Phillip Daniels sat in front of his locker Monday, hands folded, head slightly bowed, eyes fixated on nothing in particular. He was searching for answers. He couldn’t find any. He focused instead on his raw emotion.
“It hurts me to see a team play the way we’re playing,” he said.
And that’s what troubles the Redskins. They look around the locker room; they see supposedly talented players at numerous positions; they see a high-priced coaching staff — including a head coach with three Super Bowl trophies and a bust in Canton.
Then they see the results: 2-4. Even worse, the tough stretch is about to begin with nine games against teams who currently have winning records.
“The ingredients are here,” Redskins left tackle Chris Samuels said. “I don’t know what it is. We’ve got the talent on the field; we have talent in the coaching booth. We’ve got to put it together somehow.”
Corner Shawn Springs said, “Maybe we lost some parts that were important; maybe we’re still jelling. I don’t know.”
They toss around clichéd responses about how they can improve — by playing relaxed, only doing their jobs and not someone else’s — but the sad reality is that they’re not sure what’s really wrong.
“If I knew it I would address it, but I can’t put my finger on it,” right guard Randy Thomas said.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this in Year 3 of Joe Gibbs’ second act. After a 6-10 first season, the Redskins improved to 10-6 and won a first-round playoff game last season. Then they added more talent, supposedly, at receiver and on defense.
That’s only produced more of the same. They’ve lost any momentum generated by last season’s strong finish. Their defense has struggled; the running game has been inconsistent; the quarterback is inconsistent and hasn’t shown that he can be effective in Al Saunders’ system.
And now the Redskins have now lost five games in the past two years when they’ve held double-digit leads. They’ve also won two other games in overtime after blowing leads ofat least 10 points in this time.
“At times we come out and score points and things look good for us,” Samuels said, “and everyone’s happy and high-fiving. We just have to learn how to finish. You can’t sit back and say, ‘We’ve got them, now let’s just let our defense win the game.’ ”
Now they’re back to a familiar spot: in trouble. Just like they were at 5-6 last year.
“Once we started winning we were the greatest thing to ever happen,” Thomas said. “Right now we’re the worst thing that ever happened in this area.”
