One fan expresses displeasure with Coach Norv Turner. (John McDonnell - The Post)

By David Montgomery and George Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 5, 1998; Page A1

For a region that hitches a measure of its prodigious self-esteem to the lately precarious bandwagon of its premier sports franchise, the Washington Redskins, the season plunged yesterday to depths not seen in 17 years.

After a spirited first half that raised hopes in Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, the Redskins collapsed, 31-10, against the Dallas Cowboys before 72,284 fans. The defeat dropped the Redskins to 0-5 for the first time since 1981 – former coach Joe Gibbs's first year. They have been outscored along the way by a 169-74 margin, and no team ever has recovered from such a dismal start to make the playoffs.

This is more than a flesh wound to the Redskin faithful.

To lose to the archrival Cowboys, pretty mediocre themselves this year with a 3-2 record, was an insult scripted in local sports hell, a civic nightmare for Washington, which disdains all things Dallas, at least when it comes to football.

Bags began sprouting on the heads of disgruntled fans too ashamed to be seen rooting for the collection of five-time losers.

"How can it get any worse?" said John Champion, a 46-year-old fan from Winchester, Va.

"Just plain disgusting, that's what it is," said Floyd Jackson, 71, from Northeast Washington.

Jackson's friend Clyde Oglesby, 72, a fan since the first year in old Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, was more succinct.

"Stink," he said.

Before the game, fans had clung to a desperate optimism. They cheered when the Redskins Marching Band paraded outside the stadium. Out in the parking lot, they tailgated as if this were any other game. Snug in team jackets and caps against the misty drizzle, they parked in the usual spaces and cooked the typical sausages and steaks, as if the old rituals might have the power to ward off an even deeper level of evil and gloom this season.

But already the day had turned bleak for ticket scalpers, foreshadowing what was to follow on the turf inside. Tickets were going for less than face value in the half-hour before kickoff – something that would be unheard-of in seasons past, particularly when the rival was Dallas. Usually, scalped tickets for a Dallas game go for double the regular price.

As fans streamed from the parking lots toward the stadium about 10 minutes before game time, they heard a thunder of booing rising from inside the stadium. Usually that means the opposing team is being introduced. This time, fans outside weren't so sure.

"They might be booing the Skins," said one.

"That's the scary part," said another. "You might be right."

The game got underway in a misty drizzle under a funereal sky that matched the mood of many fans five weeks into a once-promising season. Many still took comfort in the camaraderie of die-hard devotion to the home team, which, they said, would outlast the team's current travails.

Despite the presence of numerous Cowboys supporters, when the Redskins scored the first touchdown of the game, the stadium erupted, and it felt like the old days. But jubilation quickly gave way to a 17-10 Cowboys lead at halftime, followed by the usual third-quarter Redskins failure and a fourth quarter in which the Cowboys added a touchdown. Some fans rained insults on the home team, and a few others held up negative signs.

Coach Norv Turner, who has said that anything less than the playoffs would mark an unsuccessful season, was the target of the signs and many of the boos as the clock wound down. The question debated by a number of fans yesterday was: Should he go now, at midseason, or after the season is over, or go at all?

Turner's manner in his postgame news conference was cool and professional, entirely unrattled for the captain of this drifting ship.

"I know that this is the nature of what we do, that when you do not win, some people do get personal," Turner said. "We have loyal fans, and they want us to be good. The answer is to play better and find a way to win. ... We have a bunch of guys competing their butts off."

After the first four losses, owner John Kent Cooke was supportive of Turner, whose contract runs through 2001. Yesterday he was silent.

Cornerback Darrell Green, a 16-year veteran, said he understood the bitter emotional disappointment of some fans.

"When you're a fan," Green said, "you do a lot of things vicariously through the people you're watching. But they're not us. They're not playing the games."

Green suggested the fans should think about their criticisms of individual players or coaches.

"It's when it gets personal, then it goes beyond the line of what's acceptable," he said.

Safety Stanley Richard also tried to imagine the view from a wet $40 seat somewhere in the upper deck: "You want [fans'] support, but they want something more than we've been giving them. They can say whatever they want. ... They want it to happen for us, and so do we."

Some fans were willing to give Turner more time.

"I think you have to have patience and wait until the end of the season," said Mark Vok, 31, of Wheaton. "You don't want to jump the gun now. Who's going to run the team? You need to have confidence in the coach."

But others said the Dallas game was the last straw. Turner should get the hook. Nor is everyone happy with General Manager Charley Casserly or John Kent Cooke, or the stadium, or the traffic, or anything.

"I say, might as well do it [change front-office personnel] in the middle of the season," said Joe Kennedy, 36, of Annandale.

"Norv doesn't seem to be able to motivate anymore," said Dave Willis Jr., 29, of Frederick, Md.

"He needs to sit down with them and go ballistic. Really go off on them," said Jeff Anderson, 37, who drove down from Frederick with Willis.

Anderson's family has held season tickets since 1966. Willis and Anderson parked their sports utility vehicle, with two Redskins pennants flying from the roof and a sign on the windshield that read: "Redskins Fan Parking Only."

They refused to give up on the team.

"It can't get any worse," Willis said. "If you're a Redskins fan, you're with them through thick and thin."

But impatience with Turner was strong.

"Norv's had five chances at it," Anderson said.

"We haven't been in the playoffs in six years," Willis said.

Anderson said the late Jack Kent "Cooke built the stadium for the fans because they deserve the best. The team needs to perform to the level Mr. Cooke wanted. You know somewhere Mr. Cooke is looking down and just shaking his head."

They blamed the players for lack of dedication: "They seem to be treating this as a 9-to-5" job, Willis said. No chemistry. Not hanging out together, getting to know each other.

"You do what you can," Anderson said. "You come. You hope for the best. When they lose, then you yell at Norv."