Like Kryptonite to Cowboys

Santana Moss stands with one foot on the floor and the other on the stool in front of his locker. Arms crossed and rested on his knee, he casually discusses a variety of issues.

The significance of Sunday’s game. His role if Clinton Portis is unable to play. The fact he torments the Cowboys secondary on a regular basis.

Reporters won’t let this last topic go. How does he explain his success?

“It just happens,” Moss says. “I never go into a game saying what I’m fixin’ to do or how it’s going to be done. I just prepare to be the best I can be that day, whether I get 10 catches or not.

“You’ve got to be prepared for whatever they present and go with the flow.”

No analysis. No talk of favorable matchups. The flow yielded eight catches for 145 yards when these teams met in September.

The Cowboys sent extra defenders to pressure quarterback Jason Campbell in that game, resulting in more single coverage for Moss. But what about those other times?

Moss has three consecutive 100-yard games against the Cowboys and four in the six games he has faced them in a Washington uniform. If Portis is unable to play Sunday night with a sprained knee and the Redskins ground game suffers, Moss could play an even more prominent role.

“I’m going to see what I see regardless,” Moss says. “I’m pretty sure they’re not going to let me run free and do anything too extravagant, too much of what I did to them last time.

“But hopefully, they will give me single coverage every now and then.”

Campbell won’t go into the game determined to get the ball to Moss. He says, “If they double Santana, the other guys have to get the ball. That’s how you do it. It’s not where you go in and say, ‘OK, ‘Tana has been doing this, let’s get ‘Tana so many balls.’ We don’t say that.”

If it makes the Cowboys secondary feel better, it’s not just them. Touchdown receptions by Moss in the fourth quarter of games against New Orleans, Arizona and Cleveland this season proved to be the winning points.

Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens constantly points to double coverage to explain his decline in production. That’s a crutch Moss never intends to use.

“When you get double covered, you don’t count yourself out,” Moss says. “You’re going to have to find ways to get the ball.

“Offenses are not made for you to sit out there and let someone double you the whole time. You have other ways to handle the routes. You have other guys. There are still ways to beat it.”

Terence Newman will return for this game. Moss burned the Cowboys’ best cornerback for a 53-yard reception in September. That’s one of three catches this season Moss has taken for 50 or more yards.

So, what does he expect the Cowboys secondary to throw at him Sunday night? He raises up, takes his foot off the stool and shrugs.

“You never know what you’re going to get,” Moss says. “I just react to what I see. I just play.”

No need to think too much.

Just prepare and go with the flow.

- David Moore, The Dallas Morning News

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