Teka Thomas
@ Tattoo
Q:How do you keep your life clean?
A:"Low alcohol intake. I never smoke and I've never done drugs."
IT WAS A MEANINGLESS win for the Redskins this season, yet Sunday's result could have both a very positive, and a very negative, effect on their future.
Since it's the holidays, let's start with the positive. LaRon Landry's tackle at the one-yard line could be the difference between the Philadelphia Eagles making a Super Bowl run and blowing up their team as we know it.
If the Eagles miss the playoffs, as seems likely, our bet is the Andy Reid/Donovan McNabb era is over. And while the Eagles have never won a Super Bowl in their 10 years together, Philadelphia has been the class of the NFC East.
The Redskins are better off if the Eagles start over.
Now for the down side — and no, it has nothing to do with draft status.
Should Washington beat the 49ers on Sunday and finish on a two-game winning streak with a 9-7 record, there may be temptation to feel too good about this group.
Major work needs to be done on both lines and a serious evaluation of Jim Zorn and Jason Campbell is needed.
As currently constructed, the Redskins can't win the Super Bowl next year.
A dramatic move like firing the coach or quarterback may not be needed, but a lot needs to be done in a short time.
A window of opportunity may arise with Philly's demise. The Redskins can't afford to fool themselves in a crucial offseason.
Photo by Preston Keres/TWP
WITH ALL THIS TALK of Jim Zorn's imminent — or not — firing, it occurs to me that a change may be needed higher up to fix the Redskins.
A team that virtually ignores the draft — and forgets it hasn't had a pass rush this decade — would be better off with a different decision maker.
And while it may be easy to say Vinny Cerrato must go — doesn't that have a nice ring to it? — the search for a replacement could begin and end with one man.
He' the person who, in Houston, bypassed the obvious pick of Reggie Bush and went with Mario Williams with the No. 1 overall choice three years ago. And when he was in Washington previously, he fought the temptation to draft Ricky Williams and instead traded down and got Champ Bailey. Both look like great moves now.
Yes — Charlie Casserly is the right man for the job. Better yet, he's available (he currently works for CBS as an analyst).
Growing up professionally during the Redskins' heyday, he knows the way to build a winner is through the draft and through shoring up both lines.
Cerrato has brought talent here, but the wrong kind. By relying on free agency and trades, there is a constant Band-Aid solution for the Redskins' biggest hole.
The defensive front is a constant problem; the offensive line is aging rapidly. That is where the center of Washington's offseason must be.
Casserly would know the right players to take. A return to the past might give the Redskins a steady hand for the future.
Photo by Bill Baptist/Getty Images
"WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR" is a phrase that used to be most associated with the Brooklyn Diodgers but is now applicable to the Redskins.
Since Dan Snyder took over his favorite team, the future has always looked better than the present.
We were almost fooled this season. A 6-2 start made those of us who predicted a 6-10 record — or worse — look foolish. Now the naysayers are off by only one win while the Redskins free-fall toward 2008's end.
The snap judgment from Sunday’s 20-13 loss to the dreadful Bengals is to question whether Jim Zorn really knows what he's doing or, at the very least, whether quarterback Jason Campbell is the right fit for Zorn's West Coast offense.
Now let's be realistic. Washington appears to lack the talent to compete on the highest of levels.
It seems likely Zorn had this team overachieving the first half of the season. And one more victory would match Joe Gibbs' total this year in his initial tenure (i.e. the good one).
Traditionally, it takes two to three years to successfully install a new offense, especially the West Coast attack.
Barring a firing, Zorn will get a second year to adjust the Redskins to his schemes. Production should improve, as should Campbell.
If we look at this year as building the foundation, next year should be better. If it isn't better, it will be time to start over — and then the future will look bright again.
Photo by Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post
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
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.
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
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
SUDDENLY, THE REDSKINS look like they belong with the big boys. As in, the Dallas Cowboys.
The team and its fans are feeling good after a second-straight win. And why not? Washington is improving on offense and making plays on defense.
The biggest hot-button issue continues to be the punter, Durant Brooks, who kicked just fine Sunday against Arizona but apparently "iced" Shaun Suisham while holding on a 52-yard field goal.
A 2-1 record was deemed unfathomable after a disastrous first quarter of the season. While it's still early, there's no doubting the importance of not falling behind in a division in which every team has a winning record.
Continue Reading "Redskins Get a Chance to Prove They Belong" »
THE ONLY THING more embarrassing than drafting a punter cutting said kicker because he couldn't make the cut.
Nobody knows this better than Redskins executive vice president Vinny Cerrato, which is why two weeks into the season there is a punter controversy in the nation's capital.
The guy Cerrato drafted and forced on coach Jim Zorn was so bad last week against the Saints that memories of Derrick Frost bring back warm, fuzzy thoughts.
Frost, aptly named considering the reception he received in Washington, was the butt of many a joke. The jeers were well-deserved. He did just enough to infuriate fans and coaches alike, but not enough to be cut in three years under Joe Gibbs.
Sick of it all, Cerrato used a sixth-round pick last April on Durant Brooks, who was the Ray Guy winner and the nation's best punter. An "open competition" was held at training camp.
It was there that Cerrato got caught with his pants down long before Chris Cooley ever did.
By any measure, Frost (45.5 yards-per-kick average) outperformed Brooks (42.8) in the preseason. But the switch to Brooks was a fait accompli.
For some inexplicable reason, punting appears to be different in the pros; college's best is so deep in the doghouse that Cerrato stalked Brooks' moves at practice Wednesday. Is the hook looming?
Only here, a rare spot where Jeff Feagles never landed, could the punter position drum up interest. Yet only in D.C. is there a person so misguided as to draft a punter.
Photo by Toni L. Sandys/TWP
Addison Road
