By Michael Wilbon
Washington Post Columnist
Monday, October 12, 1998; Page C1

PHILADELPHIA – You know the worst thing about these winless, awful, at-the-bottom-of-the-league-but-still-haven't-
reached-rock-bottom-yet Redskins? You know what's worse than their 0-6 record and the dreadful football they're playing?

The mealy-mouth, lame, chump excuses they offer week after week after getting humiliated from here to Seattle and back. You know the stuff they're saying, that I'm talking about: We had some individual breakdowns. We fought hard but we made too many mistakes. We don't seem to make plays when we have the opportunities. We had guys in the right positions but didn't execute.

Please.

When you lose to the winless sorry, no-account Eagles it's time for people to stand up and say, "We stink, and we've got to do something radical right now to fix it." I want to see somebody (besides Cris Dishman) point a big fat finger at himself and say, "My fault. I stink right now."

I want to hear it from the coach, from the starters, from the reserves, from anybody and everybody wearing a Redskins uniform or sideline apparel. I want to hear that (and I assume you do to) because the Redskins do stink. It's not any one thing, it's everything: offense, defense, special teams, coaching, general managing, philosophically, physically and mentally. When you can't even line up and get everybody to move on the snap of the ball going into the sixth week of an NFL season, you stink and it's time to admit as much.

Until the Redskins do, they've got nothing.

There was a huge sign plastered across the middle of The Vet Sunday that said "May The Worst Team Lose."

It did.

The Eagles, unquestionably, have the worst roster in the league, hardly a blue-chip player anywhere. But they beat the Redskins. Now, the Redskins will tell you the referees messed up this game; the guys in black and white had about as pitiful a day as the guys in burgundy and gold. If Terry Allen wasn't down when he was struggling toward the end zone, neither was Gus Frerotte on that two-point conversion attempt.

But the decisive sequence of this game came when the Eagles' offense, playing with nobody a playoff team would allow in its locker room, drove 75 yards in 15 plays over nine minutes for the score that made it 17-6.

The 49ers march 75 yards on you in the fourth quarter for the deciding score, okay. But you let Rodney Peete convert a pair of third-and-16s in one drive when you're already trailing in the fourth quarter, the least you can do is stand there and say, "We can't play a lick." I've heard it lots of times. In the Giants' dressing room after a tough loss, in the Niners' room, in Mike Ditka's room, in many a Bill Parcells room. If you can't admit the truth when everybody else knows the deal, you're just in denial. You have little hope of changing your plight.

When Norv Turner came out to face the media after loss No. 6, I just knew he'd reflect the desperate situation he and his team are in. I've been standing in front of the lectern after a Don Shula loss, a Parcells loss, a Jimmy Johnson loss, a Joe Gibbs loss – even during a winning season – and it felt like the wrath of God was about to come down. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Turner was as upset and as humbled by this as anybody, maybe more.

But his saying, "I really felt Philadelphia executed the key plays in the game . . . " doesn't do it for me for initial post-game comments after this car wreck of a game. "Every time you lose it hurts" ain't good enough because going 0-6 and losing to a winless team should hurt a hell of a lot more than 0-2 and losing to a superior 49ers team.

Dana Stubblefield did say, "It's hard and it's disgusting," to go through this and added, "We all have to ask, 'Am I doing what it takes?'" but even that's not strong enough. Marvcus Patton did say, "We're 0-6 and we'd be fooling ourselves to say we're better than our record," which is accurate but also didn't go far enough.

See, the Redskins may think they just hit rock bottom, but they haven't. Rock bottom comes next week in Minneapolis when the Vikings hang a 56-10 whipping on them, or something close to that. Rock bottom is when Randy Moss and Cris Carter and Jake Reed are dashing up and down the carpet in the Metrodome like Carl Lewis in the 100. Next week, boys and girls, might be sacrificial.

Somebody needs to either get nasty with this team or accept that the rest of the season is being played to get into great draft position. That's right, it's Week 6 and we're talking college draft. If the Redskins want another spin on this, that's it. If the season ended today – and don't most of you wish it did? – the winless Redskins and the 0-5 Carolina Panthers would control the second and third picks in the NFL draft (the expansion Cleveland Browns hold the No. 1 pick). And since the Redskins own Carolina's 1999 No. 1 pick (from the Sean Gilbert trade), the Redskins could pick as high as second and third. Even if we presume Tim Couch goes to Cleveland, that leaves the UCLA quarterback (Cade McNown), the Syracuse quarterback (Donovan McNabb), the Central Florida quarterback (Daunte Culpepper), the Texas running back (Ricky Williams), and a host of good A-1 college football players from which to choose. Some scouts have said it could be the best and deepest draft in many years. And the Redskins, the way they've been playing lately, figure to be sitting pretty, right up there at the top of the board, the place teams like the Colts and the Clippers call home.

If this is all the Redskins can be – and we'll have a good idea by sundown Sunday – I don't know why you wouldn't relieve Turner of this burden sooner rather than later. If this program can't beat a team as unsightly as the Eagles, it can't in its present state compete successfully in the NFL. Regardless of what you think of him as a head coach, to let a fine and honorable man like Turner twist in the wind like this week after week may be more cruel than supportive. What's happening to the Redskins now doesn't reflect what Turner knows about football, but at the end of the season they don't ask to see a resume or tapes, they ask for wins. And right now, the Redskins don't have a single one, and the prospect of changing that immediately looks anything but bright.