Saturday football? If it weren’t for the fact that some playoff teams are in the day-early mix, like Pittsburgh, Carolina and Atlanta, I’d have to wonder if the NFL had decided to banish the Redskins and their even lowlier counterparts from San Francisco from Sunday. But we assure you, this was the scheduled time and place from the beginning.

This also marks another meeting between teams whose cities boast an –ist blog. In this case, we imagine our counterparts at SFist, perhaps gathered at the Kezar Pub, remembering the past glories of Joe Montana and Steve Young, just as Redskins fans might recall the days when a Redskins-49ers regular season battle had playoff implications or perhaps even a postseason preview. Not so today—fans of these two teams are looking for better days ahead. And, while the Redskins seem to be slowly solving their problems and are starting to return to a competitive level with the league’s best, the 49ers are a different story—I wouldn’t look for Jackson West to start writing “The Passion of the Dennis Erickson” anytime soon.

The good news for Washington fans is that LaVar Arrington is set to return to the field, albeit in a limited capacity, in today’s game. Look for LaVar to play on third and passing downs, and for Lemar Marshall, one of the many former who-dats who have excelled this season in shaping the league’s second-best defense, to continue starting at that linebacker position. But kicker John Hall is done for the year, the wicked assortment of hamstring and groin pulls he’s faced this year having culminated in a missed opportunity to take the lead against the Eagles last week. He’ll be replaced by Jeff Chandler, who briefly breezed through the Bay Area as the 49ers kicker back in 2002 and 2003. Maybe if they win, Chandler can take the team out for veggie burritos at Taqueria Cancun.