ASHBURN, Va. -- Robert Griffin III crashed Mike Shanahans news conference, slipping in the back door to take an aisle seat in the Washington Redskins auditorium. Soon, the franchise quarterback had a microphone in his right hand, ready to ask the next question. Shanahan, who is hard to rattle, couldnt help but laugh. "You got me by surprise there," the coach said. "Who is this guy?" "What did you do for New Years?" Griffin asked. "I tried to put a good game plan together. I wasnt sure how healthy you were, so it was hard without you calling me," answered Shanahan, still chortling away. "You got me good." Griffin has hardly behaved like a rookie all season, so theres no reason to think itll start now as he prepares for his NFL playoff debut. He was as loose as anyone Wednesday, whether it was playfully shoving Jarvis Jenkins into the defensive linemans locker or simply radiating the smile that has rarely been missing during his initial run through the NFL grind. It was the first practice for Sundays matchup against the Seattle Seahawks, the Redskins first home post-season game in 13 years. If the excitement was getting to either half of Washingtons rookie backfield -- Griffin or running back Alfred Morris -- it wasnt showing. "Ive been playing football since I was 5 years old. I just go out there and go have some fun. Thats what I do. So Im not going to think about, Its the playoffs," said Morris, who added that he doesnt really care for the attention hes getting for a 1,613-yard regular season bettered only by Adrian Peterson. The performances of Morris and Griffin has cornerback DeAngelo Hall proclaiming: "These arent ordinary rookies." "I havent seen a moment this year where theyve been caught up in the moment," defensive tackle Barry Cofield said, "or theyve seemed like the moments been too big for them." To a man, the Redskins say the entire team shouldnt be caught up in playoff nerves because theyve been playing win-or-else games for nearly two months. Every victory in the season-ending seven-game streak was necessary to get to 10-6 and win the NFC East. Notable stat: Washington is 7-0 since Griffin was selected as a team captain. Also, it helps that the Redskins have a routine week to prepare for the Seahawks. Griffin will take that over the weekslong wait for college bowl games. "For bowl games, most of the time youre doing way too much thinking," Griffin said. "Trying to devise the perfect play for the perfect defence. And you get in a game and they do something totally different because theyre doing the same thing for the past month. So (this is) like a regular-season game, but with a playoff-game atmosphere." Griffin gave the latest update on the sprained lateral ligament in his right knee, which caused him to miss one game and has limited his explosive running ability in the two games since he returned. Hes still sporting a brace, which he adjusted while stretching at the start of practice. "A lot of people talk about the limp with the brace," Griffin said. "But any time you wear a brace like that, its to protect you, so its going to cause a natural limp. Youre not going to be able to bend your knee. ... But at the same time you can still generate power." Griffin said hes "pretty close" to the point where hes being limited by the brace more so than the actual injury, but that the doctors wont let him go without the extra protection. "So I try to do as much as I can without the brace," he said with a smile. "And then whenever they find out that I dont have it on, I have to throw it on." The bum knee has prompted Griffin to refine his play without much of a drop-off. He had a 102.4 passer rating in his first game after the injury, and he ran for 63 yards on just six carries in the regular-season finale against the Dallas Cowboys. "If anything, the injurys shown me a lot, just from a quarterback perspective," Griffin said. "This games not easy, but it did show me some things that I can do to make the game easier for myself, easier on my body. Ironically Ive done a better job of protecting myself since the injury, sliding, getting down, getting all the possible yards I can and getting out of bounds. "And sometimes things have to happen like that for you to really, really grasp that, and its shown me a lot. I dont think Ive ever rushed for 10 yards a carry in a game, and I did that in this past game, so that was kind of funny." Wholesale Jerseys . Numbers Game breaks down the Wild signings of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. The Wild Get: LW Zach Parise and D Ryan Suter. Wholesale NFL Jerseys . But its evident heading into Fridays NHL draft at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh that Brian Burke and the Leafs can veer in a number of different directions with card in hand, each aimed at bolstering an organization yearning for its first playoff berth post-lockout. http://www.wholesalechinajersey.us.com/ . Schussler was crowned the new womens 3,000-metre champion with a time of four minutes 9.51 seconds. The Winnipeg native placed ahead of Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont. Wholesale Jerseys From China . While others perceived an improved Canadian performance over last weeks win over the U.S. Eagles, the former All Black saw his rugby team pay the price for abandoning its game plan. Cheap Jerseys . You can watch Raonic play Paul-Henri Mathieu of France live on TSN2 and TSN.ca at approximately 3:30pm et/12:30pm pt. HARRISON, N.J. -- The New York Red Bulls were able to keep their home undefeated record intact, getting a rare win after trailing by two goals. Heath Pearces tiebreaking goal in the 83rd minute lifted the Red Bulls to a 3-2 victory over the Portland Timbers on Sunday night. It marked the first time since Sept. 11, 2004, the franchise had recovered after giving up the first two goals to win. The then-MetroStars came back to defeat New England, also 3-2. New Yorks latest win was only the sixth time in the franchises history that they came back from being down two goals. "When you go down two, you usually lose the game," Red Bulls head coach Hans Backe said. "Its normally too much to recover from." Tim Cahill got his first MLS goal and Kenny Cooper also scored for New York (13-7-5), which improved to 9-0-3 at Red Bull Arena -- remaining the leagues only team unbeaten at home. Bright Dike and Darlington Nagbe scored for Portland (5-13-6), which extended its winless streak to eight matches. Pearce, an All-Star defender, scored the winner off a fine feed from Jan Gunnar Solli, getting his second goal of the season. Pearce rose high above a pack of players to head the ball home. "It was a good timing play by Heath," said Solli, who had two assists. "I just lifted it up and there he was." The play started with a corner kick that went to Cooper at the far right post. He kept possession and passed to Solli, who made the fine cross in front to the alert Pearce. New York won its second straight after two losses and moved two points behind Eastern Conference-leading Sporting Kansas City. After Dike and Nagbe each scored to give the Timbers a 2-0 lead, the Red Bulls stormed back to score two goals in the final two minutes of the first half. Cooper, who entered the game as a substitute midway through the first half, scored on a header, his third consecutive goal on a header and 14th of the season. Then Cahill, the Australian superstar who signed with the Red Bulls earlier this month, scored his first goal off a deflection in front. The Timbers, currently last in the MLS Western Conference, shocked the Red Bulls by scoring first in the eighth minute. Soon after the Red Bulls missed a good scoring chance off a corner kick, the Timbers raced down the field to convert on their first scoring opportunity.dddddddddddd Sal Zizzo outraced two Red Bull defenders to the ball, then made a perfect cross to Dike, who eluded Red Bulls defender Markus Holgersson to put a shot past Red Bulls goalie Bill Gaudette for a 1-0 lead. It was Dikes first goal of the season. Thierry Henry had a chance to tie the score, after he was pulled down just outside the penalty area. But his direct free kick in the 25th minute sailed over the crossbar. Portland pushed the lead to 2-0 in the 32nd minute, when they converted on a fine offensive set. Franck Songoo kept the ball through three Red Bull defenders, then pushed it to the left for Zizzo. Zizzo made a fine play drawing the defence to him, then passed it ahead to Nagbe, who beat Pearce to the ball and knocked it past Gaudette for his fifth goal of the year. The damage could have been far worse if Gaudette didnt make a diving save on Dikes shot in the 40th minute. From that point, the Red Bulls played inspired soccer, tying the game before halftime. On Cahills goal, Portland players were insistent that referee Jasen Anno blew his whistle for a hand ball in the box on the deflection, but the play stood. "That really changed the game," Dike said. "It hurt us. The ref clearly blew the whistle and three or four of our players just stopped. You cant take advantage like that after the whistle was blown. Things just started to slip away from that point." "After the way we played in the first 45 minutes, getting two goals was a gift," Backe said. "We were in trouble." Gaudette was huge in the second half, making three spectacular saves. In the 61st minute, Gaudette made a diving save of a hard shot from Nagbe. In the 65th minute, he came out of the goal to make a sliding stop on a fierce shot from Zizzo and in the 69th minute, he stopped a breakaway attempt by Diego Chara. Although he surrendered two early goals, it was Gaudettes best game as a member of the Red Bulls. "They were just saves," Gaudette said. "Im just doing my job. It wasnt our best performance. We werent top notch. We all know we didnt play our best. I just happened to be in the right spot at the right time. The only positive we have from tonight is that we got three points, but we cant be happy with our performance." ' ' '