Redskins Wonder: 'When Will This Nightmare End?'

Having failed to assemble a winning football team, the Washington Redskins now have a split in viewpoint between the front office and the locker room.

While executives accent the positive, many players won't play along. They know what a 2-5 record means.

They also remember last year: Add this season's start to last year's finish, and the Redskins are a 4-11 team since last Halloween.

“We definitely look at that,” said team captain and middle linebacker London Fletcher. We've struggled to score points, struggled to win football games. And it's very frustrating, week in and week out. It's like, ‘Man, when will this nightmare end, in a sense, for us?’”

Fletcher and his drained teammates needed a vacation like nobody's business, and this week's bye has been as much a welcome mental respite as a physical one. But when they return to work on Monday, the very real practical problems that doomed the first half of the season will still be there.

“We felt pretty good about our roster coming in,” Fletcher said. “Obviously depth at some areas was an issue before the season, and it's come up on us to where we're faced with the reality that our expectations have changed.”

Running back Clinton Portis was more direct, implicating the front office's failure to adequately upgrade the line as a top reason for the offense's struggles.

“We went into the season, and we didn't address that issue,” Portis said. “And it came back to haunt us.”

One Redskins official who spoke at length this week was David Donovan, the team's chief operating officer. He spent a spirited 25 minutes on 106.7 The Fan criticizing The Washington Post for what he found to be negative coverage of the team. Donovan also stated there was “hardly an Eagles fan to be found” at the Monday night home game against Philadelphia, although a pregame stroll through the parking lot and a quick glance into the stands indicated otherwise.

Donovan also revealed that fans are now prohibited from carrying any kind of sign into the stadium. He said the ban was put into effect for fan security and comfort, although it has coincided with a stark increase of banners and signs critical of owner Dan Snyder and executive vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato.

Still, getting rid of negative signs won't cause fan anger to disappear. The players certainly know that.

“We go out there and play hard and nothing really happens. We don't get a spark. The fans are losing interest,” defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth said. “The more games we play, the fewer the fans come. It's getting bad.”

Attendance was indeed notably sparse in quite a few sections in a recent game against Kansas City. The stadium was close to full during the loss to the Eagles, but Monday night games against division rivals are always good draws.

Also speaking this week, holding his first in-person session with reporters since the regular season began, was Cerrato. The front office chief defended the roster he assembled and said it was one that could get to the team to the playoffs, even with the dicey depth along the offensive line.

To his credit, Cerrato didn't try to paint a rosy picture, calling the 2-5 record ``frustrating and disappointing'' and adding: “We need to regroup during this bye and come out those last nine games and improve.”

Improvement might not translate into wins. After starting the season with one of the easiest schedules, the Redskins now must face Atlanta (4-2), Denver (6-0), Dallas (4-2), Philadelphia (4-2) and New Orleans (6-0) in a row. At this point, the Dec. 13 visit to Oakland might be the only game in which Washington will be favored for the rest of the season.

“You look your schedule and you feel pretty good about your matchups-- if somebody told me maybe you'd be 5-2 right now, I probably would have expected it. Maybe 6-1,” Fletcher said.

“We're 2-5, and not playing well at all.”
      
   

Copyright Associated Press