PHILADELPHIA — This year’s Redskins look at last year’s Giants and ask: “Why not us?”
Fresh off a 27-20 win at Philadelphia on Sunday, Washington is certainly doing a fine job of following the Giants’ blueprint — get hot at the right time — that won them a Super Bowl last season. The Redskins have won six straight games, their longest regular-season streak since 1996, and not even a knee injury to franchise quarterback Robert Griffin III could slow their roll.
Even Washington’s Week 17 scenario is starkly similar to Big Blue’s last year: Beat the hated Cowboys at home in a game flexed to Sunday night by NBC, and the Redskins are both in the playoffs and champions of the NFC East.
“It’s the same as the Giants last year — we like the pressure,” defensive tackle Barry Cofield said in the locker room Sunday after Washington improved to 9-6. “It’s how the good teams operate. You expect to win, and losing is extremely disappointing. We’ve gained that mindset at the right time, and we’re playing well enough to back it up.”
Cofield is another link to the Giants, having played a key role for them as a reserve in 2007, when they heated up en route to a Lombardi Trophy that would have seemed unthinkable earlier that season.
The same description could have been applied to Cofield’s current team just eight weeks ago. Coming off an embarrassing home loss to the Panthers that dropped the Redskins to 3-6, coach Mike Shanahan seemingly conceded the entire season by saying he would use the rest of it to “evaluate our players” for the future.
That white-towel message didn’t go over well with Shanahan’s players — defensive tackle Lorenzo Alexander called it “disappointing” — but it obviously lit something in them. Even if their veteran coach didn’t appear to intend the comment as a motivational ploy, that has proven to be the result.
The Redskins stewed about Shanahan’s words during the bye week, then promptly reeled off six wins in a row despite losing their budding rookie superstar Griffin to a knee injury late in a tight game at home against the Ravens three weeks ago.
It’s a testament to the terrific drafting of general manager Bruce Allen that the Redskins weathered that storm with no problem, riding two other highly impressive rookies — backup quarterback Kirk Cousins and running back Alfred Morris — to a comeback win in overtime that day and then a subsequent victory at Cleveland before Griffin returned to lead them to the close win over the Eagles.
But unlike the Giants, the Redskins still have a lot of ugly recent history to overcome in their quest to be the NFL’s latest Cinderella champion.
Washington hasn’t been a division champion this century (last doing so under Norv Turner in 1999), and this once-proud and storied franchise has won exactly two playoff games — total — since the last of Joe Gibbs’ three Super Bowl victories 21 years ago.
It’s been a long, long time since the heyday of John Riggins, Joe Theismann, The Smurfs and The Hogs, and the Redskins have offered little proof since Dan Snyder took over as owner in 1999 that they will know what to do in the playoffs should they get there.
And it’s not as if the Redskins have dominated opponents during this win streak. Washington is a top-five offense in both points scored and yards, but the Redskins allowed 435 yards to the Eagles and rookie QB Nick Foles on Sunday and are 28th in the NFL in total defense.
That isn’t exactly a recipe for big success in the postseason, especially with so many high-powered offenses dominating today’s game. But if you listen to the Redskins, momentum is a powerful thing.
“I don’t see why it can’t be us,” veteran cornerback DeAngelo Hall said. “People get hot in this league all the time and end up winning the whole thing. Good things can happen when you believe in yourself, and this team definitely believes in itself.”
bhubbuch@nypost.com