Whether defending Super Bowl champion or last-place division finisher, NFL teams approach training camp and the four-game preseason with similar goals: clarify their 53-man roster, build chemistry among their projected starters and, ideally, forge an identity that defines and guides them through the regular season ahead.

By the third preseason game, typically the last and most extensive workout for the starters, it is expected that the hallmarks of the offense and defense have emerged, the squad looks ready to compete in Week 1 (or close to it) and the coaching staff operates smoothly, with sure-handed play-calls, swift substitutions and judicious challenges.

The Washington Redskins reach that stage Sunday at FedEx Field, hosting the Cincinnati Bengals in the final dress rehearsal for the starters before the Sept. 10 season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles, with the smack-swapping between the NFC East rivals already full song. But the question of the Redskins’ readiness looms large after an 0-2 preseason start in which the first-team offense has needed eight drives to score its lone touchdown and the overhauled defense remains in flux.

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While preseason records hardly predict regular season performance, there are qualities teams show in these ostensibly meaningless games that indicate Week 1 readiness. That’s what Mark Schlereth, who played 12 seasons in the NFL, looks for as an analyst for Fox Sports.

“I’m a big believer in the preseason,” Schlereth, a former Redskins guard (1989-94), said. “It doesn’t count, but it does matter.”

Far more than the outcome or score, what catches Schlereth’s eye are speed, effort and intensity.

“When I played, whether it was in Washington or Denver, if I was in for one series or for three quarters, I wanted to leave no doubt in my opponent’s mind if they faced us in regular season, the playoffs or the Super Bowl, they were going to get a handful — that the pace I’m playing with is the pace I’m always going to play with, and it’s going to be full-go,” Schlereth said in a telephone interview.

“You can see teams, in my mind, that go through the motions in the preseason. And you can see teams that are serious about their craft. As an offensive player, I wanted to be able to put in one series, maybe six or seven plays, punch it in the end zone, go to the sideline and take off my pads and say, ‘Job well done!’ ”

That’s not how the Redskins’ preseason script has gone. In many ways, Coach Jay Gruden’s team faces more questions two weeks before the season opener than it faced at the outset of training camp. Many of those questions are on offense, which has carried the team the last two seasons.

Quarterback Kirk Cousins has yet to play a preseason game with his full complement of key receivers. Injuries have sidelined tight end Jordan Reed and limited the participation of wide receivers Jamison Crowder and Josh Doctson.

While wide receiver Terrelle Pryor dazzled through camp, vexing Redskins defensive backs with his length, speed and sure-handedness, the Cousins-to-Pryor attempts in preseason games have yielded just one completion through three quarters’ work.

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Moreover, concerns about Doctson’s durability have hardly been allayed. The Achilles’ ailments that sidelined the first-round pick after just two games his rookie season are no longer a worry, presumably. But a hamstring strain cost him valuable preseason reps for forging a rapport with Cousins.

There’s every reason to assume Reed will pick up where he left off last season, as a favorite target of Cousins, but the Pro Bowl tight end was only cleared to practice last week. If Reed can’t play Sunday, Gruden said Friday that he won’t play Reed in the Aug. 31 preseason finale. The same is true for outside linebacker Junior Galette, the disruptive pass rusher who hasn’t played a down for the Redskins since his 2015 signing. Like Reed (toe) and rookie linebacker Ryan Anderson (stinger), Galette (hamstring) will be a game-time decision Sunday. If Galette doesn’t play, that means the Redskins won’t be any closer to knowing whether he can be part of the solution for their ailing pass rush than they were one month ago. It’s an important question, given that fourth-year linebacker Trent Murphy suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason opener.

There are weighty questions at other positions, as well.

The offensive line that returned all five starters from 2016 appeared the one certainty on offense at the outset of training camp. But the “Hogs 2.0” haven’t been nearly as effective as the original Hogs in run-blocking. And they’re now without center Spencer Long, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery last week, and will rely in the interim on rookie Chase Roullier, by all accounts a smart, studious player but one who played just one season at center for Wyoming.

Left tackle Trent Williams, the team’s five-time Pro Bowl honoree and offensive leader, said Roullier has earned coaches’ trust. “He is here for a reason; it’s not like we picked his name out of a hat,” Williams said. “At the end of the day, we’re all pros. Everybody at some point is going to have to produce. His opportunity just came a little quicker than others.”

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Opportunity may come sooner than expected for rookie running back Samaje Perine, too, if incumbent starter Rob Kelley doesn’t improve on his one-yard-per-carry average. Questions remain in the secondary, as well, where Su’a Cravens had barely started acclimating to his new role at strong safety when he was sidelined by a knee injury on the first defensive series of the preseason opener.

If any of this weighs heavily on the Redskins locker room, there is little evidence.

Even at 0-2, players professed confidence this week when asked about their readiness for Week 1. The key to the preseason, several said, was emerging unscathed.

“Football is football,” right tackle Morgan Moses said. “A lot of these guys have been playing football since they were 4 or 5 years old. Nothing changes besides the players on the team and the players you’re going against. It’s just be physical, outsmart the other team and do what we do.”

Safety Will Blackmon, an 11-year NFL veteran, was equally bullish about the Redskins defense. “We have a good nucleus,” Blackmon said. “We have a coordinator who has played 12 years and has been successful as a coordinator in [Greg] Manusky. We have a great D-line coach in [Jim] Tomsula. We have Josh [Norman]. We bring in someone like D.J. [Swearinger], who is a ball of energy and a great leader, as well. At the end of the day, we hold each other accountable. When it’s go-time, we’ll be fine.”