January 2-- When the offense opened up

The Redskins held an hour long walk through today continuing their weekly lighter practice regimen.. They will hold a practice tomorrow before heading to Seattle on Friday for the wild card playoff game against Seattle.. The players continued to praise Joe Gibbs for his amenability to lighten the load..

WR James Thrash is the one main injury concern heading into the Seattle game after re-injuring his ankle.. Without a practice today, there is no word whether he'll be available for Saturday's kickoff..

LB London Fletcher has become a natural vocal leader of the defense.. I spoke with Gibbs after practice today where he said that they did not approach Fletcher to be a vocal advocate in the locker room, that this part of his game came naturally to him.. Gibbs said he wasn't aware how much of this type of role he would take in the team when they signed him and expressed surprise that at his age he remains as energetic just about playing as he does..

WR Reche Caldwell came to Gibbs about a month ago and asked him to find a bigger role for him to help the team.. Gibbs has obliged and Caldwell has jumped ahead of Keenan MCCardell on the depth chart as the number 3/4 receiver in recent weeks..

WR Antwaan Randle-EL said a major difference in the offensive output, and results in the games this past month has been the coache's concious decision to be more aggressive in the second halves of games.. Randle-EL said it was after the Buffalo game that the coaches decided to "let loose" and was most apparent to him in the 4th quarter of the Bears game where the Skins extended a lead by throwing first on a drive that led them to the first of four straight wins.. Randle-El said the players would not allow Joe Gibbs to take responsibility for the Bills game mistake believing that no matter what the calls, the team needs to execute and not allow a mistake determine the result of any given game.. This was also the point at which Gibbs said earlier in the week that the team had "learned from their mistakes."
Whether Todd Collins performance in place of the injured Jason Campbell had something to do with the more aggressive second half game plans is truly an unknown..
Collins was named NFC offensive player of the month after 4 wins, 3 of which ended with a QB rating over 100.. He doesn't have enough attempts to qualify for the league leaders in the NFL, but if he did, right now, he'd be second among all QB's in rating behind only Tom Brady..

Gibbs has never won a playoff game in the Pacific time zone, 0-2 at San Francisco and 0-1 at Seattle, but Gibbs has never lost a wild card game in his career..

Shawn Springs talked about the man coverage the Skins have employed in recent weeks.. He called the matchup between the Seattle WR's amd the Skins secondary as the key to the game.. He said Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren and Skins defensive cooridnator Gregg Williams have similar personalities in that neither overly adjusts their game plans due to matchups, but both prefer to focus on their own style and exerting their wills on everyone else..

OK men..