions.
``This team has to believe in itself,'' the Redskins' Brian Mitchell said. ``We can't expect any TV station or newspaper to have that belief, we have to have it. We can't be worrying about respect. Who cares? If we keep winning football games, it's gonna take care of itself.''
This is true. Then Mitchell said something less predictable, something you'd dismiss if it came from someone other than the player with the third-longest tenure in Washington -- only Ed Simmons (10 years) and Darrell Green (14) have more.
Mitchell said that this Redskins team is more talented than the 1991 edition that went 14-2 in the regular season and won the Super Bowl. Then, just to make sure he wasn't loopy or something, Mitchell was asked to repeat that twice in the next few moments. So he did.
``I'll keep saying it again and again,'' Mitchell said. ``This isn't a great team, but it has more athletic ability than that team had. As long as we can come out and keep that talent playing at a high level and letting our talent show, we can be as good as that team was.
``That team had a lot of older guys who'd been doing it for a long time; the Hogs, the Posse, Earnest Byner, Charles Mann, Wilbur Marshall, a lot of big-name people. Now we have a lot of young people with tremendous amounts of talent who aren't thinking of themselves as young people and are stepping up and making plays.''
And beating everybody, almost, put before them. Not convincingly, but enough to generate a sensation that deserted D.C. after Joe Gibbs' last team in 1992.
``I told Ed right after the game, `it's beginning to be like '91 again.' He said, `yep. Getting that feeling,' '' Mitchell said. ``That team had some chemistry going. Now we have a lot of younger players with a lot more enthusiasm, and the chemistry is beginning to build like that.''
As is the math. And 6-1, even under today's lower standards, in plain English says the Redskins are learning well. ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON
The Virginian-Pilot
Darrell Green cruises to a 68-yard TD on an interception. by CNB