George Wallace, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – “Whatever gives us the best chance to win” — that’s the line Skins fans have become all-to-familiar with coming from Head Coach Mike Shanahan.
That was again the excuse given Sunday as to why he went back to Rex Grossman at quarterback after telling everyone last Monday that John Beck was going to be his starter.
It didn’t stop there, however. The coach said he made the change, mainly because of the recent rash of injuries. He mentioned the injury to Jamaal Brown along the offensive line and even mentioned rookie wide receiver Niles Paul being out as part of the problem.
Excuse me?
I guess he quickly forgot that when John Beck took the field for the first time, the team had lost Santana Moss, Trent Williams, Kory Lichtensteiger and Chris Cooley. Those are some pretty important pieces of the offense.
But Sunday, would have been “feeding him to the wolves,” as Shanahan said. Those “wolves” just happened to be the 1-7 Miami Dolphins.
With me so far?
If you need more, I’ve got it. When asked about why the offense was struggling, Shanahan said:
“The first thing you have to do is look at your running game. We keep on working to improve the running game and we aren’t there yet.”
So now, the reason is the running game?
The excuses keep coming, but the wins aren’t and won’t anytime soon. This roster is not anywhere close to where it needs to be, at least not on offense. Right now, the team is ranked 27th in total offense.
The Redskins have not had a lead or scored a first half touchdown since Oct. 2. That translates into five straight losses — a first for Mike Shanahan in his career. We’ve also experienced the first shutout in Shanahan’s career.
The records being set for the head coach are not the records that fans want to see and thought they were going to see when Owner Dan Snyder brought the two-time Super Bowl champion to town and gave him total control of his football team.
Don’t worry, it’s not over yet — we still have seven weeks left.
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