NO PLAY BETTER summed up the state of the Washington Redskins than the New York Giants' first extra point on Sunday.
The holder badly mishandled the snap — to the point that he had to reset the ball — yet the kick got away uncontested.
Any team with players running toward the play would have at least disrupted the chip shot, if not simply blocked it.
The Redskins were standing still, though, just as they have for more than a month.
Gone are a 4-1 start and 6-2 record at the halfway point. Washington is 7-5 and on the outside of the playoff picture.
It seems as though the version of the Redskins that lost to the Rams is a lot closer to reality than the one that beat the Cowboys and Eagles in consecutive weeks early in the season.
Jim Zorn's team isn't getting worse per se; it just isn't getting better.
Say what you want about Joe Gibbs 2.0, but his teams almost always played best in the home stretch.
The Redskins are — to borrow ex-Cardinals coach Dennis Green's infamous line — who we thought they were.
They play solid defense but can't score. Nothing is going to change the rest of the way.
Washington probably has a couple wins left in it.
But, in conclusion, the Redskins look like they are good enough to just miss the playoffs.
Photo by Preston Keres/TWP
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Written by Express' Nathan Martin
ANOTHER WIZARDS SEASON starts Wednesday, but it lacks the optimism that has permeated the past few years.
Gilbert Arenas has spent more time on the operating table than on the court over the past 18 months, and he's out for at least the first month of the season. Last year's breakout star and fashion plate Brendan Haywood just had wrist surgery and is likely lost for the entire year. Last year's other breakout star and all-around great guy Roger Mason signed with San Antonio.
The only additions the team made in the offseason were to bring back local hero Juan Dixon, draft some giant dude named JaVale and sign Dee Brown, who may or may not at present be better than the 39-year-old former player of the same name who retired six years ago.
In other words, it looks like it will be a long season. But that doesn't mean it will be a total loss. Here are some ways to make the 2008-2009 Wizards campaign more enjoyable.
Continue Reading "Wiz Kidding: How to Make the Wizards Season Fun" »
A LOT HAS been made, and rightly so, of Jim Zorn in his first year as the Redskins' coach.
As you may have noticed, Washington isn't 6-2 halfway through the season very often. In fact, the last time that happened was under Norv Turner in 2000. Oh, and by the way, Dan Snyder fired Turner — who started 7-1 in 1996 and somehow missed the playoffs — with three games to go in what turned out to be an 8-8 season.
That's where the comparisons end with Turner, though.
Zorn's fiery temperament — whether he is yelling at Clinton Portis on the sideline or at a reporter during the postgame news conference — seems to be just what the Redskins needed after four years under Joe Gibbs.
Yet if you were to look at the key contributors on this year's team, all were brought in by Gibbs.
A cynic would ask why, with this talent, Gibbs needed two incredible finishes for his only postseason appearances in his second tenure. Yet at 6-2, there's no need for rudeness when we can laud the old coach for his player evaluation.
Trades for Portis and Santana Moss have proven correct in the long term. Drafting Jason Campbell and Carlos Rogers out of Auburn the same year sure looked good, too. Ditto for taking LaRon Landry — a genius move for tragic reasons — and signing London Fletcher.
So, as Zorn is praised for being the right coach to lead the Redskins to the playoffs, don't forget to give Gibbs his due one last time.
Photo by Preston Keres/TWP
IF THE ABILITY to win close games is the measure of a good team, then the Redskins surely qualify.
With an average margin of victory of 4.6 points, Washington has scraped by to a 5-2 record. But, as they say, the end result is all that matters.
Yet there is something to be said for a blowout. Flexing your muscles as one of the NFL's elite every once in a while never hurt a top-notch squad.
This Sunday's game against the woeful Detroit Lions offers a perfect opportunity for the Redskins to pile up a huge victory.
Name someone on the Lions not named Calvin Johnson. I dare you. Remember Jon Kitna is on injured reserve and Roy Williams is now in Dallas. Can't do it?
That's exactly my point.
THE RAYS' RISE to the World Series is not so much unprecedented as it is shocking.
Tampa Bay has been the worst franchise since it joined the league 10 years ago. Yet here the upstarts stand having done what the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians could not: withstand a furious Red Sox rally and live to tell about it.
Make no mistake about it: The Rays were the better team and may be the best in all of baseball.
Tampa versus Philadelphia may be the best World Series no one watches. But low ratings are of no importance to the Rays or the Phillies. That's Bud Selig's problem.
As much as the suits would like it, the Yankees and Sox can't be in the Fall Classic every year.
You almost wonder when they'll next appear. New York still needs to find a way to build from its own prospects. Boston's empire showed signs of cracking by trading Manny Ramirez and not overcoming the Rays in Game 7.
So, here we stand with two teams with good, young players who will only now get their full introduction to general audiences.
The unfortunate news for the Rays is that worst-to-first stories typically end in World Series losses. Philadelphia's experience — and stronger bullpen — should win out.
But don't count me among the dejected if Philadelphia fans are left waiting a little bit longer for their first sports championship since 1983.
Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images
I'M BEGINNING TO think everyone in the nation's capital returned with me from Oktoberfest drunk.
How else do you explain the resurgence of the dreaded "B" word — as in bandwagon — surrounding the Redskins? And that's after a loss to the previously winless Rams.
Maybe it's the influx of Seahawks. Surely, the punter was the reason Washington couldn't hold onto the ball last Sunday at FedEx Field.
Luckily, Shaun Alexander didn't look washed up the last time we saw him carrying a football. Even more fortuitous is that coach Jim Zorn is plucking from his old stomping ground, where he won a Super Bowl. Oh, wait — neither is true.
No one is disputing that the Redskins look like a playoff team — far better than my fearlessly foolish preseason prediction. Still, let's see the Redskins beat the lowly Browns and Lions before the bandwagon is rolled out.
Sunday's loss to St. Louis is easily explained after emotional and important wins at Dallas and Philadelphia. The defeat was probably a fluke, yet championship teams usually avoid such letdowns.
At least we know — or do we? — that Zorn's crew has not peaked yet. History shows teams want to be playing their best in December on a run to the Super Bowl.
Maybe the upset ahead of two other trap games will serve as a warning for the rest of the season.
D.C. may be saying "cheers" and knocking together steins later this season. Just remember: It's still Kool-Aid, not beers, until the playoffs start.
Photo by Preston Keres/TWP
LESS THAN A month ago, the sponsors of D.C.'s new EagleBank Bowl probably were dreaming of a Maryland-Navy matchup in December.
The Terrapins aren't cooperating. And head coach Ralph Friedgen couldn't be happier.
With early season games against California and Clemson, a typical Maryland team would be clawing to stay in the bowl picture, let alone fighting for the ACC title.
These Terps seem to be hardly ordinary. Following a stunning loss to Middle Tennessee, quarterback Chris Turner has led Maryland to wins over two top-25 teams.
JOHN MCCAIN SHOULD be as lucky as the Redskins.
Presented with a list of bad choices — think Mitt Romney or Jim Fassel — both the presidential candidate and the football team reached to the Pacific Northwest for a seemingly unknown candidate.
While it may be hard to remember now, Jim Zorn had the same deer — or moose — in the headlights look as Sarah Palin his first few weeks as the Redskins' coach. Actually, Zorn looked shell-shocked by preseason's end and after a disastrous opening week loss.
Something clicked, though. Zorn formed a bond with quarterback Jason Campbell precisely when the season seemed lost. When many, including I, thought Washington would be 1-3 entering this week's game against the Eagles, it now stands 3-1 and sure looks like a playoff team.
The poise Zorn has shown in play-calling has rubbed off on the Redskins, who look as confident as they did in the era when Palin was still a sportscaster.
Instead of playing not to lose, the Redskins were the aggressors Sunday in the huge upset of the Dallas Cowboys.
Zorn's attitude and West Coast offense have given the team an identity missing when Joe Gibbs and Al Saunders clashed over how to use the Redskins' weapons.
Forget Campbell; Santana Moss and Clinton Portis have never looked so good in burgundy and gold.
Palin may turn into a fumble for McCain, but it's clear the Redskins scored a touchdown with their Hail Mary pick of Zorn.
Photo by John McDonnell/TWP
THE ARGUMENT AGAINST writing the column you are about to read is that no 
one cares about the Nationals, but that is precisely the point.
After four years, baseball in Washington is an unqualified flop.
Since Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992, no stadium has drawn fewer fans in its inaugural season than Nationals Park. For the record, 17 parks have debuted in that time span.
Baseball's magic formula says the last-place Nationals were averaging 29,077 fans per game — the 20th best in the majors — as of Wednesday. (Thursday was to be the home finale, weather permitting.) Anyone who's actually been to a game or watched one on TV — we'll get back to that subject — knows that far less than that fill the seats.
Any report you hear about TV ratings shows greater disinterest than the previous bleak news. Just this month, only 6,000 people tuned into the Nationals game on the same day as the Redskins opener. More people probably watched C-SPAN.
The Washington Post even reported that the radio audience is so small that the ratings aren't statistically valid.
A dreadful team is to blame for most of this, and the Tampa Bay Rays' success offers hope that D.C. can one day drum up support for a winning team.
Let's be realistic, though. The Nationals are going to stink next year and probably the year after that. Attendance will only drop, and fewer people will bother searching for MASN to watch the games on TV.
It took 33 years to bring baseball back to D.C. It took four to get bored by it.
Photo by Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post
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