Marco Coleman, left, has a motor that never stops running for the Redskins.

"They know how Marco practices already," Mitchell said. "Just watch him."

Mitchell and Coleman are rare specimens on the Washington Redskins roster. They have both tasted playoff success, an intangible they'll need to spread to their inexperienced teammates ahead of Saturday's first-round game against the Detroit Lions.

"It's a lot more intense," said Mitchell, one of only four current Redskins who played in the franchise's last playoff game, a 20-13 loss at San Francisco on Jan. 9, 1993. "The young guys who haven't been there will have to catch on. A lot of times you get guys coming out of college, they don't understand how the level of play is going to pick up. Even in practice it picks up."

Mitchell, cornerback Darrell Green, tight end James Jenkins and linebacker Kurt Gouveia are all who are left from the Redskins' last playoff team, and Gouveia spent 4½ years elsewhere before returning this season.

Altogether, just 22 players on the 53-man roster have playoff experience, and nine of those are backups who rarely played a down on offense or defense this season.

Only seven starters have the playoffs on their resume: quarterback Brad Johnson (one game), fullback Larry Centers (two), tackle Andy Heck (two) and guard Keith Sims (seven) on offense and Coleman (five), tackle Dana Stubblefield (10) and Green (15) on defense.

Mitchell used Coleman as an example because the eighth-year veteran defensive end is on a totally different planet when it comes to practice. Even in training camp in August, Coleman was a ball of energy who embarrassed any player who tried to take a play off. Coaches and teammates fed off his example.

Now that it's playoff time, Coleman is ready to turn it up yet another notch. Emphatically, he says playoff experience is important.

"I think it does matter," said Coleman, whose postseason appearances came with the Dolphins in 1992-95. "It's a different atmosphere. In the regular season, if you lose, you can just go back, correct it and come back the next week. If you lose this one, you don't come back until August. You got to be up for this game."

Of course, opinions vary. Johnson said the fans and others "outside the building" might treat the playoffs differently, but the players don't.

"Things don't change a bit," said Johnson, who lost his only playoff start with the Vikings at Dallas in December 1996.

Johnson then added: "I'm sure there won't be as much cutting up as there (usually) is."

As for coach Norv Turner, he flashed a nice smile when asked to remember his first playoff game as an assistant coach with the Rams in 1985. Turner later went to Super Bowls as an assistant in Dallas, and this is his first chance to pass on those experiences as a head coach.

"There's a real intensity, a real focus. It truly is exciting," said Turner, who nevertheless is trying to adhere to his regular-season routine as much as possible this week. "I need to stress, and we're going to stress, the importance of the preparation."

The Redskins are generally healthy, with the exception of Stephen Davis, who ran for an NFC-high 1,405 yards despite missing the last two games with a sprained ankle. The running attack suffered without Davis, who said he was hopeful that he would practice by the middle of the week.

The rest of the injured, including wide receiver Albert Connell (sprained shoulder), guard Tre Johnson (bruised thigh) and safety Matt Stevens (pinched nerve), appear ready to go.

The Redskins finished the season with a conference-best plus-12 turnover differential and the second-best offense in the league behind St. Louis. But were it not for expansion, they would have set a dubious record with a 30th-ranked defense that placed only ahead of Cleveland. No team with the worst defense in the league has made the playoffs since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.