Redskins coach Jim Zorn used the one word football players hate most. Soft. But that’s the label he stuck on a lot of his young players after Thursday’s 23-0 preseason opening loss to Baltimore.
‘’We have guys that need to improve,’’ Zorn said Friday. ‘’Some of it was age, the young guys getting a feel for the NFL and you could see hesitation. You could see us playing soft. …We were soft in other areas, both offensively and defensively, with that intensity.’’
Zorn was particularly unhappy with the pass protection of the second offensive line, which prevented the offense from generating much of anything, evidenced by the 196 total yards. The second defense wasn’t much better as a unit as the Redskins allowed 500 yards overall.
‘’Things deteriorated with the second group,’’ a rather downbeat Zorn said of the Redskins’ offensive line.
Washington’s first offense only played two series, both of which ended in punts. Quarterback Jason Campbell completed just three of six passes for 38 yards. He missed an open Marques Hagans along the left side, throwing high. However, Campbell was under pressure as well.
And the No. 1 defense played just one series, allowing a 13-play, 67-yard field goal drive. They had one bad play, albeit a 34-yard catch and run by running back Ray Rice where he raced past linebacker London Fletcher.
Zorn did not single out any of the young players, but in general was displeased. Second-year corner Justin Tryon struggled, as he did last summer, particularly in slot coverage. To play there, a corner must be physical; Tryon was not and was easily beaten on various routes vs. slot receivers.
‘’He probably got a little soft,’’ Zorn said. ‘’He learned some things from this game and he felt his way. I’m not down on him. They picked on him and I think he’ll rise up. He’s a good player.’’
Rookie corner Kevin Barnes did not fare much better, allowing a touchdown pass. The coverage by the secondary too often was, as Zorn said, soft.
‘’Our young guys finally got a chance to paly and they’re thinking it will be just like it was before and it’s not like it was before,’’ Zorn said. ‘’It is intense, it is exact and passionate and emotional. They saw that they have to pick things up and we played guys that need to improve.’’
Among other thoughts by Zorn:
BULLET On the offensive line: ‘’Our first group did a nice job picking up a really good defensive group early in the game. They blitzed us and last year we had a different time picking up the schemes. This year we were right on it early. … Jason was sharp for the limited time he was in there.’’
BULLET On the backup quarterbacks: ‘’After Jason I thought Todd really did a nice job with the tempo. He missed a couple of throws. When he sees it today he’ll be disappointed, but he ran the show. He was very good audibilizing. I didn’t want to play him a lot. Todd is pretty steady, but what I don’t know is Colt [Brennan] yet. He came in and started out very well on a roll pass and then as we went along the production wasn’t there. It wasn’t based solely on him, it was based on the group. The group wasn’t consistent. Colt wasn’t consistent in some things he did either.’’
BULLET Injuries. Zorn said defensive tackle/end Lorenzo Alexander pulled his oblique muscle on his right side. He’s probably suffering the worst, but it doesn’t appear that he’ll miss any time. Right tackle Mike Williams still has an abdominal strain, but he felt it on his second play of the game and did not need to come out. Zorn said the injury is not getting worse and called it a ‘’dull pain.’’
