THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 2, 1996 TAG: 9609020144
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 66 lines
The word of the day, quarterback Gus Frerotte said, was ``sync.'' As in, ``out of sync.'' As in the Washington Redskins, down the drain.
That's where Frerotte's effort took the Redskins on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles. Sure, Washington's first-half pass defense was loose and lousy - which made Joe Montana out of Rodney Peete for 30 minutes - and its leaky offensive line hardly gave Frerotte that cozy, in-the-pocket feeling.
Too often, Frerotte was a man with not enough time on his hands. That explains some of his dismal day. But except for a couple nice touch passes in the fourth quarter of Washington's 17-14 loss, Frerotte's first game as the Redskins' main man, as ordained by coach Norv Turner, was uninspiring, or worse.
This was no debutante ball for the third-year pro and former part-time starter. Frerotte did his coming out two seasons ago when he set a club record, for a rookie in his first game, with 17 completions and 226 yards against Indianapolis.
Despite the obstacles the Eagles presented, the home-crowd pressure and everything else, this was when Frerotte was supposed to validate Turner's decision to go with him over Heath Shuler after the well-documented preseason duel.
With his vote of confidence, Turner gave Frerotte the security of having a bad day, of not having to look over his shoulder at Shuler warming up with every other stalled drive.
Well, Frerotte just burned his first bad day. And you couldn't help notice that, while looking over the shoulder of Turner, his third-year head coach, Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke sat and stewed in his suite.
Frerotte completed 12 of 25 attempts - two of which were shovel passes - for a measly 119 yards, or less-than 10 yards per catch. He threw no interceptions, also for no touchdowns, but never gave the hint that reaching the end zone was probable, even when he had protection.
His unit scored in the first quarter because Brian Mitchell generated great field position with a 50-yard kickoff return and Terry Allen ran five times in six plays for the touchdown. It scored again two plays into the second half when Allen dashed 49 yards.
For his part, Frerotte filled the day with overthrows, usually high, and completed consecutive attempts on the same drive just twice. He ended the afternoon, appropriately, firing the ball away from a blitz on fourth-and-10 at the Eagles 46 with two minutes left, drawing an intentional grounding flag.
``We were just out of sync,'' said Frerotte in usual deadpan fashion. ``There wasn't much time to throw it, and your play-calling is limited at that point when you have to hurry throws.''
In other words, Frerotte implied, his line and the Eagles pass rush and coverage were why the Redskins retreated to conservative offensive strategy, and why he graded his performance ``mediocre, at best.''
Don't buy all that. Mediocre was too generous. But OK, give Frerotte the benefit of the doubt, his mulligan. He didn't become a Redskins' fan favorite for nothing.
Still, it's time for the 25-year-old out of Tulsa to stop with the hot-and-cold of youth and give Turner the consistency that you can't win without in the NFL.
``It wasn't all his fault,'' Mitchell said. ``He didn't have as much protection as he could have. And it's opening day. I'm sure there was a lot of anxiousness going on out there. He just has to learn to settle down and do what he did for them to give him the job. Do what he did to get drafted by the NFL.''
Or else the Redskins might continue to illustrate that other word of the day. Sink. by CNB