Alex Smith thinks Adrian Peterson embodies what Redskins want to be

Alex Smith has brought a winning mentality to the Washington Redskins despite not putting up gaudy numbers that have been accustomed at the quarterback position during coach Jay Gruden’s tenure.

Smith has had his fair share of struggles this year as far as throwing the ball down the field and he has also missed several open receivers.

The 14-year veteran does have a luxury that hasn’t consistently been in the nation’s capital over the past five years, however, and that’s a featured, workmanlike running back who defenses have to account for.

The Redskins have that luxury in RB Adrian Peterson who is running like a 23-year old and not a man who is 33 years of age.

Peterson’s toughness and competitive nature has been instrumental in the Redskins surprising early-season command of the NFC East division and 4-2 record. His play has taken the burden off of Smith to have to carry the Redskins like former QB Kirk Cousin – who is now lighting up the scoreboard in Minnesota – had to do over the past three years when he threw for over 4,000 yards in each campaign.

Smith has come from tough physical teams that ran the ball from his time with the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs and understands the need for a strong running game.

A Redskins win over Giants would …

When asked about Peterson and what he does for the Redskins offense, Smith went a little further and mentioned what the future Hall of Fame RB does for the team.

“I think he’s embodied kind of a little bit of what we want to be about not only as an offense but as a team,” Smith said. “I just think the way he’s played on that edge – physical, relentless. I think that’s what we want to be about, not only as an offense, but a football team playing with that kind of an edge all the time. That kind of physicality certainly helped set the tone for us quite a few times this year.”

The Redskins will have to ride on the back of Peterson and also get better production out of Smith entering the second half of the season.

Smith understands the importance of improving on offense and as a team.

“I think the focus is to try to win a ballgame every single week, whatever it takes to try to win,” Smith said. “With that as you stack the weeks together, you hope you are moving in the right direction that you’re trending. For us certainly, when you look at us as a unit, yeah that’s what I’m talking about as a unit that we are moving in the right direction. But like I said, as a team, the challenge every week is to find a way to win as a team. All three phases, whatever that takes to win that matchup and how do you get that done, that’s the problem you are trying to solve every week.

“I think the exciting thing is that certainly there is a lot of room for improvement for us out there, especially offensively as a unit, that we’ve left some plays out there for sure,” Smith continued. “Encouragingly, when we start hitting some of those, obviously we will be that much better.”