Safety measures

On the Texas Stadium sideline, Washington Redskins safeties coach Steve Jackson wasn’t reveling in the fact that four of his players were on the field against the top-ranked Dallas Cowboys offense.

In Valdosta, Ga., Redskins director of player personnel Scott Campbell, on a break from his multi-state college scouting trip, wasn’t basking in the fact that four of the team’s draft picks were playing high-stakes snaps.

What pleased Jackson and Campbell the most was the final result: LaRon Landry, Chris Horton, Reed Doughty and Kareem Moore helped the Redskins defeat Dallas 26-24. When injuries struck cornerbacks Shawn Springs and Fred Smoot, reserves Doughty and Moore stepped in and showed their versatility.

Two days later, Jackson reflected on how the players - average age, 23.8; average experience, 13.1 games - performed.

“It’s almost like having kids,” Jackson said. “You take pride in that they’re yours but you take responsibility for their mistakes and they had a lot of mistakes out there. It’s about rejoicing in the good things they did, but we’re going to take it out on them all week because we have to get better.”

When the Redskins return to work Wednesday, Horton will receive praise for his interception but will be taken to task for a communication error that gave Pro Bowl tight end Jason Witten a touchdown. The same goes for Landry, Doughty and Moore.

In just the first quarter of the season, safety has turned into a pleasant surprise for the Redskins.

The Redskins dressed four corners against Dallas. When Springs and Smoot went down, defensive coordinator Greg Blache employed a defense that included the four safeties.

“What it boiled down to was, this is what they were trained for and this is why they’re here,” Jackson said. “I wish it would have been under easier circumstances and we were up 40-0. But they had to come through.”

The quartet combined for eight tackles, two pass break-ups and an interception.

The previous night, Campbell scouted the Alabama-Georgia game and was on his way to visit the Florida schools when he stopped in Valdosta. Like Jackson, he was thinking in the moment when Horton started and Moore entered the game.

“I didn’t think about it as it was happening and say, ’That guy went in this round’ or ’That guy was a low-round pick,’” Campbell said. “But I take pride in seeing anybody we’ve drafted or acquired do well. … It’s a culmination of things that starts with the scouting and goes through to the coaches and the jobs they’ve done in developing these guys.”

The scouting staff discovered the players long before they arrived at Redskin Park. Landry dominated the SEC while at LSU. Washington selected him sixth overall in the 2007 draft to replace Adam Archuleta. The Redskins envisioned Landry and Sean Taylor as formidable duo for the future but the team had to address the position again last spring after Taylor’s death in November.

Doughty, Moore and Horton were late-round finds.

The Redskins selected Doughty in the sixth round in 2005. Doughty required more evaluation time because he played at Division I-AA Northern Colorado, but late area scout Mike Faulkiner praised his productivity, instincts, smarts and character.

Two years later, Landry’s talent compelled the Redskins to put him in the starting lineup immediately.

This past draft, the Redskins had several late-round picks.

Moore didn’t get invited to the NFL Combine and the Redskins didn’t receive his game tapes until later in the process. He also had a knee injury.

“It was a little bit of a gamble,” Campbell said. “We thought at worst, we would have to wait a year before [he could play].”

The Redskins liked Moore’s hitting ability and nose for the football, so they drafted him in the sixth round and then sent him off for knee surgery. Against the Cowboys, he played coverage and rushed the quarterback in three-man defensive front formations.

Horton has been the revelation of the draft class. He’s the first rookie to have four takeaways (three interceptions and one fumble recovery) in his first four games since San Diego’s Andre Young in 1982.

“He’s exceeded all our expectations,” Campbell said.

The Redskins selected Horton in the seventh round after they received a glowing scouting report from UCLA defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker, a Redskins assistant from 2004-05.

“It made it a lot easier for him,” Jackson said of playing in Walker’s system. “The speed of the game is different and some of our defense has changed since DeWayne was here [2004-05] but the core concepts and how we attack are the same. That put him ahead of Kareem and even Reed because he did it all through college.”

During the preseason, Jackson was meeting with the safeties when he asked which player had the most experience. The rookies said Doughty, now in his third season. But Landry (20 starts) has the most playing time.

Jackson’s point?

“I told them, ’We’ll have to make it work. We’ll have to grow in a hurry,’” he said.

So far, they have.