Bar the Door, Within Reason

Redskins Balance Pass Protection With Variety of Offensive Options

At first glance, the strategy to counter the New York Giants' outstanding pass rush seems simple: Simply provide maximum protection on passing downs to reduce the threat of sacks and hits on the quarterback.

"But there's a downside to max protection," said Al Saunders, the Redskins' associate head coach-offense. "And the downside is that you only have one or two receivers to throw to up the field. That's allowing a defense to dictate what you do, and you never want to do that. Offense should be always dictating the style of play. That's just my feeling."

Although they could use some max-protection packages against the Giants -- who lead the NFL with 47 sacks -- tonight at Giants Stadium, the Redskins prefer to mix up their blocking schemes in an effort to keep the Giants guessing and, hopefully for them, slow down New York's three standout defensive ends.

Osi Umenyiora leads the team with 12 sacks and four forced fumbles. Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck are tied for second with nine sacks each and have forced three fumbles combined.

"At one point there were four guys that were utilized in certain situations to rush the passer," Giants Coach Tom Coughlin said. "Now, pretty much, three ends are used, and they are all really good pass rushers. They make it difficult for you to decide who it is you are going to try to help.

"You can slide one way and shift the other way, but you are going to keep some people in if you do that. They have done a good job. They have been very aggressive. Obviously, they have put pressure on the quarterback, made the quarterback throw the ball when we wanted him to instead of when he wants to. It has all been good."

Redskins rookie Stephon Heyer is expected to make his second consecutive start at right tackle in place of Todd Wade, who was deactivated for the previous game against the Chicago Bears because of knee problems. And quarterback Todd Collins, 36, is scheduled to make his first start since Dec. 14, 1997, in place of injured starter Jason Campbell, who is considered more mobile than Collins. Coaches were pleased with Heyer's performance against Chicago and would be comfortable with him starting against the Giants.

"Stephon . . . he is real talented and everything, [but] this would obviously be a huge challenge for anybody in the league," Coach Joe Gibbs said. "You are going up against one of the premier defensive ends."

In the Giants' 24-17 victory in Week 3 at FedEx Field, tight end Chris Cooley and fullback Mike Sellers were heavily involved in blocking. The Redskins plan to provide help for Heyer, Saunders said.

"But rather than max protect, I would rather have a tremendous number of protections so that you continually mix up what you're doing and give them a lot of different looks," he said. "Defensive coaches are real sharp. As soon as you start max protecting all the time, they show you those looks where they're going to blitz and then run out of there. All of a sudden the quarterback has nowhere to go with the football. Variety and volume in an offense -- that's kind of the model right now for teams that have success and score points in the NFL."