Last week Redskins linebacker London Fletcher addressed his fellow teammates in an attempt to fire them up and spark an early-season turnaround. The actions he took didn’t have the intended outcome he had hoped for as the Redskins dropped their third straight game to the Detroit Lions.
Who knows if there have been any such inspirational speeches in the locker room this week, but several Redskins players said that, in their view, it’s less about what’s said and more about what’s done in preparation for this weekend’s game at Oakland.
“I try to lead by example with my play,” wide receiver Pierre Garcon said Monday. “I try not to yell at guys or try to get guys hyped because this is a job. Some guys know the feeling of not having a job. It’s the worst thing. I try to go out there and play hard and try to let my team know I’m playing hard. I’m giving everything. I’m still fighting. We could be 0-3 or we could be 13-3. It doesn’t matter. I’m gonna still go out there and play as hard as I can and give everything I have. And that’s how I try to lead instead of screaming at guys and yelling at guys.”
Defensive tackle Barry Cofield said: “I’m not a guy that really thinks you’ve got to shout at a bunch of grown men or really come up with all kinds of slogans and things like that. At a point like this, if you don’t have all the motivation and all the energy and all the want-to in the world, then you’re not in the right locker room.”
Cofield said defensive players on the team must take it upon themselves to improve the unit’s performance.
“As much as you want to preach a message or some kind of mantra, things like that, what it really comes down to is just a collection of guys doing their job play in and play out, being on the same page and executing on game day,” Cofield said. “That’s got to be the plan. And until we get that done, we won’t win…. That’s the only thing we can do right now, having a great week of practice and really just leave it all on the field. There’s really not many other choices. It’s really about a collection of guys being extremely accountable, preparing like we have to win and going out and winning.”
