S.I. : Like clockwork, Redskins' postseason hopes disappear

[TK]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2003/writers/don_banks/11/28/banks.insider/

Gone with the wind

Like clockwork, Redskins' postseason hopes disappear

Don Banks - S.I.

Steve Spurrier is 19-24 at the helm of the Redskins.

It's happening again in Washington. Change is in the air. More change. Upon change. Upon change.

Will things ever change?

As yet another Redskins season goes down the tubes before December dawns, the inevitable wave of recriminations have begun. Head coach Steve Spurrier this week signaled the opening of Washington's annual what-went-wrong stage, acknowledging that "the playoffs are very, very unrealistic'' for his struggling 4-7 team.

"We're all losers now,'' said Spurrier on Sunday, after his Redskins blew a 13-point, fourth-quarter lead and fell at Miami.

We think he was referring only to 2003, but it's tough to say since the Redskins have qualified for the postseason just once in the 11 seasons since Joe Gibbs retired.

By now we know the biorhythms of Washington's calendar year by heart. Spring and summer bring hope, with big money spent, new players and coaches in new roles and the optimistic talk of a franchise that believes it has learned from its past mistakes of impatience. But then the games start, and autumn brings a new round of disappointment, disillusionment and all-too-familiar defeat, which inspires another winter of fault-finding, scape-goating and change.

It's kind of like the Redskins' very own "Circle of Life,'' minus Elton John.

This week, the rumblings out of Redskins Park have been unmistakable. It's almost time to crank up the fix-it machine and get busy. After all, free agency opens in fewer than 100 days, and there's Spurrier's dangerously inexperienced coaching staff to retool. That is, if Spurrier is indeed around for Year 3 as promised.

The first order of business would appear to be defensive coordinator George Edwards, who has his players' support but apparently few other key backers. Edwards looks like he's going to take the fall for a Redskins defense that has slid to 26th in the league, after being fifth in 2002 under current Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis.

Edwards is in danger of being either dismissed or demoted by Spurrier, and if that happens, Washington will go shopping for its sixth different defensive coordinator in six years, an impressive run of instability even by a banana republic's standards.

The knock on Edwards, a first-time coordinator, is that his unit has been far too undisciplined this season, and he's not experienced enough to command the authority needed to keep the likes of freelancing veterans LaVar Arrington, Jeremiah Trotter and Bruce Smith in line -- which was no easy task, even for a disciplinarian like Lewis.

Edwards goes way back with Spurrier. He played for him at Duke and coached under him at the University of Florida. But with the possibility of veteran defensive coordinators Gregg Williams, Dick Jauron and Dave McGinnis being on the market this offseason -- all three are head coaches whose jobs are in jeopardy -- the Redskins are expected to replace Edwards with someone whose resume has a little more length to it. Or, barring that, anyone available.

Then there's offensive line coach Kim Helton, who according to media reports was fired and then hours later given a reprieve by Spurrier during the club's late-October bye week. Helton would appear to be going, going, gone as well, and the name to keep an eye on reportedly is ex-Hog offensive lineman Russ Grimm, who currently oversees the Steelers' offensive line. Other members of Spurrier's staff could be deemed expendable as well, depending on the outcome of an organization-wide lottery system. OK, we're kidding about that last part.

On the field, there is never a shortage of issues in Redskins-land. For one, Washington officials have seemingly decided that their running back-by-committee approach hasn't worked so well this season and they want to enter 2004 with one featured back. But not Stephen Davis, mind you. That's water under the bridge.

It could be that Trung Canidate or Ladell Betts gets that opportunity next season, or it could be -- and hang onto your season tickets, 'Skins fans -- that Washington goes shopping for a lead runner in free agency. All that stuff last offseason about "This is our team and we pretty much have to stick with these guys for the next two or three years,'' well, that's so April 2003 at this point.

And let's not overlook the key defensive question mark -- I mean, other than if Smith, God forbid, doesn't get that last lousy half-sack he needs for the record and threatens to come back in 2004 -- that being whether Washington can re-sign potential free-agent cornerback Champ Bailey?

News flash: The Redskins likely will slap the franchise-player tag on Bailey if they can't strike a deal. But just in case Washington's front office didn't realize Bailey would be unhappy with that development, he came out this week and tried to tie his fate to Edwards' fate, saying that Edwards remaining as defensive coordinator would impact his decision to remain a Redskin more than anything else.

See? Even when the Redskins have a player who's part of the solution, not the problem, a problem still arises. It's enough to make a team owner impatient with the whole mess. But then, that's how Daniel Snyder created the mess to begin with, by bouncing from plan to plan to plan from 2000-2003, with four head coaches in four seasons (don't forget Terry Robiskie), enough coordinators to fill a sideline and more free-agent misses than hits.

Even Bailey, whose given name has taken on a hollow and ironic twist in Washington, is cringing at the thought of another offseason of change in ol' D.C.

"Every year, you expect a lot and put so much into it,'' he told the Washington Post this week. "If it doesn't work out, you get so frustrated and paranoid and feel like changes have to be made. But sometimes you've just got to be patient. It's like this every year here. I love the fact that we're trying to get there. But sometimes you just have to stay on the course you're on because sometimes it takes time.''

Stay the course? In Washington? Now that would be a change.

Steering clear of the stare in Dallas

When Cowboys punt returner Joey Galloway made the rookie mistake of fielding a punt at his own 2 last week against Carolina, returning it all of one yard, he feared only one thing: the Wrath of Parcells.

"Man, I didn't even go near him on the sidelines for at least two more series,'' Galloway said of Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells, whose famous blue-eyed icy stare has been known to wilt fresh flowers. "I'm a veteran. I know you can't do something like that and get anywhere near him.''

At some point, Cowboys players say, everyone on the roster has been at the butt end of the Parcells treatment this season.

"He'll call out [the best players] first,'' Dallas defensive tackle La'Roi Glover said. "He got on [safety Darren Woodson] one time pretty good. He called me out. He called out Larry Allen. I mean, he's always on the quarterback. Nobody's exempt, man. If you're a Dallas Cowboy, you're getting called out at one point in time or another.

"You just duck your head a little bit and just accept it and go on. I won't go near him when I make a mistake. If I jump offside, I might as well go to the other sideline, because that won't be a good conversation.''

Quick hitters

• You can't like the Cowboys' chances of winning the NFC East. Why? Because Dallas has been shut out twice this season, at Tampa Bay and New England. No team has ever won its division and been shut out at least twice. Seven teams have made it to the playoffs as a wild card despite twin blankings, the most recent being the 2001 Dolphins.

• Week 12 in the NFL was tight. There were 12 games last week decided by seven points or fewer, the most since 1993. All 16 games had final margins of 13 points or fewer. That kind of wall-to-wall competition has happened three other times since the 1970 merger, but in each case it was a 14-game weekend.

• Snicker if you must, but Bengals quarterback Jon Kitna deserves to be mentioned among the strongest of the second-tier MVP candidates. Kitna, who was thought to be just a prop in Carson Palmer's rookie season, has 15 touchdown passes and just one interception in Cincinnati's six wins. Overall, his 19 scoring passes are tied for the AFC lead. In the past eight games, in which the Bengals are 6-2, Kitna has 16 touchdown passes and four interceptions.

• The Jets know they lost a key play-maker when free-agent receiver Laveranues Coles jumped to the Redskins. But then again, New York found another difference maker with Coles out of the picture. Third-year veteran Santana Moss has emerged as the Jets' No. 1 receiver and in one key way has outperformed Coles. Moss had a total of 32 career catches and six touchdowns (including two on punt returns) entering this season.

This year he has 49 receptions for 806 yards, with 10 touchdowns and a 16.4 yard-average catch. Coles has 59 receptions for 880 yards, but just four touchdowns and a 14.9 yard average. Moss has caught at least one touchdown in each of the seven games since he became a starter.

• I don't know what I'm more surprised by: Daryl Gardener's being suspended by the Broncos for three games for conduct detrimental to the team, or the former Dolphins malcontent making it through all last season in Washington's dicey locker room without an incident. Gardener was even voted the Redskins' defensive MVP last season. Ah, the magical powers of a contract year.

I will say this: Whoever is in charge of acquiring veteran defensive tackles in Denver ought to have his privileges revoked. Gardener adds to the list of Broncos misses that includes Lional Dalton and Leon Lett. What's that you say? Mike Shanahan has final authority in Denver? Well, I guess we've found our culprit.

• The most improved unit in the NFL this season? Here's one vote for the Houston offensive line. The Texans gave up a whopping 76 sacks last season, all of which were absorbed by rookie quarterback David Carr. This season, Houston has allowed just 23 sacks, putting them on pace for 33 all year, a 43-sack improvement. Carr has taken just 14 sacks this season, but twice been knocked out of games with injuries.

• The Jets and Giants both put on memorable December playoff drives last season, making the postseason in the same year for only the fourth time. But nobody should brace for a New York, New York repeat. Both teams are 4-7 in 2003 and showing little signs of life.

• I'm guessing Parcells might have shed a tear or two in the Dallas locker room for the second game in a row on Thursday. But after watching his Cowboys get throttled and knocked out of first in the NFC East by Miami, who played like the 1973 Super Bowl champion Dolphins in those throwback uniforms, I'm pretty sure they weren't tears of joy this time.

• Here's why we watch every game in the NFL, even the ones that look like turkeys on Thanksgiving Day: Green Bay (road team) and Dallas (home team) were favored on Thursday. But Detroit (home team) and Miami (road team) won.

• Don't count on New England's vote when it comes to changing the NFL's overtime rules. The Patriots won 23-20 in OT at Houston last week, their seventh consecutive victory in sudden death. That ties the longest overtime winning streak in league history, which had belonged solely to Denver, from 1978-85.

Come to think of it, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is doing a pretty fair John Elway impersonation these days. Brady has been at the helm for all seven of New England's overtime wins since Oct. 14, 2001. His 7-0 mark in OT is the best in league history, and he's 9-1 in games decided by three points or fewer.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.