The collective gasp of the Washington Redskins’ fan base was deafening on Saturday night. Jason Campbell lay on the field clutching his knee in pain, and Redskin fans sat in their arm chairs holding their breath. As it turns out, the young quarterback will be just fine.
News out of Redskin Park by the end of the weekend was that Campbell suffered only a bruised knee. He had an MRI early yesterday and it re-affirmed that there was no serious damage. What could have been a devastating injury to start Washington’s season, will hopefully just be a hiccup.
“Nine times out of 10 when you see that, it’s usually something worse. It’s usually something torn. . . . It’s a day-to-day thing. We’ll just see where it’s at by the weekend,” Campbell said.
Regardless of how much time he requires to heal up sufficiently, it won’t be months or even weeks – he’s likely to miss just a few days of practice while it’s sore. Considering the small number of games that Campbell has under his belt, he doesn’t want to be on the shelf for too long.
“Right now, we’re at a stage where we feel good about what we’re doing,” Campbell stated, “At the same time, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to get to the point we want to be at by the time game one comes.”
The knee was injured when defensive end Brett Keisel went for Campbell’s legs on a sack. Jason still managed to get the ball away for a 29-yard hook-up with Chris Cooley, and Keisel was flagged for a fifteen yard roughing the passer penalty. Despite leaving the field on his own volition, Campbell walked off with a very obvious limp.
The injury put a stop to what was looking like a much better outing for the young quarterback out of Auburn. In two offensive drives, he was 6-of-8 for 75 yards and was marching the Redskins down the field when the incident occurred.
Surprisingly, Todd Collins came in for the injured Campbell and not Mark Brunell. Collins picked up where he left off last week, and finished off the drive in style for Washington. Collins hit Brandon Lloyd with a 7-yard pass that marked the first touchdown for the Redskin starting offense in two YEARS of pre-season, Lloyd’s first major as a Redskin, and the game’s only touchdown.
Washington next play the Ravens on Saturday at Fed Ex Field. Will it be Campbell, Collins, or Brunell?
One thing’s for sure, it’s good news for Redskin fans that there are still three possible options, and not just two.
Edit: This blog was archived in May of 2016 from our original articles database.It was originally posted by Mark Solway