By Michael Wilbon
Washington Post Columnist
Monday, October 19, 1998; Page C1

MINNEAPOLIS – This is the place and the time that the Washington Redskins finally admitted to themselves that they're not a team playing badly, but a really bad football team. A 41-7 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, more than the previous six defeats, underscored the Redskins' many serious flaws and inadequacies. It was a loss that left future Hall of Famer Darrell Green with tears in his eyes, Coach Norv Turner saying he'd never been a part of an effort so shabby, and a couple of veterans saying openly for the first time that teammates had quit, flat-out given up.

We've been hearing the words "rock bottom" for a few weeks now, and with nine games remaining to be played there's plenty of time for this team to sink further into the abyss. Nevertheless, Sunday in the Metrodome, where the Redskins won their last Super Bowl, seven seasons ago, reality hit like a Joe Louis left hook, and left the Redskins humiliated and groping for explanations. I don't think we'll have to worry about another week of denial.

"This just crushes me," Green said. "It's the worst, just the worst."

"That's as poor a performance as I've ever been involved with," Turner said. "On offense, we're totally inept. We can't snap the ball properly two straight plays and not jump offsides. When we do get the ball snapped properly and a guy's open, we can't get him the ball. When we get him the ball, he doesn't catch it. We've got guys going the wrong way. ... It's the worst performance I've ever [been part of] and that's very discouraging."

Linebacker Marvcus Patton was beyond discouraged. "Sometimes, we play like we don't care," he said. "Millions of people would love to play professional football, but we've got some guys who don't care to try as hard as they can or give every bit of effort they can. Some people just don't give it all they've got. If you're not embarrassed by being 0-7, I don't know what's wrong with you. I know I don't even like to go anywhere. I'm totally embarrassed to go anywhere. Everywhere I go, there are people looking at you, wanting to offer you sympathy and not knowing what to say. It's not just being 0-7. If you're 0-7 and you're dying on the field, that's one thing. But to be 0-7 and play the way we're playing, it's embarrassing. It's unbelievably embarrassing."

Why now? Why did it take so long for so many of these guys to see how pitiful this team is? Maybe it was the fact that the Vikings scored 41 points and didn't even play particularly well. Maybe it was the 11 penalties the Redskins committed, or converting only two of 14 third-down chances, or being outgained by the Vikings 435 yards to 177, or the five sacks allowed, or the fact that they never once sacked Randall Cunningham, or even made him hurry a single pass. Or maybe it was that the Redskins weren't even good enough to hold the attention of the 64,000 fans in the Metrodome, who several times during the game started chanting about the Green Bay Packers. The Packers! It was as if the Redskins weren't even there, as if they didn't exist.

Several players said they think the team needs more than one bye week, perhaps sensing that 10 days or so isn't enough to fix all that's wrong. At present, this is a team without any real chance of getting better along the offensive line, at quarterback, or in the receivers. Worst of all, Charlie Brown and Lucy have a better chance of successfully executing football's most fundamental play – the snap from center – than the Washington Redskins. The head coach says so. Listen to this: "Right now, we're not capable of having 11 guys execute the same play at the same time, much less four or five plays in a row." You know one of the things Turner has to do during the bye week? Entertain the notion of going to "lesser guys who can line up and snap the ball." Lesser guys? Lesser than the guys who have gone 0-7?

And you know what he said about quarterback: "We're incapable of playing well at that position." That may be the damndest sentence of all.

What might have crystalized the whole thing here Sunday was that the Redskins had to line up against a complete team. The Vikings have one of the game's best offensive lines, great wide receivers, a backup quarterback who is exceptional, a turnover-forcing defense and every reasonable chance of contending for the Super Bowl. In the face of that onslaught, only a few Redskins stood out. There were Patton, Ken Harvey, Terry Allen. There was punter Matt Turk pinning the Vikings back on the the 2-, the 7-, the 7-, and the 6-yard lines in the first half to keep the game close for 29 minutes. And there was the incomparable Green who had vowed to himself earlier in the week that he would throw all the talent in his body and all the wisdom accumulated over 16 seasons to nullify the spectacular rookie phenom, Randy Moss. He did this – and more.

Green hurt his knee twice and his shoulder once. One time, he got pinned underneath the stands, crunched. But he kept getting up and he finished the day as the first cornerback this season to hold the wondrous Moss in check. It's the kind of performance people earn game balls for, but all Green had afterward was angst. You know what Green thought while he was battling Moss, 16 years younger and eight inches taller? "Somewhere down in the craziness of it, it was fun," Green said, referring only to the personal challenge of being assigned to cover Moss, mostly one-on-one. "This is a kid who's on his way to greatness and I'm on my way out."

The problem is, there aren't enough Greens and Pattons on this team, guys who relish battling somebody bigger or younger or more talented. There aren't enough guys who come prepared, properly motivated, willing to sacrifice, shamelessly desperate to be successful and afraid to fail.

One of the many challenges for Turner and the Redskins the next two weeks – perhaps the most important one – is to find players who, while not nearly as talented as Green, might show some glint of his want-to. If there are enough such Redskins to field a complete team then perhaps the shame suffered here Sunday will have jolted the Redskins – from the owner to the general manager to the coach all the way to the equipment staff – into the state of emergency they should have been in already.