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The Washington Redskins placed star RB Clinton Portis on Injured Reserve, according to a story appearing on usatoday.com.

Portis missed five games this season after suffering a groin tear. He returned to action against the Tennessee Titans and reaggravated the injury. A MRI scan taken after the game proved negative and Portis as recently as yesterday expressed the hope to play against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday. His injured reserve status ends his season.

Portis rushed for 6,824 yards and 46 touchdowns over seven seasons with Washington. He had 176 receptions for 1,340 yards and three touchdowns. Portis completed three of six passes, all for touchdowns, and holds a 116.0 QB rating.

Counting his years with the Denver Broncos under Mike Shanahan, Portis has a career total 9,923 yards and 75 touchdowns. 

That touchdown total with Denver is something of a sore point. Portis scored a touchdown for every 19 attempts as an edge rusher in the 2002-2003 seasons in Shanahan's West Coast Offense.  

Joe Gibbs used him as a power back in his muscular version of the Downfield Offense. Portis bulked up for the role. The added weight slowed him down, but suited the offense better. Opposing defenses were little concerned by the Redskins' passing game, so they loaded eight players in the box to stop Portis.

He found success anyway and powered Washington's playoff runs in the 2005 and the 2007 seasons. However, his scoring productivity dropped to one score for every 36 attempts.

Impatient fans attributed the drop to Portis rather than to the scheme. They looked with disdain at the trade that brought him here.

Portis agitated for a new contract after his astounding performance in Denver. In Washington, Champ Bailey did not like what he was seeing in new owner Daniel Snyder's regime and made clear to the Redskins that he would not re-sign with the team. Gibbs, in his new role as team president, offered Bailey and two draft picks to Shanahan for Portis. 

Observers (like me) felt Denver would have accepted an even swap of players without sweetening the deal with trade picks. Bailey at the time was considered the league's premier shutdown cornerback who was as much the face of the team as LaVar Arrington.

Portis is receiving the final guaranteed portion of his salary in 2010. His contract status opens the door for Portis and Washington to part ways after the season, though neither side has spoken of that possibility. Portis, Chris Cooley, LaRon Landry and Phillip Daniels are the most prominent faces of the Gibbs II era in Washington. Portis has such an out-sized personality that his departure would signal the end of Gibbs' influence on the team.

The National Football Post reports that the Redskins signed RB Andre Brown to the roster off of the Denver Broncos practice squad.  

UPDATE: Joseph White of the Associated Press reports that Portis suffered a new injury in the Tennessee game and not the aggravated groin tear as first believed. The injury requires surgery and at least two months of rehabilitation to repair. 

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Ex-Redskin of the Week: Norv Turner, Head Coach San Diego Chargers
Patrick Ramsey competed with Norv Turner to be named Redskins Hog Heaven's Ex-Redskin of the Week. Ramsey won consideration just for hanging around the NFL so long after his 2006 Redskins departure to be signed as back-up quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. Ramsey is a depth signing. When we say depth, we mean deep depth for a team that started and benched Chad Henne, tried out Tyler Thigpen only to see that fail, and lost Chad Pennington to IR. Ramsey was signed to replace Pennington, but the Dolphins would likely go back to Thigpen before starting Ramsey.

Instead, we are going with Norv Turner for Ex-Redskins honors after San Diego's 35-14 win over division rival Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football. And we are making up for a guilty conscience. See, we named Turner Ex-Redskin of the Weak back on October 27 after a Chargers loss to the Patriots left the team with a 2-5 record and shaky for the playoffs. We said then how dangerous it was to name Turner for Weak honors in October. Turner is such a November-December guy.

Typical Norv; It's November, so his Chargers won the next three games. At 5-5, San Diego trails Kansas City by one game for the AFC West lead. With recalcitrant hold-out Marcus McNeil back at left tackle and Antonio Gates on the mend, who has the guts to count the Chargers out of the post-season? Not I, said the duck.

Redskins Hog Heaven changed its policy of naming just anyone for Ex-Redskins of the Weak as we did for Turner. Now, you have to actually have a weak performance to earn it. Otherwise, the honor shall go unfilled. That's better anyway. No Redskins alumnus should have a weak performance.

Ex-Redskin of the Weak, Jason Campbell, Quarterback, Oakland Raiders
Jason, Jason, Jason. Nobody does a better job proving both sides of the arguments about themselves than Jason Campbell. His fans say Campbell worked hard under great uncertainty to emerge as a solid journeyman NFL quarterback. If the Baltimore Ravens could win a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer, any team can make the playoffs with Campbell. His detractors say there is no way Campbell could lead a team to the post-season, you know, dumps too many balls, too many turnovers, no command of the huddle, blah, blah, blah. Not good enough to carry a team; Not bad enough to permanently bench. Campbell exists in a virtual no-mans land.

Campbell was benched twice this season, the latest time against the powerful Pittsburgh Steelers last Sunday. That's why he made this honor now. Yet, Raiders coach Tom Cable named him starting quarterback for Oakland's next game against Miami. Redskins fans have wondered if Washington made a mistake dumping Campbell after watching Donovan McNabb's early performance. The jury is still out on that, but the Redskins players believe in McNabb more than they believed in Campbell. Oh, they liked Jason and they backed him, but they believe in McNabb.

I'm convinced the belief in McNabb played a role in the debacle against the Eagles. The team was shocked when McNabb was benched and was still in shock two weeks afterwards when the Eagles were in town.

Campbell still has youth on his side. His skills approximate those of 34 year old McNabb's. Redskins Hog Heaven does not condone unsportsmanlike conduct, but we suggest Campbell take teammate Richard Seymour's hint and just go slap somebody. He'll write checks to the league, but he'll also show a pulse that might ignite more confidence in him by his coach. Seymour's sucker punch of Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger did nothing to alter the outcome of the game. But Seymour already had a fierce reputation. He doesn't have to prove anything. Gentleman Jason has to do something less gentlemanly to stay on the field. Only, don't do what that guy Vince Young did and figuratively smack down the coach. 

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The Washington Redskins are swapping running backs left and right to cope with a rash of injuries. The 'Skins promoted James Davis from the practice squad to replace back-up running back Chad Simpson who broke his foot during pregame warm-ups of the Tennessee Titans game. (How does a thing like that happen?)

Simpson was on the roster as a back-stop to Ryan Torain who was filling in for starting tailback Clinton Portis who missed five games due to a groin tear. Torain is "97 percent certain" to miss the Minnesota Vikings game due to a hamstring injury, according to head coach Mike Shanahan. Washington is down to three healthy backs, Keiland Williams, Darrel Young and Davis.

If you are like me, and I know I am, you might be wondering what if Ladell Betts were here?

Betts was pushed out by the Shanahan regime. He is remembered in Washington for standing in for Portis in 2006. Portis, you recall, dislocated his shoulder in a preseason game and missed half the season. Betts had a career year with 1,599 yards of total offense, five touchdowns, and 81 first downs. Can't we use that performance now?

As good as it was, there are two problems with Betts' numbers. First, Betts scored but five touchdowns on 298 touches (rush attempts plus pass receptions), or one score for every 60 touches. Clinton Portis, playing with an injured shoulder, scored seven touchdowns on 144 touches. Portis was three times more productive per touch than Betts, or anyone else on the team. Where Betts was a rusher, Portis was a scorer.

Second, Betts was 27 years old in 2006. 

We hardly miss him. Keiland Williams (24) has 357 yards total offense on 73 touches with five touchdowns, roughly one score for every 15 touches. Betts, now 31 and with New Orleans, scored twice on 68 touches, a 1:34 ratio. Williams (5-11, 223 lbs) is near-identical in size and weight to Betts (5-11, 224 lbs) and Portis (5-11, 219 lbs).

If you are like me, and I know I am, you like the score to touch ratio provided by Williams and Ryan Torain (99 touches, four scores) and you like their youth.

Shanahan frustrates fantasy owners with his running back by committee schemes. But it works for real teams and especially for Shanahan. Philadelphia's emergence as the most dynamic young offense in the Beast adds urgency Washington's need to get younger.  

While we appreciate what 'Skins alum Betts did back then, there's no looking back now. 

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Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan updated the status of several injured players following the win over the Tennessee Titans.

Rookie safety Anderson Russell suffered a non-contact ACL tear on a first quarter punt return that led to a Titans touchdown. Russell clutched his leg and went down right before Titans punt returner Marc Mariani ran through the area en route to his 87 yard scoring run. He has been placed on injured reserve. What a tough break for Russell who was signed to the team November 8. it must have seemed that his dream had come true.  

Linebacker Rocky McIntosh suffered a groin injury and is sore. He is day-to-day.

Running back Clinton Portis aggravated his groin tear ans is awaiting the results of a MRI. then he will see "a couple of doctors," says Shanahan. That can't be good.

Running back Chad Simpson broke the fifth metatarsal in his foot and requires surgery. He has been placed on injured reserve. Simpson joined the team in September hoping for a shot to play. That is another tough break. Simpson injured his foot in pregame warm-ups. What we said of Anderson Russell and broken dreams goes double for Simpson.

Shanahan added that it looks unlikely that running back Ryan Torain will be ready for the Vikings game.

The Redskins promoted running back James Davis to the full roster from the practice squad. A roster spot is open. Shanahan hopes to fill it with a safety.

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The NFL Network announced moments ago that the Minnesota Vikings have dismissed head coach Brad Childress.

The Vikings fell to 3-7 after the Green Bay Packers spanked them 31-3. The Vikings were expected to defend their division title and mount another challenge for the Super Bowl. Childress went so far as to fly to Mississippi to persuade Brett Favre to return for another run this year. When that did not work, the Vikings dispatched three players to Favre's home to appeal to his sense of teamwork.

It's gone horribly wrong for Minnesota. The Vikings post-season hopes are essentially done. Facing an issue with healthy receivers, the Vikings traded their 2011 third round draft pick to New England for prodigal player Randy Moss. Childress released him after three weeks without informing team owner Ziggy Wilf.

Bosses hate surprises. Wilf nearly fired Childress on the spot. Instead, he waited to see if there was an addition by subtraction effect to waiving Moss.

Minnesota succumbed to two ugly losses to division rivals Chicago and Green Bay, now tied at 7-3 for the NFC North division lead. That sealed Childress fate.

Childress led the Vikings to two division titles. His regular season record is 39-35.

The Vikings named defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier interim head coach.

Minnesota is due to visit the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field this Sunday, November 28.

You never know what team shows up when a coach gets fired. Will it be the poorly playing team that got the coach fired, or a newly inspired team that plays over its head?

The Dallas Cowboys are 2-0 since firing Wade Phillips three weeks ago. The Redskins fell victim to the winless St. Louis Rams in 2008 after they named Jim Haslett interim head coach. The Rams 19-17 win was one of only two victories that year.

The Redskins never beat a team quarterbacked by Brett Favre. This might have been the year to do it. Favre has thrown 17 interceptions to 10 touchdowns and has a measly 69.8 quarterback rating. The dysfunctional relationship between Favre and Childress had a corrosive effect on a team facing adversity.

Couldn't Wilf have waited one more week to make this move? 

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We know something old and something new about the Washington Redskins. Are you surprised that they went to Nashville and outlasted the Tennessee Titans 19-16 in overtime? No one in football expected that, apparently. Long-time Redskins followers knew our guys had strength of character. The only question was whether they could suck up last week's shocking loss to Philadelphia enough to steal a win in Tennessee.

The answer is yes.That character counts and that the Redskins have it is old news. So the win is a surprise, but not much of one.

The new lesson is that 'Skins got resilience, for this game anyway.

Washington entered the game without S LaRon Landry or DB Carlos Rogers. That should have put them at great disadvantage going against Randy Moss and the Titans offense. The Redskins lost S Anderson Russell early. Russell was activated as Landry's replacement. But the 'Skins lost LB Rocky McIntosh, OLs Derrick Dockery, Casey Rabach, and Artis Hicks. Lorenzo Alexander when down with a hamstring injury. Santana Moss ran well, but walked with a visible limp.

The biggest loss was Clinton Portis who reinjured his groin early in the game. He was done after five carries for 32 yards.

RB Chad Simpson injured his foot in pregame warm-ups. There must have been a connection between those injuries and the field. 

Any two of those injuries would have sunk last year's team. This year's group hung in there to win the game the way the Redskins won most of their others, by keeping the opponent close enough to pull it out in the end.

Tennessee's defense had their way against Washington's make-shift line. They sacked McNabb three times and got 10 quarterback hits. But McNabb did a better job (30/50, 376, 1 TD, 1 INT, 81.8 QB Rating)) against the Titans than Vince Young did against the Redskins. Despite his gaudy 107.6 QB rating, Young tossed for under 200 yards, threw no scoring passes and made Randy Moss irrelevant to the game. 

Santana was the best Moss on the field with 106 yards and a score.

Better bench strength

So much of what's been wrong with Washington in the Snyder era has been lack of depth. By following the mantra of win now, the team did not have the bench strength to overcome the inevitable injuries of a 16-game season. But today, back-benchers stepped in and did the job well enough to win.

Will Montgomery may have hastened Casey Rabach's departure as starting center. Keiland Williams is no Clinton Portis, but would you rather see Brian Westbrook in that spot? The Shanahans courted Westbrook, but he preferred to join San Francisco where he has disappeared on the 49er roster.

Westbrook is at the end of his career. Williams has a future in the NFL. That future is ours, unless someone high up in the Redskins organization discounts his value as Washington once did to LB Antonio Pierce and DB Ryan Clark. Westbrook on the roster would have impeded the development of young players like Williams and Ryan Torain. Joey Galloway seems to be in the way of Anthony Armstrong's and Terrance Austin's development.

The test for how much better Mike Shanahan and Bruce Allen rebuild the team is their approach to preparing young talent to be starters compared to Snyder-Cerrato and Snyder-Gibbs. Shanahan gets high marks for finding Keiland Williams, but he's always done that with running backs. Lets see him do it wide receivers and offensive linemen with young players who are keepers.

Sleeping on the Redskins

Almost nobody gave Washington a chance to win today. ESPN's Beast blogger Matt Mosley went against the crowd to pick the Redskins. Others were over-impressed by the Eagles game. they assessed the Redskins as though Vinny Cerrato and Jim Zorn were still around.

If there is any value to having a coach like Mike Shanahan, it is his ability to come back from set-backs. More professional football analysts should have given more weight to Shanahan's value and to the character of the team. Shame on them for not doing so. (Redskins Hog Heaven wasn't certain of a win, but we figured the game to be close.)     

Vince Young is no Michael Vick. He's no Donovan McNabb, either.

How much does character count? Titans coach Jeff Fisher demoted Vince Young as starting quarterback following Young's post-game outburst. Young reacted badly Jeff Fisher's displeasure at his play. He threw his shoulder pads into the crowd of booing fans after the game and left LP Stadium without speaking to reporters as the league requires.

That's quite a contrast with Donovan McNabb's reaction after being benched in Detroit and after the Eagles beatdown. My colleagues at Total Titans told us of the difference of opinion between Fisher and team owner Bud Adams about Young. Young's unsmooth move may not phase Adams who's been known to flip a bird or two. We didn't see that from McNabb in recent weeks, or from Jason Campbell ever.

Character counts.

AP on NFL.com - Beat-up 'Skins beat Titans in OT; injured Young storms out after confrontation

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The best storyline going into the Washington Redskins - Tennessee Titans game on Sunday is Gil Brandt's NFL.com headline Reeling Redskins visit Tennessee to take on slumping Titans.

This game will tell us a lot about Redskins players and coaches. Will they be numb in Nashville? Or will they take out their frustrations against their next opponent?

No one gives Washington a shot against Tennessee. The eight members of ESPN's Pigskin Pick 'em crew all pick the Titans. Who can blame them? That just goes to show how a nationally televised, 59-point butt whuppin' influences people.

What happened Monday night?

Well, they could be wrong. Two things conspired against the Redskins in the Eagles game. They lost to the bye and ran a poorly conceived defense, perhaps because of distractions during the bye.

Pulling Donovan McNabb at the worst possible moment in the Detroit Lions game was a Vinny Cerrato-like move. Cerrato could have written Mike Shanahan's explanations for it. The uncomfortable resemblance of the Shannyskins to the Snyderskins left the coach and the staff under fire for the two-week bye period, losing the benefits of the two-week layoff.

On defense, the Redskins sacrificed yards to gain turnovers. The trade-off worked against most opponents, especially the Eagles in October. In the Monday night game, Washington laid off defensively out of concern for Michael Vick's newly found passing skills. Washington lost because the poorly conceived defense gave up yards and points without disrupting Philly's offense.

Losses that bad only come from huge disparities in talent, or poor preparation by the coaches. Washington won the first game, evidence of competitive talent at least. Coaching has to be better.

The loss overwhelmed several good points about the Redskins offense. Keiland Williams gained 139 yards of total offense and scored three touchdowns. Washington's 28 points was its highest scoring output of the season. Anthony Armstrong and Fred Davis made big plays leading to scores, or setting up scores.

The Haynesworth factor

Albert wants to leave. Shanahan wants to trade him. At some point, these two have to conspire to pull that off. Haynesworth has to have big games. Shanahan has to play him and talk him up more. Isn't that just what has been happening?

Haynesworth has been playing more and getting sacks. Shanahan has been talking him up. If they continue to work like that through the rest of the season, Washington may be offered something reasonable in trade for Big Al, say a third-round pick and a ham sandwich.

Big Al said he would always be a Titan. There is no better venue for Haynesworth to shine than in Nashville.

And, the winner is...

The Redskins fell seven places on the Bloguin NFL Week 10 Power Poll to 26th place. The Titans rank 12th.

The Titans are seven point favorites, an over-reaction to the Redskins' meltdown against the Eagles. Washington's offense has performed better on average than Tennessee. I look for Chris Johnson to have his way for a couple of touchdowns. Randy Moss may escape for a score.

Donovan McNabb will deliver a big play, or two. Clinton Portis return will make a difference in blocking if not running. I don't think the Titans know how fast Brandon Banks really is. This game will come down to field goals and could go either way...if the 'Skins are over their Monday night hangover.