PHILADELPHIA
If the Redskins are a renovation, what does a total tear-down look like?
- Thomas Boswell
- Columnist
Redskins and Mike Shanahan immersed in an ugly rebuilding process
After 33 losses in three years, the Redskins now face the reality that confronts entrenched bad teams — ones without a single player picked for the Pro Bowl, ones without a quality quarterback and ones that pack up for the offseason with a quarter left to play and lose 34-10 to a division rival.
This level of pain, this immense distance between the present and a future worthy of a fan’s fantasy, is what the rebuilding of a decimated NFL franchise usually feels like. Whether the job is being done well or is being bungled, this is how it often feels when the task is only partially complete.
For decades, Redskins fans were spared this exasperating and seemingly endless process. Twice, Joe Gibbs inherited crummy teams yet made the playoffs his second year. Norv Turner jumped from three to six to nine wins. George Allen and Vince Lombardi were winners in their first seasons.
So, in Washington, if no progress occurs quickly, or worse, if a team regresses, the correct prediction has always been: failed regime.
That eventually may be the case with Mike Shanahan, too. In a game that held no meaning, his Redskins played down to the occasion in a loss full of mental blunders, disorganization and loss of discipline by veterans.
When you have your fifth blocked kick of the season (out of 28 total for the whole NFL), when Santana Moss incurs a 15-yard penalty at the four-yard line for ripping off his helmet in disgust, and when your field goal team dashes on the field but the long snapper isn’t among them as time runs out in the half, that’s NFL chaos.
Such performances at the end of lost seasons are, at every level, laid at the coach’s feet. Meanwhile, Andy Reid’s Eagles, who might’ve been demoralized after perhaps the most disappointing season in the league, showed up with their heads screwed on properly.
Time will have to tell whether Shanahan’s methods and his so far often-flawed decisions at crucial positions will send him packing before his $35-million, five-year deal is done. But he’s not going anywhere before next year. Owner Daniel Snyder’s quick-trigger histories with past coaches as well as Shanahan’s two Super Bowl rings preclude that option. Who comes in if you give up on Shanahan after two years? It would be Zorn-Search Fiasco II.
So, welcome to a real rebuilding — Ugly Squared — like most cities have endured. It’s losing on New Year’s Day, for 10 defeats in 12 games, after squandering a lead at home on Christmas Eve to the awful, injured Vikings.
After the game, Moss whistled by his locker, the same six notes over an over. A holiday tune? “Stuff happens in the heat of battle,” he said of his penalty. “You don’t want to penalize your team. [But] I thought he [the official] couldn’t hear me with it on so maybe I need to take it off.”
Except that taking off your helmet is an automatic penalty. The elegant succession of snafus over the next 23 seconds that resulted in no-field-goal-attempt deserves it own novella. Yes, a team called the Redskins has a hurry-up played called “Geronimo.”
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