LANDOVER, Md. (AP) -The Terrible Towels made for the most embarrassing scenes in recent Washington Redskins memory. Owner Dan Snyder is determined to avoid a repeat.
Thousands of Pittsburgh Steelers fans dominated the lower bowl of the Redskins stadium during the visitors’ 23-6 win on a Monday night last season. Steelers players, realizing their unexpected home-crowd advantage, began waving their arms to encourage more cheers. The noise was such that the Redskins had to resort to a silent snap count in shotgun formation.
The view from the sideline below and from Snyder’s 50-yard-line box above was discouraging: a sea of twirling yellow towels – during a prime-time game on national television, no less.
“You see it. Believe me, you see it,” receiver Antwaan Randle El recalled this week. “The last five minutes of the game, ‘Wooo-hooo.”’
re distributing 50,000 “Redskins Rally towels” for Saturday night’s rematch. The game will be an exhibition; the battle for towel supremacy in the seats will be real.
“I think it’s great for fans,” Redskins coach Jim Zorn said. “I think it’s fun that we’re doing the same thing. It’s a preseason game, but you now what? We have great fans. Dan wants to continue to show his support and his enthusiasm for this team and this community. I think it’s all in good fun. He’s competitive; we’re competitive. I don’t know if there’s going to be ‘battles of the towels’ or whatever, but it will be fun.”
In Saturday night’s other games, it will be: Carolina at Miami, Detroit at Cleveland, Tampa Bay at Jacksonville, Buffalo at Green Bay, New Orleans at Houston, N.Y. Giants at Chicago, Oakland at San Francisco, San Diego at Arizona, Denver at Seattle.
Of course, one difference is that the Redskins are having to resort to a giveaway to reclaim the atmosphere in their own stadium. Steelers fans have always had to buy their towels – currently retailing for $7.99 – with proceeds going to charity.
Told of the Redskins’ plans, Steelers safety Ryan Clark – who used to play for Washington – said simply: “We’re still going to beat them.”
ers on the field for more or less a quarter.
Besides, for the Redskins, merely scoring would be an improvement from last week, when they were shut out 23-0 by the Baltimore Ravens.
“A lot of mistakes. We’ve got to cut that out,” said running back Clinton Portis, who will make his preseason debut after sitting out last week. “It is really not the points – of course, we need to score more points and we want to come out of these games with wins – but at the same time we can’t have penalties, we can’t have mental lapses. We need to get rid of that.”
The Steelers, coming off a 20-10 win over the Arizona Cardinals, are expected to play without Ben Roethlisberger. Roethlisberger has a hurt foot – he got stepped on by a lineman at training camp this week – but the injury isn’t thought to be serious, and he did travel with the team to Washington.
Much of the game’s emphasis will be on the usual jostling for roster spots. Both coaches want to see more from the backups, especially the rookies who looked overwhelmed in their NFL debuts last week.
“We need to play harder, we need to play faster, we need to play smarter,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin said. “We expect those guys to have adjusted to the tempo of the game, they know what to expect and, to be quite honest, we expect the quality of the detail of their work to vastly improve.”
ll that towel-waving going on.
“Burgundy towels are a great idea,” Randle El said. “But the bottom line is we’ve got to play on the field.”
Panthers at Dolphins
The Dolphins will again take a long look at backup QB Chad Henne, the heir apparent to Chad Pennington. Henne played well in the opening exhibition game, a win over Jacksonville.
Also getting a long look will be rookie CBs Sean Smith and Vontae Davis, who are competing for a starting job, and rookie WRs Brian Hartline and Patrick Turner. Smith is working with the first team and had an interception in the first game.
Dolphins starters are expected to see a little more action than in the first game.
Carolina lost its opener to the New York Giants, and coach John Fox wants a sharper performance this time. The Panthers lost four of six fumbles and had an interception against the Giants. The first-team offense looked fairly solid, with DeAngelo Williams gaining 29 yards in carries and Jake Delhomme completing five of nine passes.
Lions at Browns
Cleveland is just looking to score a touchdown. After last week’s 17-0 exhibition loss at Green Bay, the Browns have failed to score an offensive touchdown in seven games, dating to last season.
onday night.
Maybe things will be different against the Lions, a team that went 0-16 last season.
The Lions are holding their own quarterback derby between rookie Matthew Stafford and veteran Daunte Culpepper. On Friday, first-year Lions coach Jim Schwartz said Stafford, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft, will make his first start and likely play into the second quarter.
Stafford threw a TD, an interception and finished 7-of-14 for 114 yards in his pro debut, a 27-26 win over the Atlanta Falcons last week. Culpepper went 5-of-6 for 41 yards.
Bills at Packers
Packers’ first-round pick B.J. Raji should get his first game action Saturday after a contract impasse wiped out 14 practices and a preseason game. Bills’ top pick Aaron Maybin still waits.
Both teams will be working to fill their remaining holes after contract holdouts have cost both of their young defensive ends significant time.
Raji, picked ninth, signed just before Green Bay’s exhibition opener last Saturday, while Maybin, selected 11th, agreed to a five-year contract Friday.
Maybin will practice Monday after missing the first 24 and three preseason games.
Raji is eventually projected to be the Packers’ nose tackle, but has been lining up only at left defensive end while defensive line coach Mike Trgovac works with him one-on-one.
Giants at Bills
is new home crowd for the first time after he went 5 of 10 for 64 yards with an interception – the Bills dropped another easy pick – in Chicago’s 27-20 loss at Buffalo in the preseason opener.
Cutler has received so much media attention and drew so many fans to the team’s training camp for nearly three weeks that the hype will be bubbling over when he trots onto Soldier Field. The Bears did have a practice on their home turf earlier this month.
Two of the team’s top receivers, running back Matt Forte and tight end Greg Olsen, are expected to play against the Giants after sitting out last week.
The Giants have had little time to recuperate from their 24-17 victory over Carolina in their preseason opener. They just played Monday night, winning the game on Tommie Hill’s 18-yard fumble return as time expired.
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