No stadium has produced more false starts by the opposition than Seattle’s Qwest Field.
Presented with that fact yesterday about the Seahawks’ home stadium, the Washington Redskins responded with a collective, “So what?”
Center Casey Rabach: “I can’t imagine playing anywhere that was louder than Minnesota. We know what to expect. I’m not too worried about it.”
Associate head coach-offense Al Saunders: “We’ve played in some really noisy places — Philadelphia, Minnesota and our place. For our guys, it’s part of the culture to be able to handle that.”
Quarterback Todd Collins: “It sure is pretty loud, but you just deal with it. You can’t do anything about it. Guys have to pay attention. Listen and try to make plays in your favor to quiet them down.”
Opponents have 68 false start penalties (2.83 a game) at Seattle. The Redskins had two in their playoff loss in January 2006. The teams play Saturday in an NFC wild card game.
The Redskins are 4-4 on the road this season, silencing crowds in Philadelphia, Minnesota and the Meadowlands (twice).
The Redskins have 23 false start penalties, including 12 on the road. In their first road game (Philadelphia), they had four false starts. They had three against Minnesota but none at Dallas.
Fullback Mike Sellers thinks the Seahawks pipe in crowd noise.
“That place has to be miked up because the last time we played there, it was ridiculous — we couldn’t hear ourselves talk,” he said. “For a stadium that small, it can’t be that loud.”
Said Rabach: “I’m not touching that one.”
Thrash a ’concern’
The Redskins conducted a walkthrough yesterday and don’t have to list the injury status of receiver James Thrash (ankle) until tomorrow morning. But coach Joe Gibbs said Thrash’s injury is a “concern.”
“He said he tweaked it some but not like he did before,” Gibbs said.
Thrash sustained a high ankle sprain in the Week 10 loss to Philadelphia and missed four games.
“It’s not frustrating, just painful,” he said.
Linebacker Randall Godfrey (abdominal strain) is expected to practice today.
The Redskins’ Week 1 starting lineup missed a combined 56 games with injury. Only eight opening day starters — Chris Samuels, Pete Kendall, Chris Cooley and Clinton Portis on offense and Cornelius Griffin, Andre Carter, London Fletcher and LaRon Landry on defense — started every game.
Collins honored
Collins was named NFC offensive player of the month yesterday. In December, Collins was 67-for-105 for 888 yards, five touchdowns, no interceptions and a 106.4 passer rating during four victories.
Collins will start his first postseason game Saturday.
“You always have some butterflies,” he said. “That’s part of the game — you have that experience ever since you’ve been playing football. … This is going to be the playoffs, now but in terms of you have to win to keep playing, that hasn’t changed. We’ve been playing playoff football the last four weeks.”
Needs tickets
Sellers grew up in the Seattle area and is trying to collect more than 40 game tickets.
“I need to take out a loan,” he said. “I could use some help because it’s 42 and it’s steadily rising. I’ve stopped answering my phone.”
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