That was the kind of descriptive play-by-play heard on ESPN radio yesterday as commentators Sonny Jurgenson and Sam Huff called the Redskins vs St. Louis debacle.
Skins' Kareem Moore holding on to a catch in yesterday's loss to St. Louis.
Sonny: The Redskins are off to a slow start.
Sam: Slow? Awful!
And that's how they played entire game. Awful.
From the onset things looked bleek. Josh Bidwell injured himself during warmups. (Warmups).
Graham Gano's (perhaps reflecting on his recalled 52 yarder last week) kick was offsides.
The team never even scored after the half. Awful. (Dreadful, even).
The Redskins lose 30-16 to a team (with a rookie quarterback in Sam Bradford) who hadn't won a game all season, and have lost their last 14 games. (Sounds remarkably like a repeat of last season where the Skins lost to a team in December that hadn't won a game all season long).
That's what Washington does. Lose games they should win. (Even when the opposing team's best player is injured and out of the game).
It does not matter: Opposing team's injured player in (as we saw in the Houston game two weeks ago). Opposing team's injured player out (as we saw yesterday with Steven Jackson's groin injury).
The Skins still manage, somehow, to come up with a loss.
We heard all summer long that the new regime of Mike Shanahan (a coach with two Super Bowl wins) and Bruce Allen (piggybacking off his father's - George Allen - legacy) was going to take this team to the Promise Land. So far, we're not even out of first gear.
Why not?
The Skins still can't score. Even with a proven veteran quarterback like Donovan McNabb who actually can throw the ball to an open receiver, we can't even catch the ball when we should. Dropped balls in the Red Zone. Balls bouncing off player's chests.
"When you get in the red zone, you have to score," said McNabb, who threw for 236 yards. "Kicking field goals will come back to haunt you. We have to understand what happened and come out next week ready to make a change."
How about making a change before next week?
In defense of the Redskins let me just say that there are some positives. Let's talk about the saving grace on offense. Two good veterans who can get it done: McNabb (as I mentioned) who knows how to find an open man, and Santana Moss who knows how to get open and catch the darn football (despite a fumble in yesterday's game).
Those are two good constants the Skins have going for them week-after-week.
What we don't have, or can't seem to do is hold on to more playmakers who can actually score.
We saw Kansas City standout Brandon Banks during training camp and in the pre-season game get open, run routes and score. Banks was the spark this team needed. I found out early last week while interviewing him that he was deactivated. Deactivated? Why? We don't know.
This week the news was worse. The Redskins waived Brandon Banks. The little spark of fire, the hungry player who actually wants to play, and can play, now gone.
We saw the same thing last season with the impressive Marko Mitchell. Mitchell also looked good during training camp and pre-season. Then all of a sudden he was gone. Without explanation, he is cut from the team.
This team needs all the weapons it can get right now. Cutting players who can do the job doesn't make sense.
Why can't this team retain players who can make a difference? Why get rid of promising players who can bring new life to a mediocre team and retain players who give you the same thing year-after-year? We need help with the running game like New Orleans needed help after Hurricane Katrina. It's pivotal. It's crucial.
As I said before, we got ourselves a good quarterback; we just need to get the rest of the team to rise to his playing level.
One man can't do it alone. And if they play like they did yesterday, McNabb will get embarrassed when the team plays his former team, the Philadelphia Eagles next Sunday. With Michael Vick taking shape (aren't you glad for him, though?) the Redskins better find their 'A' game, (or borrow someone else's), take it with them to Philly, or McNabb will become a Philly laughing stock.
Philly is ready to play. Washington, not so much.
"We have to jump on a team like this early and give them no momentum", said Phillip Daniels after the loss to St. Louis.
The team better remember those words come this Sunday.
Perhaps the soulful, sultry lyrics of guitarist George Benson say it best...
Are we really happy here
With this lonely game we play?
Looking for words to say?
Searching but not finding, understanding anyway
We're lost in a masquerade.
Hey, Redskins! Stop masquerading as a professional football team, and play like a real team is supposed to!
Sonny: The Redskins are off to a slow start.
Sam: Slow? Awful!
And that's how they played entire game. Awful.
From the onset things looked bleek. Josh Bidwell injured himself during warmups. (Warmups).
Graham Gano's (perhaps reflecting on his recalled 52 yarder last week) kick was offsides.
The team never even scored after the half. Awful. (Dreadful, even).
The Redskins lose 30-16 to a team (with a rookie quarterback in Sam Bradford) who hadn't won a game all season, and have lost their last 14 games. (Sounds remarkably like a repeat of last season where the Skins lost to a team in December that hadn't won a game all season long).
That's what Washington does. Lose games they should win. (Even when the opposing team's best player is injured and out of the game).
It does not matter: Opposing team's injured player in (as we saw in the Houston game two weeks ago). Opposing team's injured player out (as we saw yesterday with Steven Jackson's groin injury).
The Skins still manage, somehow, to come up with a loss.
We heard all summer long that the new regime of Mike Shanahan (a coach with two Super Bowl wins) and Bruce Allen (piggybacking off his father's - George Allen - legacy) was going to take this team to the Promise Land. So far, we're not even out of first gear.
Why not?
The Skins still can't score. Even with a proven veteran quarterback like Donovan McNabb who actually can throw the ball to an open receiver, we can't even catch the ball when we should. Dropped balls in the Red Zone. Balls bouncing off player's chests.
"When you get in the red zone, you have to score," said McNabb, who threw for 236 yards. "Kicking field goals will come back to haunt you. We have to understand what happened and come out next week ready to make a change."
How about making a change before next week?
In defense of the Redskins let me just say that there are some positives. Let's talk about the saving grace on offense. Two good veterans who can get it done: McNabb (as I mentioned) who knows how to find an open man, and Santana Moss who knows how to get open and catch the darn football (despite a fumble in yesterday's game).
Those are two good constants the Skins have going for them week-after-week.
What we don't have, or can't seem to do is hold on to more playmakers who can actually score.
We saw Kansas City standout Brandon Banks during training camp and in the pre-season game get open, run routes and score. Banks was the spark this team needed. I found out early last week while interviewing him that he was deactivated. Deactivated? Why? We don't know.
This week the news was worse. The Redskins waived Brandon Banks. The little spark of fire, the hungry player who actually wants to play, and can play, now gone.
We saw the same thing last season with the impressive Marko Mitchell. Mitchell also looked good during training camp and pre-season. Then all of a sudden he was gone. Without explanation, he is cut from the team.
This team needs all the weapons it can get right now. Cutting players who can do the job doesn't make sense.
Why can't this team retain players who can make a difference? Why get rid of promising players who can bring new life to a mediocre team and retain players who give you the same thing year-after-year? We need help with the running game like New Orleans needed help after Hurricane Katrina. It's pivotal. It's crucial.
As I said before, we got ourselves a good quarterback; we just need to get the rest of the team to rise to his playing level.
One man can't do it alone. And if they play like they did yesterday, McNabb will get embarrassed when the team plays his former team, the Philadelphia Eagles next Sunday. With Michael Vick taking shape (aren't you glad for him, though?) the Redskins better find their 'A' game, (or borrow someone else's), take it with them to Philly, or McNabb will become a Philly laughing stock.
Philly is ready to play. Washington, not so much.
"We have to jump on a team like this early and give them no momentum", said Phillip Daniels after the loss to St. Louis.
The team better remember those words come this Sunday.
Perhaps the soulful, sultry lyrics of guitarist George Benson say it best...
Are we really happy here
With this lonely game we play?
Looking for words to say?
Searching but not finding, understanding anyway
We're lost in a masquerade.
Hey, Redskins! Stop masquerading as a professional football team, and play like a real team is supposed to!
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