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Exposing Washington Redskins' true identity revealed in humiliating home lossPosted: Tuesday September 17, 2002 2:50 AM
LANDOVER, Md. -- Through the long, offseason months of player acquisition, all five over-hyped exhibition games and one mostly joyous home opener, we really didn't know. Oh, we could speculate, prognosticate and hypothesize. We could carry on, extrapolate and pontificate. And we all took our turns at it. But whether or not Steve Spurrier's brand of go-for-the-throat offense would be a smashing NFL success story -- the biggest of the year -- was largely a mystery. But no longer -- now we know. As of Monday night, Sept. 16, 2002, the Spurrier magic is a little less magical. In fact, it's not magic at all. It's still football that Spurrier's Washington Redskins play, and when they come up against a clearly superior team, they're going to get beat. Sometimes badly. At home. In front of a nationally televised audience. Just like anybody else in the NFL. It was the Philadelphia Eagles who did us all this favor, stopping the unstoppable offense and peeling back the green curtain to reveal just another .500 football team. Their 37-7 humiliation of the Redskins at FedEx Field on Monday night left no illusions. It was the worst Washington loss in this series since 1950, a span of 104 meetings. You remember 1950. The Redskins played at Griffith Stadium and Truman was in the White House. "Obviously we got clobbered," Spurrier said, moments after his nine-month Redskins honeymoon officially came to a crashing halt. "Philly outplayed us, outcoached us and did everything. I apologize to the Redskins fans. We never could go anywhere. They beat us every which way. That's all you could say. We weren't close tonight. They were a lot better than us. I've had my butt kicked before, so it's not the first time." Maybe not, but it has been a while since Spurrier's fanny has endured anything like this. The last time a Spurrier-coached team failed to score an offensive touchdown was Oct. 1, 1992, when Mississippi State whipped Florida 30-6 in Starkville, behind five interceptions by a Gators quarterback named Shane Matthews. For the self-styled "old ball coach," that was 125 mostly victorious games ago. The most apparent realization produced by the Eagles' blowout victory? Offensive genius or not, Spurrier isn't going to win many games with the likes of Matthews or Danny Wuerffel at quarterback. Not when there's a Donovan McNabb in the other team's pocket, and not when there's a quality defense lined up against you. If you don't believe that now, you're either a die-hard Redskins loyalist or married to either Matthews or Wuerffel. Spurrier seems to be getting the picture himself. After the game, he talked openly of getting rookie Patrick Ramsey ready to start in the very near future. That didn't take long, did it? It was only a few short weeks ago that Spurrier still was insisting that the Wuerffel of 1996 could be resurrected with just a little effort. Failing that, Matthews would do just fine. But Spurrier's NFL education took a huge step Monday night. And this is what he and his team learned: The defending NFC East champion Eagles aren't the Arizona Cardinals. There's still an upper tier in the NFL, and Spurrier ran up against it for the very first time. "Sometimes it helps to lose," said a philosophical Spurrier, sounding very un-Spurrier like. "I don't know why. You realize you're not near as good as you think you are, and you realize the effort level and the attention level during the week needs to be a lot better." Based on Monday night, everything having to do with Redskins football needs improving. Given that Washington's only points came on receiver Jacquez Green's 90-yard punt return touchdown in the second quarter, Spurrier's "Fun 'n' Gun" offense played more like the "Stunned and None" attack, as in nary a point scored. And while we're at it, the Redskins vaunted, star-laden defense was even worse. Don't look now, but defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis' unit has surrendered 60 points in its first two games, and appeared overmatched against Philadelphia. If you're Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, you're probably thinking: "I'm paying Spurrier and Lewis a combined $6 million a season for that?" As usual, McNabb picked the Redskins defense apart with both his arm and his feet. He threw for 292 yards and two touchdowns on 26-of-38 passing, and ran five times for 36 yards, including a tone-setting 8-yard first-quarter touchdown to open the scoring. He hit 10 different Eagles receivers with completions, and led the Eagles to scores on five of their six first-half possessions, building a 23-7 lead at the break. Eager to wipe away the bitter taste of last week's loss at Tennessee, where he was sacked six times and presided over a team that blew a 14-point halftime lead, McNabb did his best work on Philadelphia's first two drives. He completed six in a row to start the game, and was 11-of-12 for 122 yards on those two drives, which resulted in a 14-0 cushion. The final numbers were indicative of Philadelphia's domination on both sides of the ball. The Eagles outgained the Redskins 451-179 overall, and 292-119 in the passing game. Philadelphia's average gain per play, at 6.6 yards, was almost twice that of Washington's 3.4. "Philly was very good and I've got to give those guys a lot of credit," Spurrier said. "They ran it good and did everything well except cover one punt. Fortunately that kept us off the schneid." All in all, it was a missed opportunity for Washington, which could have established an early two-game division lead on the Eagles with a win. That kind of development might have signaled a new world order in the NFC East, and sent the Redskins on their way to bigger and better things. But there would be no changing of the guard on this night. All four NFC East teams stand 1-1 through two weeks, but only the Eagles seem capable of playing with the big boys week in and week out. The Redskins? We know better now what we're dealing with. It's not quite as much fun as when Spurrier and his team represented the promise of unlimited possibility. But after all, illusions -- like records -- are made to be broken.
Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.
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