THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 22, 1994 TAG: 9411220719
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Comment
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Forget wins. Forget losses.
Forget the next five weeks, too.
This is a completely lost, meaningless season for the Washington Redskins. Sunday's 31-7 blasting by the Dallas Cowboys made that official.
Lost, we expected. Think about it. Everyone knew the Redskins were rebuilding under Norv Turner. It was no time to view the team as a whole, or examine it relative to the playoffs. That sort of inspection was a couple of years away.
But meaningless? Never. From the beginning, 1994 was a season for individual players to establish themselves as foundations for the future, to become cornerstones on which Turner would build.
It hasn't happened. Not once. And with five games left, three against fellow weak sisters Tampa Bay (twice) and the New York Giants, then the Cardinals and the Rams, it isn't going to happen.
You become better by testing yourself against a superior opponent. Even in the highly unlikely event of inspired play, Turner can't but weigh the quality of the competition and look to next year.
It never should have come to this. By now, second-year running back Reggie Brooks should have established himself as the team's primary ground-gainer.
By now, second-year cornerback Tom Carter should have established himself as the heir apparent to Darrell Green in the secondary.
By now, third-year receiver Desmond Howard should have been an answer, not a nagging question.
By now, Andre Collins should have been a near-Pro Bowl caliber linebacker.
And, of course, there's Heath Shuler.
By now, he should have been established at quarterback. Not an accomplished player, mind you, but a hungry student of the game learning the nuances of his position week by week.
Instead, what positive can anyone cite with a degree of certainty about Redskins' personnel 11 games into this season?
Brian Mitchell is a helluva kick returner.
Name something else. Dare ya.
Brooks may just be starting to dig his way out of the doghouse, betrayed by his fumbling hands (three in 82 rushes, plus another questionable flub charged to Shuler) and his bumbling tongue. Turner gave Brooks, who when benched hinted he wanted a trade, 10 carries Sunday.
In his most compassionate move of the season, he also returned Brooks to the field immediately after yet another fumble.
Carter enjoyed a solid game Sunday. Too bad it came after the coaches pulled him aside for a conscious-raising session last week in which he was told he was at a critical stage in his career.
Look inside, Tom, they warned. Decide what caliber player you want to become.
Asked about Howard's career-best 7-catch, 107-yard showing Sunday, the best Turner mustered was: ``He made some plays, he competed.'' Sounds like someone who's seen too many days from Howard when he did neither.
Collins leads the team in tackles, which only proves if you sling enough pasta at the wall, some will stick. No one has more plays run at him than the undersized Collins, whose tackling style often resembles a panicked diver flailing to reach the surface.
Shuler? Without doubt, his season has been the greatest waste of all.
At least he's honest. Sunday, following his first appearance in a month, he rather blithely volunteered that nothing that happens the rest of this season will make him a better quarterback.
Does he know something we don't? Probably. It's not inconceivable that the Redskins coaches already have told Shuler there's going to be a major reconstruction of his fundamentals this offseason, that there isn't enough time in the week to prepare for an opponent and dissect and rebuild all he does wrong.
``Training camp time and this offseason are what's critical to the rest of my career,'' he said.
That's the best read he's made all season.
Even Turner's coaching needs some fine-tuning. He gave his most erratic performance of the season against his old team.
He called for a halfback-option pass the second snap of the game, a carrier pigeon to the world that the Redskins can't win without the bizarre. Then, next possession, 4th-and-4 at the Dallas 36, he calls for a 53-yard field goal.
Then he yanked Gus Frerotte after six passes and inserted John Friesz and the no-huddle offense for the first time this season.
When a team as bad as the Redskins meets a team as strong as the Cowboys, you can't play the lion and possum.
Give Turner the benefit of the doubt. His work in LA and Dallas gives him a track record, something his so-called stars of the future should have been able to claim by now, but can't. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Kevin Williams of Dallas leaves Redskins punter Reggie Roby in his
wake en route to an 83-yard TD.
by CNB