Sunday Night Snoozefest

Redskins offense smothered by Cowboys in loss

For those who stayed up to watch the entire Sunday Night Snoozefest between the Redskins and Cowboys, we salute you.

For those who decided to turn in early, you missed a solid performance by the Redskins' defense, which held the high-power Cowboys offense to just 17 points.

But if you wanted to watch the Skins' defense, you also had to watch the offense.

If you did, you saw Jason Campbell and Co. lay one heck of an egg in front of the home fans at FedEx. The offense failed to put up any points against a quality Cowboys defense in the 17-0 loss. Not only did they get shut out, by our count they made it past midfield on just two drives. Yeah, that's right, two.

The team ran for just 43 yards, and Campbell passed for 199 with an interception. He was also sacked three times while sporting a black eye he acquired a week earlier in the 45-12 drubbing at the hands of the Giants.

Speaking of the Giants, they tanked it Sunday in their final game at Giants Stadium, and with the win over the Redskins Sunday night, Dallas clinched a spot in the postseason.

With the loss, the Redskins ... well, clinched the title of worst team on the field on Sunday night. At least the nightmare season is almost over. The Skins travel to the West Coast Sunday to take on the Chargers. It's a good bet many of the players and coaches hope they never have to return.

Dallas holds a commanding 59-39-2 lead in the 50-year-old rivalry with the Redskins. The Cowboys didn't allow Washington (4-11) to score a touchdown this year -- the other meeting was a 7-6 win on Nov. 22 -- and they played their part in the Redskins' first winless season in NFC East play since 1994.

After the game, coach Jim Zorn -- widely seen as a lame duck -- uttered sentences containing the same adjectives, over and over: "frustrating," "hard," "frustrating," "hard," "devastating," "hard," "very hard," "devastating," "very hard" and "awful."

"I want to get to five wins," he finally said. "It seems frivolous, doesn't it?"

The Redskins put on their second embarrassing performance against a rival in prime time in less than a week, and there were more distractions in between. After a 45-12 pasting by the Giants on Monday night, Washington endured a week in which assistant coach Jerry Gray gave confusing answers when asked if had interviewed for the head coaching job. Then came some noisy Christmas Day tardiness from defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, who was sent home by Zorn for being late to a meeting.

Haynesworth used that occasion to again complain about the coaching staff -- particularly defensive coordinator Greg Blache -- but he nevertheless remained in the starting lineup Sunday night.

The Redskins, by the way, are 0-2 and have been outscored 62-12 since front office chief Vinny Cerrato resigned and Bruce Allen was named general manager on Dec. 17.

"I don't think there were any more distractions than we've had the past six or seven weeks," Zorn said. "If it was a distraction, we got it handled and moved forward."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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