They delivered good news in small doses, mostly by checking the calendar and not the game film. The calendar suggests the Redskins are OK; the game film suggests something else — 41-0 blowouts tend to skew opinions.
For now, the Redskins believe more in the calendar than the film. They have nochoice. But they’re also not ignoring what’s happened in their first three preseason games. If they did, one word would sum up the outlook for their season: yikes. However, even the players seem conflicted about what to think after three games, including Saturdays’ 41-0 drubbing at New England. They’re now 0-3 and the starting offense has yet to score a touchdown.
“It’s definitely a concern, we didn’t show up for that game,” Redskins tackle Chris Samuels said. “But it’s a good thing it doesn’t count so we can get it corrected … It’s not a panic stage at this point; but we need to find a way to get it fixed and get it fixed fast.”
There’s also this sentiment:
“It’s just the preseason,” linebacker Marcus Washington said.
Which is good news for them considering the starters trailed 10-0 after the first quarter and 20-0 at halftime.
“It was gruesome,” fullback Mike Sellers said. “But it’s easy to game plan us, we’re real bland right now.”
But such sentiment isn’t good enough for coach Joe Gibbs. While the Redskins say they haven’t game planned much, nor have they implemented much of their offense, Gibbs knows other teams are taking the same approach. Like, for example, New England.
“We need to be able to play sound, smart football,” Gibbs said. “[New England] wasn’t doing anything outlandish, they were straight up. But they played extremely well and their quarterback played great. That’s where we should be.”
The Redskins also rally around what they did last season. At 5-6, their season was headed nowhere fast. But they won their last five games to make the playoffs.
They’re clearly not playing well now. This summer, opponents have gained 30 more first downs than Washington; have rushed for 308 more yards and outscored them 87-18.
“The good thing is, this team has a lot of pride,” end Renaldo Wynn said. “We have a team whose pride is hurt. As hard as we work, we’ll turn this around. We can do it; a prime example is last year.”
Said Gibbs, “We’ve been in a mess before and we know how to get out of them.”
