More photos » by Mike McCarn - AP

"I’m not disappointed we haven’t drafted an offensive lineman," Zorn said. "We are developing some of our linemen. We are hoping that Chad Rinehart develops into an outstanding offensive lineman. D’Anthony Batiste--we hope he can develop." - April 27, 2009

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"You talk about a monkey on your back, this was a gorilla," coach John Fox said. The Redskins continue to give life to every porous team in the NFL.

Ken and I talked on the phone post-game and it's clear the Redskins are not just a bad team about to break out, they are a bad team, period. The fundamental mistakes continue every week, and the ignorance that the offensive line is adequate was again exposed. What has me fuming the most from the loss yesterday is Mike Sellers play that resulted in the safety. Some fans are blasting Zorn for a wide run play call, but if you look at the tape, Sellers doomed this play. As Brian Billick pointed out, the fullback's job is to run forward as if he had the ball. Punch a hole. After the jump is the video (1:35 mark), Sellers as the lead blocker never crosses the goal line. UNACCEPTABLE. How is Portis suppose to find a gap when his lead blocker never runs past the line of scrimmage and never engages a single player?

The Byron Westbrook gaff on the Antwaan Randle El fair catch is another one. It's special teams 101 to stay clear of the punt returner, yet he failed to do that on multiple punts.

Report Card Time 

Offense: D- 

The Skins only two touchdowns were a result from the defense giving them the ball in the red zone. Why is this offense STILL out of sync after 29 games together (including pre-season)? The 2nd round picks continue to do their best hide-and-seek impressions failing to make any impact. Devin Thomas has to make that catch. 

Defense: C- 

16 first downs? For as many games as I can remember, the Redskins again lost the time of possession battle. I'm still furious with the tackling. The most obvious is DeAngelo Hall's failure to contain on the final bootleg, then his inability to bring down a skinny, old QB in the open field. Did you notice that one run play where Jon Stewart carried the entire Redskins defense for 10 yards and a first down? Look at Hall on that play. He barely throws a shoulder. Pathetic.

Also, it is clear Orakpo should not be starting at LB. On that one touchdown, he was never in position from the snap, and he for sure will get torn apart in the film study. The discouraging thing was Orakpo wasn't covering a Witten or Dallas Clark, some no-namer. Square peg, round hole.

Special Teams: F

This is an easy one. Besides the punt debacle, allowing the 55-yard kickoff return setup Delhomme's first TD pass, and the momentum changed from there.

Front Office: F--

With Chris Samuels list of injuries last year, it was crystal clear to everyone (including fans like ourselves who know 1/100th of what coaches know) the Skins needed to draft a guard. The fact they thought the line was adequate was totally exposed. D'Anthony Batiste looked lost. Peppers went around him with ease, which changed the entire game plan. Portis was chipping on that side almost every play, and Cooley had to stay in and block for almost all his plays. Awesome! One of the worst offenses in the league now has to use two of their best three offensive weapons (Portis and Cooley) to stay in the backfield and block. Heyer probably wouldn't have a job in the NFL if it wasn't for the Redskins. How does Dan Snyder not take a look at his decision makers and say, "I have some poor talent evaluators here!"  

Looking forward to the Chiefs, does anyone think we can beat them? I watched their game against the Cowboys and they looked very good. Then the Eagles? The Eagles will probably be double-digit point favorites for that game. How will Snyder react to a blow-out loss at home on Monday Night football? I don't know either, but it's going to be two weeks full of drama that not even the Lifetime channel could dream of. Let's go Caps?

TEAM STAT COMPARISON
1st Downs	15	16
Passing 1st downs	8	10
Rushing 1st downs	5	4
1st downs from Penalties	2	2
3rd down efficiency	2-9	4-12
4th down efficiency	0-1	0-1
Total Plays	52	60
Total Yards	198	248
Passing	124	162
Comp-Att	17-23	16-25
Yards per pass	5.4	6.5
Rushing	74	86
Rushing Attempts	24	32
Yards per rush	3.1	2.7
Red Zone (Made-Att)	2-3	2-3
Penalties	4-20	5-27
Turnovers	1	2
Fumbles lost	1	1
Interceptions thrown	0	1
Defensive / Special Teams TDs	0	0
Possession	28:43	31:17

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More photos » by Alex Brandon - AP

We beat an 0-3 team! Pop some champagne.

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Chris Cooley was quick to twitter last night after the game, "Our team is like Viagra...we make it hard every week. But who cares, we won." Another tough day for Redskins fans. We squeaked out another win, and we're left with hoping that THIS game is the one where lessons are learned and motivation is gained for the next game. It never seems to work that way even as their schedule couldn't be ANY friendlier for a struggling team. The first half as we all know went as bad as it could go. 

"It was really frustrating for us all. I started looking at the game plan, wondering: What else could go wrong?" Zorn said. "It was, offensively, like two different halves."

Well, of the first 20 first down plays, 14 were runs (13 by Portis). It's not often a team turns the ball over 4 times and wins the game, but so it goes when you play an abysmal team with a rookie 1-AA quarterback. ChrisCarter said post-game, "I look at the film and by the way Jason Campbell reads defenses, it looks like he just came in the NFL." Ouch. Zorn took a lot of the blame for the play-calling, which is obvious when the team is unable to successfully run the ball, yet he still called the run 35 times. I don't know what to expect for the Redskins, but I am no longer holding my breath that they'll turn it around at Carolina.

TEAM STAT COMPARISON
1st Downs	12	14
Passing 1st downs	6	9
Rushing 1st downs	6	5
1st downs from Penalties	0	0
3rd down efficiency	2-13	4-14
4th down efficiency	0-0	1-2
Total Plays	55	60
Total Yards	229	277
Passing	100	152
Comp-Att	13-22	12-22
Yards per pass	4.5	6.9
Rushing	129	125
Rushing Attempts	30	35
Yards per rush	4.3	3.6
Red Zone (Made-Att)	1-3	1-1
Penalties	5-40	4-40
Turnovers	2	4
Fumbles lost	1	1
Interceptions thrown	1	3
Defensive / Special Teams TDs	0	0
Possession	31:04	28:56

31:04 seconds is a lot of time on the fields for a 0-3 team. Who thought our defense would be the problem going into this year? Perhaps it was because the whole time they were going against OUR OWN offense all training camp!?

More photos » by Carlos Osorio - AP

about 1 month ago: Actor Tom Cruise, right, talks with Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, left, and Detroit Lions vice chairman Bill Ford before the start of an NFL football game at Ford Field in Detroit, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

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I'm trying to think of a worse loss in all of DC sports history, and I can't. The Skins not only failed, but they've quit. The Washington Examiner wrote this morning that a player said the team had no energy coming back out for the second half. No rah-rah speeches. Nothing. Does this sound like a team with pride? Does this sound like a team that is behind their coach?

Blow it up. The Redskins could get first and second round picks for a lot of their players. Moss, Portis, Landry, Carlos, Samuels...ship em all out. If the Skins can't win with, why keep them in their prime? The next coach isn't going to want this sorry excuse for a West Coast Offense. Let someone else come in with a clean slate and a ton of draft picks.

As Rick Snider wrote this morning, and I echo, bring in Russ Grimm. He is a proven winner and it's the only move Snyder can make at this point to retain what fans he has left. I will be out of town this weekend for the Tampa Bay game, but you better believe I'd have my paper bag out.

REPORT CARD - F

Offense: D-

Zero yards rushing in the first half. It's hard to give a grade of F when a team puts up 340 yards passing, but being on the field for only 23 minutes is embarrassing. Jason Campbell had decent day, but it's clear now that he has reached his potential. On that interception to Moss where a blitzer came in untouched, Randle El was WIDE OPEN going across the middle. How does a NFL QB not see that? I'll tell you why, he's not a NFL QB. Also, how many times do the Redskins complete a pass 1 yard before the 1st down marker? Run past the line then catch it. Even on 3rd and 2 the Skins throw a 1-yard pass. It's laughable.

Defense: F--

It appears to me Blache could care less about his job. He wanted to retire 2 years ago, and in the post-game conference he said the Lions were a good team. Of course they are when you continually have ZERO pass rush and allow a rookie QB to lead an offense that put up 395 yards. How many f'n times did Matt Stafford stick his tongue out in happiness? Andre Carter has 1 sack through 3 games. Ship him out too. Even if we have to pay part of their salary, do it. The draft pick in return is worth more.

Coaching: F--

A lot of people liked the call to go for it on 4th and 1 in the first quarter, but I thought to myself "you always take 3 points on the road."  Zorn continually avoids the bootleg and TE play-action in the short yardage situations.

The final play of the game a hook and ladder with Randle-El and Betts? Really. You HAVE to get the ball into the end-zone. You can't convince me that throwing a hail mary with Marko, Malcolm, and Devin Thomas is less likely to be successful than a hook and ladder. 

Punt returns. Why is Randle-El returning punts in the 4th quarter when DET is kicking from their end zone? It makes no sense. Put your best players out there. After all, Tana won the game in DET last year with a punt return. It's baffling.

Effort: F+

It felt like there was a Redskin injured on every single play. London Fletcher continues to shine, still leading the league in tackles. Nine penalties for 97 yards is horrific though. Sonny Jurgensen said it best, "Veterans should not be making mistakes like this." Lack of discipline goes to the top...coaching.

Enough is enough. Ten years of free agents doesn't even get you a .500 football team. Mr. Snyder, please cut your losses and build this team the right way. The fact Zorn did nothing to rally the troops at half-time shows he's lost the team. I've interviewed Zorn on a couple of occasions at Redskins Park. The guy is very likable, but you can't help but think to yourself "this guy has no idea what he's talking about." Spurrier 2.0.

Another one of those games where a win feels like a loss. Redskins Nation seems to be split into two camps "a win is a win" and "this team can't blow out the Rams...time to call Shanahan." I'm in the middle.  I do think it is time to strip Zorn of his play-calling. Am I the only one that thinks Zorn would be a great flag-football play-caller? Third and 5 in the red zone and you have Clinton Portis throwing the ball? When that play came into Jason Campbell, I can't imagine what his first reaction must have been. Do you think Zorn has a play in his playbook where the TE does a post over the middle...stops...does five jumping jacks (to freeze the safeties)...then goes deep?

I just don't get it. We drafted all these WRs to be our red zone guys, and we have Clinton Portis throwing the ball. At least TRY a fade. Pump fakes are a great tool to freeze a corner....didn't see any of those. I also question going for it on 4^th up TWO points with two minutes to go in the game. How about kick the field goal and force the Rams to score a TD...something they're not very good at! At this point, the Redskins are 2^nd to last in most points scored in the season...last place being St. Louis of course. Watching the game I feel as if Zorn is calling the plays to save his job.

Zorn thinking to himself: "Crap. I need to score a TD. Let's wow Mr. Snyder with this one...."

The Redskins offense is not going to blow any teams out, and we need to come to grips with that. The players took offense to the post-game booing, but what they need to realize is that false expectations have been set. All the interviews out of training camp were that the red shirts were going to step up this year, yet for a second straight game, they were playing hide and seek.

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More photos » by Bill Kostroun - AP

about 1 month ago: Washington Redskins punter Hunter Smith (3) reacts after scoring a touchdown on a fake field goal against New York Giants in the second quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009, at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The Giants won 23-17. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

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Despite the stupid penalty by Laron Landray, the Redskins played rather disciplined giving up only 32 penalty yards but look at the time of possession difference. I mean, wow. Who thought our defense was going to be a problem? Being in the stands, I didn't have the benefit of replays and what not, but two things stood out.

1.) 1st play of scrimmage Portis has a huge gain. Why does Zorn call a gadget play next? Keep running the damn ball. Gadget plays work when you setup a consistent way of beating a team and then you change gears suddenly. Second play of scrimmage? Really? And why didn't Randle-El throw the ball away?

2.) That whole play where Landry got the personal foul. How is Brandon Jacobs turning a corner on this defense?

3.) That hit early in the game London Fletcher had on Jacobs. I wish you could have seen how fast Giants stadium got quiet.

TEAM STAT COMPARISON
1st Downs	15	18
Total Plays	50	61
Total Yards	272	351
Passing	187	248
Rushing	85	103
Red Zone (Made-Att)	2-3	0-3
Penalties	4-32	4-30
3rd Down Conversions	5-12	6-13
4th Down Conversions	1-1	0-1
Turnovers	2	2
Defensive / Special Teams TDs	0	1
Possession	23:52	36:08

What do you think? Zorn's chair just get a little hotter?

Well, that was, uh, interesting. The young guys definitely have shown improvement, but they're still not displaying that big play ability I'm looking for. The play-calling and QB play could be a reason for this, but either way, things still aren't clicking offensively. Based on the game thread of what I was going to watch: 

1.) ANYONE on offense to make a play. Seriously. I'm tired of reading and seeing who looks good in practice. It's time for one of the red shirt WRs to make a play....and I mean 30+ yard play and/or TD.

2.) 1st defense vs Charlie Batch: WIth Big Ben sitting out, I expect Charlie Batch to spend more time on his back than Paris Hilton.

3.) 3 and outs. I want to see the Redskins outnumber the Steelers in this 2-1. 

For the 2nd consecutive game there was not a big play, except for the long Chase Daniel scramble. The TD catches by Marko and Fred Davis were smooth, but moving the ball still seems to be an issue.

As for the 1st defense, I wasn't impressed as I thought I'd be. Only 2 sacks and 0 interceptions. Orakpo was all over the field again, but missed a few tackles. Charlie Batch played well, which is not what I expected or hoped. 

The Redskins were 9-18 on third down effiency while the Steelers were 7-16.  The Steelers only went 3-and-out once in their first 5 drives while the Redskins went 3-and-out THREE times out of their first five drives (four if we hadn't pulled off the fake punt). There were multiple times Campbell scrambled and threw the ball into the dirt to kill the play. Can it get any more frustrating than that? 

Dominque Dorsey to me seems like a nice try, but failed project. He didn't show the speed he needs to get around the corner on plays and he bumbled the ball ona couple of plays. As for special teams, I mean, Wow. It was consistently bad all game. Only once did the Steelers start a drive inside their own 20.

I came across a cool site at fangraphs.com that charts the progression of MLB games, so we'll be doing them for the Skins games. The Redskins first teams didn't control the momentum, while the backups did step up for the 2nd half. After watching the Redskins' first offense these first 2 pre-season games, we might not need to carry a kicker on the roster at all. 

Calm down.

It was, after all, just a practice. Sure, it looked like Spurrier Part Deux, but in the end, there were a lot of guys on the field doing things they may or may not be asked to do in the regular season. And that is your special batch of pre-season Kool-Aid. (from here it gets less tasty and refreshing.)

First, what didn't work:

uhhhhh....well, we all watched right? I mean, there were a few plays where I noticed that JC got some time to make a decision, but the lack of timely pass protection (3rd downs and long yardage passing situations) was notable. Jason Campbell did not look terrible, but he failed to change many (or any) minds out there regarding his growth. Fred Davis really shocked me with his inability to hold the ball. SHOCKED. Considering I think we need him to contribute this year, I was rather discouraged by his performance last night.

Malcolm Kelly made a nice grab over the middle and Devin Thomas did not stand out as someone who fouled up like some of his defensive teammates, so all was not a total loss. On offense, we failed to break 200 yards. That is horrendous. We never even made it into a field goal attempt situation, which is rather pathetic.

On defense, I was a little relieved to listen to Greg Blache after the game talk about how they left guys like Justin Tryon and Kevin Barnes on an island on purpose to see how they could/would handle man-to-man coverage. Still, if they had been deserted on an actual island, their performance last night could be compared to resorting to eating your own arms and legs to survive. It was just brutal. Haynesworth and Rogers sat out, but I was a little startled at how easy it seemed for Flacoo to hit up Tryon's man for 10 yard gains.

On special teams, well, the kicker battle RAGES ON doesn't it? Not a single field goal attempt. Amazing. As for punting, well, Hunter Smith kind of scared the crap out of me. I know he will be fine, but was anyone having flashbacks to every punting situation for the last...oh...10 years? Jesus, not only was he not really booming the ball, but our coverage did not seem very solid either. Hunter gets a pass on this one. Mostly because our backup punter right now is Chris Cooley.

Bright spots for me included:

Brian Orakpo - the only thing Joe Theismann said all night that made much sense to me was that Orakpo had a lot of highlights but they pretty much all came with the pass rush. We did not see him doing things after dropping back into coverage that made the highlight reel. I am going to call that good. I mean, how many highlights does a guy have to make in the first game he suits up for without having to hear about how it wasn't enough? For my money, he did enough last night to make me very optimistic he will make an impact this season. He got into the Ravens' backfield a lot, and though he failed to register a sack, he pressured their quarterbacks and drew holding penalties. He is clearly able to get around the corner in this league and will hopefully reap some benefits from having Haynesworth draw attention on the defensive line. I was impressed with Orakpo last night.

Malcolm Kelly - well, he made a sweet catch across the middle...the kind where the ball was up for grabs and he made a play on it. That, plus the fact he made it through the game got me a lot warmer and fuzzier on #12.

Mini bright spot: Kareen Moore. I thought that he played with a lot of energy and spirit. I liked some of the hits he made and I enjoyed seeing him get after it for the whole game. I am simply unsure how well he played his position at this point, but I thought that he stood out a bit with a few hits.

I'll be honest. Those were my two bright spots. I won't insult your intelligence by drumming up positive B.S. about a play here or a play there. We were out-gained in yards 500-196. We failed to score. We continue to be unable to give the QB time. All in all, it was a miserable effort.

The good news is that these games don't count. Both Zorn and Blache afterward in their press conferences exhibited calming and reassuring tones. I doubt they were as cool with the individual players who got made fools of in certain situations, but at least you didn't hear either of them say something like, "You know what, have no idea what happened out there tonight."

While the results don't count in the standings, you still play these games to move the ball, score, and keep the other team out of the end zone. We failed to do all of these things. Therefore, the only grade we can really give here is a D- at best. I simply can't give an F for a first pre-season game. It is not fair. They have to have somewhere to go--up or down--in the second week. But come next week, if there is not significant improvement, the F is coming out.

Finally, like the rest of you, I am simply a couch critic, an armchair quarterback...but there is no mistaking the feeling after last night's affair. It felt like...the same. And that is the last thing we need right now. Here's hoping that they are able to learn some things from the debacle in B-more last night.

Quick thoughts and then I'm off to bed. As I doubt no Cowboys fan likes to write about losing to the Redskins, no Redskins fan likes to talk about losing to the Cowboys. I'm brief because I hate the territory.

• The offensive play calling was not good. Normally when we convert 3rd downs I have some sense that it was due in large part to a well designed play. This entire game, barring one screen pass which I thought was well timed, when we converted on third down (so, really, the other four times, as we went an awful 5 of 14 on the most important down) it felt like great individual effort by the players. It is never fair to blame exclusively the coaching staff, or the players, for a loss, but this one felt like coaching.
• Clinton Portis is a man. He came out and ran despite injury and I respect him more and more as this season moves forward. His pockets are, indeed, straight.
• 3.6 yards is how many we had per passing attempt. I read a lot of box scores post-Redskins games and I cannot recall the last time that number was lower. That includes sacks, but even without we're well below 5 yards per attempt. That's just dog meat. How many times does the well have to come up dry before you stop lobbing to the sideline. If it doesn't work the first two times -- and by doesn't work I mean getting tackled for a loss or somewhere around there -- it's not going to work. Even when that play is working you shouldn't go there more than 3-4 times a game. They watch game tapes, ya know?
  
• I hate when the Cowboys succeed at anything, but I appreciate the logic in going for it late in the game with a 4 point lead. Wade Phillips had guts for doing that and I respect him for it. One of the reasons I love Jim Zorn is because he's not afraid to go for it, so I can't well criticize the other bastard for sharing similar sentiments, especially when they succeed. We went for it on 4th and 4 with 6 minutes left. I imagine many of you are going to have something to say about that decision. I loved it, we didn't convert, that sucks, but I thought it was the right call.
• 228 yards of offense? On an average day, the worst offense in the league (Bengals) gets 240 someodd yards. That just sucks and it tells the entire story of the game, which probably wasn't as close as the score.
• The defense played better than I'm feeling about them right now. Fresh in my mind is Marion Barber and company running down our throats seemingly at will, but the box score looks fine. 315 yards drags the Cowboys' season average down, two turnovers, nothing ridiculous on either yards per rush or passing attempt... A slightly high third down percentage (5/11, lower, actually, than the Cowboys' season average) is the only thing bothersome I see. You should've stopped them at the end, defense, but why do we deserve to win any games if we can't score more than 10 points? We'd be 0-9 this year with 10 points per game.

Congrats Dallas, etc. I'm not in panic mode just yet, but we looked strong at the beginning of the season and progressively worse since. Getting demolished by the Steelers, beaten by the Rams, and struggling to beat the Lions and Browns is not good. I don't know where that week two through five team went, but I miss them.