Robert Griffin III might not quite be himself again as he rebounds from a sprained lateral collateral ligament in his right knee. But at this point, with the Washington Redskins' phenomenal rookie quarterback set to make his first playoff start this weekend, there could be worse problems.

Griffin had his least-impressive passing game in Sunday night's NFC East title-clinching victory against the Dallas Cowboys, completing 9-of-18 passes for 100 yards. But gimpy knee and all, he still had impact with his legs by rushing for 63 yards on six carries.

"It's just not natural to go back and run a 4.3 40 (-yard dash)," Redskins coach Mike Shanahan said Monday. "It just doesn't happen. But when you're averaging over 10 yards a carry? That's still pretty good."

Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware can vouch for that. Ware was frozen at the line of scrimmage on at least two glaring occasions, when Griffin faked option handoffs to Alfred Morris, then darted around the end for big gains. Late in the third quarter, Griffin's 10-yard scoring blast gave the Redskins (10-6) their first lead.

Two weeks after Griffin missed his only game this season, the knee held up. It marked further progress, even with the cutback moves a bit restricted as he wears a brace on the knee. A week earlier in his return at Philadelphia, he rushed just twice on scrambles. Yet his added work in the rushing game against the Cowboys -- complementing the 200-yard statement by Morris -- demonstrated that the Redskins were more comfortable using him on designed runs.

"Move the chains, that's all they asked me to do," Griffin said Sunday night. "They want me to be able to run that play to take some stress off the offensive line and some stress off of Alfred, even though he didn't look like he needed it. I was able to be effective; ran a touchdown, so that was awesome."

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