Signs point to Redskins’ Pierre Garcon being back in action Sunday

The Washington Redskins hope receiver Pierre Garcon can play Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles despite pain in his sprained right foot.

Garcon was limited during practice Wednesday, but he did run pass routes and cut during positional drills.

“He’s been doing that the last couple days, which is a big plus because he hadn’t been doing that for a long time,” coach Mike Shanahan said. “It’s a good sign.”

Garcon did not speak to reporters after practice. However, quarterback Robert Griffin III was pleased by how Garcon appeared to run.

“It’d be good to have him back,” Griffin said. “He has looked good. Like I told him, we’re going to have many great seasons, many great games together, so we might as well go ahead and start it now.”

Griffin isn’t concerned about timing issues even though Garcon has missed the past four games.

“The whole week we’ll work on our timing, getting that back,” Griffin said. “But I threw to him all offseason, so it’s just a matter of getting that channeled back in, and I think we’ll be able to do that.”

Secondary sticks to plan

The Redskins enter Week 11 as one of three teams on pace to break the NFL record for most passing yards allowed in a season.

Washington’s 30th-ranked pass defense has been a collective failure, but coverage breakdowns have been a major focus.

Coming off the bye week, cornerback DeAngelo Hall said not to expect changes to the defensive scheme. Instead, players need to apply lessons learned during recent individual meetings with coaches.

“I don’t know schematically what we would change,” Hall said “We’ve got to finish games. We’ve got to make plays. I made the comment a couple times: We’ve had some great calls, and just we blew it. We blew it personally. A lot of that re-evaluating goes back to just re-evaluating yourself, seeing how you can get better, seeing what techniques you can brush up on and work out and get a little better at.

“I feel like we’ve done that, personally. Guys have sat down with coaches, met one-on-one, to kind of figure out what they can do to get better at. Hopefully, you’ll see it this week and through the rest of the season. Even if we’re not auditioning for this team, we’re auditioning for somebody, so the thought that guys aren’t going to be out there laying it on the line is just not the case.”

Last year’s Green Bay Packers set the record by surrendering 299.75 passing yards per game.

Washington has allowed 301.7 this season. Only Tampa Bay (321.3) and New Orleans (307.3) have surrendered more.

Extra points

• Griffin, nose tackle Barry Cofield and defensive end Stephen Bowen were voted co-captains Wednesday. They join left tackle Trent Williams, linebacker London Fletcher and special teams stalwart Lorenzo Alexander, who began the season as co-captains. Shanahan customarily has his teams vote on additional captains at midseason after leaders have time to emerge.

• Shanahan racked his brain and concluded Griffin is the first rookie captain he’s had in 19 seasons as a head coach.

• Strong safety Brandon Meriweather (sprained left knee) was limited in practice. “He’s looking good, a lot of enthusiasm out there,” Shanahan. “Just keep your fingers crossed that there’s no setback tomorrow.”