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Zorn, much more candid than most coaches, admitted afterward, "I would loved to have had them play the whole game and just grind it out. . . . But that would have not have been smart."
What he and the Redskins had to settle for was finishing preseason with no serious injuries despite a long camp and five games.
Zorn, by the way, believes deeply in preseason and says so. He says he believes the games are rehearsals, that the preseason enables coaches to learn about their players, and that the development of young players can take place only in the laboratory of games. "I think preseason's valuable, I really do," he said.
But he and his staff will have to reassemble the pieces without any more games in what is now a normal NFL work week -- his first as a head coach in the regular season. What's he going to do, call Ralph Friedgen and invite the Terrapins to Redskins Park for a scrimmage?
The guessing game starts now, of course. When the season opens Thursday, will the Redskins more closely resemble the team that won its first three games, or the team that has looked like a raggedy junior varsity the last two? Were they really that bad against Carolina and Jacksonville, or just tired of an unnecessarily long five-game preseason that could drain the life out of anybody?
Are the players, who aren't nearly as easily impressed by coaches as they will spin it for the microphones and notebooks, confident that Zorn knows what he's doing? Or are they, and for that matter is he, shaken by what's happened the last two weeks?
If the Redskins go to Giants Stadium and get blown out, we will all say we should have seen it coming. If they go up and knock off the champs to start the season, we (I certainly) will remind anybody who will listen that the preseason is a barometer of nothing.
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