October 22-- Does the O go into a shell?

DT Corenlious Griffin found during the AZ game that his wife had given birth to his second child.. Joe Gibbs said he told Griffin not to fret about missing the birth because his second child came while he was in Fort Smith, Arkansas with 17 recruits.. Uh, Ok..

Injuries: RB Rock Cartwright (mild quad strain) is expected to be OK for this week.. LB Marcus Washington (hamstring) has missed two straight games with a hamstring, is expected to return full go to practice on Wednesday with no limitations.. Trainers say that G Pete Kendall and T Todd Wade both got through the game and are doing well after missing a good portion of practice a week ago.. C Casey Rabach "did more running today then he did on Saturday" and remains day to day with a groin injury..
CB Fred Smoot has a hamstring strain and is day to day.. CB Carlos Rogers has a mild knee sprain and is not expected to miss any time.. DE Phillip Daniels got his hand stepped on, it is swollen but he is expected to be OK..

Joe Gibbs and Al Saunders both admit the team got conservative with the ball in the second half of the AZ game choosing to try to protect their lead consideirng how the defense was playing.. Gibbs said he is definitely influenced by the way the defense plays in terms of how he wants to attack offensively.. The Skins are not using the offensive line issues as an excuse for their lack of production on Sunday only to the extent that Gibbs admitted the team nearly spent the entire week of preparation doing walk throughs instead of practice due to the man power issues on the line.. Jason Fabini was practicing at RT even though Wade ultimately returned to that spot.. Mike Pucillo was making his first start at C and LG was manned by a number of players with Kendall resting his sore knees and hamstring..
Gibbs says he doesn't go into any particular game with a set plan of how many times they will throw or run and each week the ideas going in will change based on the opponent plus in game scenarios force your hand as to how to attack..
The mesh of Saunders and Gibbs obviously remains a work in progress with Saunders leaning more toward an open attack with a passing game, and Gibbs wanting to protect leads and the ball plus being a more physical run team..

On NE: Gibbs said he expects his team to "be the biggest underdog in the history of sports." While it's an overstatement, for a week pumping up the opponent as a great team certainly does apply.. Pats QB Tom Brady has 27 TD passes in seven games, well on pace to break Peyton Manning's single season record.. In 1991 when the Redskins went 11-0, ultimately 14 and 2 and won the Super Bowl, mark Rypien had 28 TD passes.. Randy Moss leads the NFL with 10 TD receptions, in 1991 Gary Clark led the Skins with 10.. Just a fun little comparison.. NE is certainly on pace right now for statistically and potentially record wise inarguabl the best season in NFL history, of course it's just week 8..

Gibbs siad he would look into assertions that Rock Cartwright made that an official "called him a name." Also, Gibbs said he would help Chris Samuels in any way to alert the league about a spiting incident that took place with a Cardianls DE..
On the onside kick recovered by AZ, Gibbs said the team may have been too passive on the play..

OK men..