Plummer

Plummer was hurt when he was leveled by blitzing linebacker Shawn Barber a minute into the third quarter of the Cardinals' 24-10 loss to the Washington Redskins on Sunday night.

"I was looking the other way. I was looking back to the left. I was blindsided," Plummer said. "I didn't even know I was hit until I was on my back."

Plummer's finger got stuck in Barber's facemask.

"The hit was nothing. It was just that my finger was in the base of the facemask, way deep in there," Plummer said, "kind of a freakish thing. The guy started to get up and I shouted `Hold on! hold on!"'

Barber said he didn't realize at first what had happened.

"I tried to get off of him real quick, and he was holding me down," Barber said. "When I realized what was happening, I just eased off my helmet real slow."

Plummer's season has been star-crossed almost from the start. He sprained his right thumb in the second exhibition game and didn't play again in the preseason. The sore thumb bothered him throughout the first few weeks of the season.

When he finally was having a good game a week ago against the New York Giants, he was knocked out by a hip pointer early in the third quarter. After taking a pain-killing injection, Plummer came back for the final series of that game.

But the sore hip kept him out of practice nearly all of last week and he was questionable for Sunday night's game.

"I've played a long time without being hurt," Plummer said. "It's just bad luck I guess. There's nothing I can do about it."

He said he hopes to get back quicker than the four to six weeks estimated by team's doctors.

"I'm a quick healer," Plummer said. "Hopefully with some mother remedies, I can get right back out there."

Before he was hurt Sunday, Plummer had thrown two interceptions, giving him 15 for the season. Champ Bailey returned his first interception Sunday night 59 yards for a touchdown.

The loss dropped the Cardinals to 2-4.

"With Plummer, we were the Cardiac Cardinals, we could come back from anything," wide receiver Frank Sanders said. "Now we have to identify ourselves a little bit different with Dave Brown as quarterback."