Taylor relieved after diagnosis

Defensive end won't push himself to play in season opener

By David Elfin (Contact) | Tuesday, August 26, 2008

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Jason Taylor sat in the visiting locker room in the second quarter Saturday night at Carolina with Redskins owner Dan Snyder and executive vice president Vinny Cerrato. All three were worried about the state of Taylor's injured right knee, which had Washington's prized acquisition of 2008 lying face down on the field in agony.

"You start ... to realize all that stuff that happened for me to get here, what everybody's expecting, and now I'm sitting here not knowing what the deal is," the six-time Pro Bowl defensive end said Monday with the sprained but not severely injured knee still heavily wrapped. "They said [on] the field that everything seemed stable, that it wasn't anything big, but you never know until you get the MRI."

That more precise exam Sunday showed no torn ligaments and meant Taylor will be out 10 to 14 days and will not miss the rest of the season like Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora, whose year ended with a knee injury in Saturday's preseason game against the Jets.

"It's scary being stuck in a pile like that," Taylor said. "You hope it's not the big one, but it's a physical game, and things happen. You can't play the game afraid of getting hurt. You want to figure out what's wrong and get off the field so everyone can stop staring at you. Thank God it's not as bad as I thought. I'm very fortunate. I watched the play again [on television], and ... as ugly as it looked, it could've been a lot worse."

Still, Taylor's streak of 130 consecutive games — seventh among active players — is in serious jeopardy of ending with the season opener at the Super Bowl champion Giants just nine days away.

"I've been beat up before during the season," Taylor said, citing sprained knees, broken thumbs and a broken arm as well as the plantar fasciitis that has pained him since 2006. "To be able to play through those things and always show up on Sunday is something I do take pride in. I don't want to miss one now, but some things are out of our control."

Taylor, who will turn 34 on Monday, has a chance to get back for the opener, but he won't push it to preserve his streak.

"I do want to be back, but I have to be smart, too," Taylor said. "It's a long year. If it's not right, it's just not right."

Washington's defense was about as far from right as possible after Taylor went down, allowing 215 yards and four touchdowns on the ensuing 10 snaps before halftime as a 6-0 struggle turned into a 34-0 embarrassment.

"I don't want to make excuses," defensive coordinator Greg Blache said. "We stunk pure and simple. If Jason got hurt, if Jason didn't get hurt, our job is to go play the next snap and play it as best we can. We came to the snaps after Jason got hurt, and we didn't take care of what was important at that point in time.

"If we were thinking about other things, we paid the price for it. I don't want to go into psychology. Dr. Phil ... can let 'em know psychologically if the injury hurt 'em, but we stunk. From that [point] until halftime, we were not the same football team we've been since we've been here [this summer]. We got to learn from the mistakes. If we [do] ... then it was a blessing in disguise."

The Redskins also were fortunate that starting right end Andre Carter isn't more seriously hurt. Carter limped off late in the first quarter with a calf injury and had it tightly wrapped after the game, but it was only a bad bruise, and he practiced Monday.

"Somebody landed on it, and it started stiffening up on me play after play," Carter said. "It's crazy the way things happen. When J.T. went down, I was like, 'Oh man!' Thank goodness it wasn't as serious as it looked."

Demetric Evans will start in Taylor's place in Thursday's preseason finale against Jacksonville with veterans Erasmus James and Chris Wilson and rookie Rob Jackson also likely to see considerable action.

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