By Michael Wilbon
Washington Post Columnist
Monday, September 7, 1998; Page C1

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – A quarterback controversy, by definition, suggests there is no clear-cut choice. The Washington Redskins don't have a quarterback controversy, or at least shouldn't have one. We all saw the same thing, right? Norv Turner will announce, officially, his starting quarterback sometime Monday or Tuesday. But the decision has already been made. It was made on the field Sunday, in the first few minutes of the third quarter when Gus Frerotte threw two dreadful interceptions and over the final 25 minutes when Trent Green led two scoring drives and improved everything about the offense from its efficiency to the players' body language.

There has to be a quarterback change, yes, but there is hardly anything controversial about it. Only a fool would say definitively that an eighth-round draft pick who has been holding a clipboard for five years is the answer to all the Redskins' problems. But Green has to start against the San Francisco 49ers a week from Monday, and probably beyond. There's no question Green threw the ball better than Frerotte did Sunday. There's no question Green's mobility serves him better behind a still-struggling offensive line. There's no question – and this is the big one – that the offensive players responded better to Green than to Frerotte.

Sunday's loss to the New York Giants wasn't any big shocker. The offense played about like most of us expected, which is to say lousy. The defense played about like most of us expected, giving up only 10 points and stopping the Giants several times late in the game. But if the Redskins' season is going to amount to any more than the offense betraying the defense, this quarterback change has to be made now.

If for no other reason, Green has to start simply because Frerotte and Jeff Hostetler can't run out of harm's way. The Giants recorded eight sacks Sunday, which is one fewer than the Redskins gave up the entire 1991 Super Bowl season. The Giants didn't even bother being coy; several defensive players said Frerotte was a sitting duck and they had his number while Green gave them problems with his mobility and quick-release passes.

If you're wondering whether Turner tipped his hand, well, he did. "Trent gives you a little more mobility when a team is overpowering you, like New York was with the rush. So obviously," he said, "it's something we have to look at."

Want more? Turner called Frerotte's first interception, the one that left the Giants two yards from a 17-10 lead: "A horrible decision. If you don't like the deep ball, throw it up in the stands." That play, which called for a deep pass, was one of the few that was blocked perfectly and Frerotte had time to find a receiver or throw the ball away. "You shouldn't have a sack, you shouldn't have a fumble, and you should never have an interception there," Turner said, as perturbed as I've heard him sound in four years as the Redskins' coach. "I'd like to think we got past that a long time ago."

It wasn't all Frerotte. It can't be when the line allows eight sacks. The line allowed Michael Strahan to have the same impact on the game as Lawrence Taylor used to. Strahan was unblockable. He was the guy Shar Pourdanesh was said to have held on the play that nullified the Frerotte-to-Michael Westbrook touchdown pass that would have put the Redskins ahead 14-3 on a team ill-suited to making a come back against anybody. (For the record, the holding call was borderline, and if Pourdanesh hadn't chop-blocked Strahan, it would have bumped up the sack total to nine and there wouldn't have been a touchdown pass to nullify.)

Turner torpedoed Pourdanesh, saying: "There's no reason to hold; it's ridiculous. You're in a protection which gives you a chance to double a guy and you get a holding penalty. Either you get a better guy in there, or you get him to quit doing that."

Turner followed that with: "I am going to do what it takes to give this team the best chance to win. So I am going to look at a lot of different things."

A little intolerance, along with Green's performance, may be the best thing to come out of this game. Even though this was only the season opener, heads need to roll, if for no other reason than to light some fires under some fannies.

You know what would be good for this bunch? If Turner just walked into Redskin Park Monday and fired somebody – wham! – just threw a couple of guys onto the waiver wire to scare everybody on the offense. Like his old boss, Jimmy Johnson, used to do. I bet that would help some people hold onto the ball or seal a block or run a tighter pass route.

Maybe if a few more guys had feared for their jobs, the Redskins would have been up 10 points on the Giants at halftime instead of tied at 10.

Is it really necessary to have such criticism and deep examination of a one-touchdown loss on the road to a division champion and bitter rival? Yes, because the next three opponents are the 49ers, who are favored to win the NFC; the Seahawks, who could be prosecuted for the way they beat up the Eagles,) and the defending Super Bowl champion Broncos. And when you're at the point where your team simply has to make the playoffs, as Turner probably is, time is of the essence.

And, of course, it all starts with the quarterback. Especially when your defense allows only 10 points. "I'd like to see an entire game," Turner said, "when we're not putting the defense in that position."

Then the quarterback has to change. You can't have a three-year starter making the kinds of throws Frerotte made Sunday. He was erratic most of last season, all of this preseason, then followed a really sharp first half with those bad interceptions. Maybe it's just a bad fit, an in-the-pocket quarterback behind this offensive line.

When your defense holds the opponent to 235 yards, you don't need the offense to be spectacular, just functional. And the offense wasn't functional. Eight sacks, two interceptions and a fumble will turn you into road kill every time.

And whatever you can do to avoid that, you do. Even if it's changing quarterbacks after Week 1.