October 19-- Portis wants the Ball, Springs to play more

RB Clinton Portis says he’s been telling the Redskins coaches for 3 years to give him the ball, thus he doesn’t need to continually ask for it, but he says of course this week he expects a number of carries to keep the Colts off the field and find some offensive consistency.. As for the game planning in general, he says he doesn’t feel as if Al Saunders doesn’t have a feel for what he does well, it’s just that the offense is trying to spread it around and get everyone involved, that has ultimately limited the amount of carries he’s had.. When I spoke to Al Saunders a few weeks back and the team was struggling without Portis, he took the tact with me that you need to wait and see this with Portis.. expect more runs this week..

Gregg Williams said his high school days as a coach are what he goes back on when things aren’t going very well like right now.. For the first time since he’s been here, he used injuries as a semi-excuse telling me “Everyone knows who we are missing, and we are hanging on to a couple of guys for as long as we have to.” He did add that he “is not making any excuses” but…
Williams called Marcus Washington one of his top producers this year shedding some of the LB criticism that was placed on the unit by position coach Dale Lindsay off of the former pro bowler..
Williams said he spent yesterday’s film session with his team showing them what he thinks Peyton Manning is seeing when assessing the practice film.. A number of players openly talked about the cat and mouse game with Manning which is whether you shift as he changes plays or you wait to shift until the play clock is running out, Williams says you do a little of everything but never the same things twice..

CB Shawn Springs made it through another practice, expect him to play more this week.. DT Cornelious Griffin (hip) was limited in practice again, he remains questionable for Sunday.. DT Joe Salave’a (calf) made it through the entire practice and has been upgraded to probable for the Colts game.. WR David Patten (thigh) was also upgraded to probable..
FB Mike Sellars missed practice with an elbow injury and is now listed as probable for the game..
G Derrick Dockery (hip), LB Lemar Marshall (ankle) also missed portions of practice but both remain probable for the game..
There is no status change for LB Marcus Washington and CB Shawn Springs, both probable, both took part in the practice.. Washington returned after missing Wednesday’s practice..

I saw Joe Gibbs following the practice today and asked how he was holding up through the 2-4 start, he paused and said “sometimes in life you don’t know why you have the go through things like this, but it will become clearer later.” He appears to be holding up about as well as you might think considering the turmoil…