The NFL has tried reaching out internationally to spread football’s appeal in places such as England, Japan and Canada. It would be a sound venture if the league attempted to give other countries a good game every now and then.
Instead, the city of Toronto was treated to a lowly Redskins team turning in a performance as brutal as a northeastern snowstorm.
Mike Shanahan called the 23-0 loss to the Bills “humbling,” but with a few noteworthy exceptions, it was a downright travesty. Nine sacks, zero points and yet another game with nothing to build upon.
“It’s as bad as I’ve ever been involved with from an offensive side,” he said. “It’s a tough one to take.”
London Fletcher’s interception near the end of the first half with the Bills in the red zone simply delayed the inevitable. Washington gave the ball right back and Buffalo marched down the field again to tack on a field goal to make it 13-0. After halftime, the Redskins had no answers in any phase of the game.
“Things just never went our way,” said Brian Orakpo. “It’s just very frustrating. [I’m] very disappointed and it hurts.”
The Redskins had an opportunity to get on the board with a Graham Gano field goal in the first half, but for the third time this year, special teams gave up a blocked kick. Meanwhile the defense was shredded again to the tune of 390 total yards.
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Fletcher played with an injured hamstring, extending his consecutive games played streak to 215. As a middle linebacker, nobody takes as much of a beating on the defensive side of the ball, but that hasn’t stopped Fletcher from playing with a nonstop motor for all five seasons he’s been here.
Sunday it was no different as he finished with 20 tackles, an interception and half a sack. But after another frighteningly bad performance from top to bottom, how much more can Fletcher take?
“You play this game long enough you’re going to be frustrated,” he said. “I think everybody’s frustrated. We’ve lost three consecutive games. We haven’t played well enough to win any of the games.”
The defensive captain was visibly upset after the Bills’ second touchdown, which came on a blown coverage. He exchanged words with LaRon Landry on the sidelines following the play and the safety took the blame for the score.
But Fletcher wasn’t pointing fingers in the postgame locker room.
“Everybody has to play better,” he said. “Anytime you lose ball games you just look within to see what you can do better to help the team win.”
It’s never pleasant to talk about, but the Redskins haven’t just been bad following Joe Gibbs’ second stint. They have yet to play a full 16-game slate without undergoing some sort of catastrophic breakdown.
What happens this year remains to be seen, but if they can’t pull it together in the coming weeks, what’s to be done? Shanahan doesn’t have a franchise quarterback and doesn’t seem to have a feel for his team either.
“We couldn’t get anything going – the running game or the passing game,” Shanahan said. “[I’m] very disappointed at the end result, scoring no points.”
Bad for the Redskins – even worse for the NFL as no points were scored with the Canadian crowd watching this nightmare.
