D6
EZ SU
KLMNO PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL Redskins struggle to find an identity redskins from D1
Entering Sunday night’s game, Manning again leads the NFL in pass attempts, throwing at least 43 times in four of the Colts’ five games. The Redskins, though, have a
new coach, a new quarterback, a completely new offensive system — and as of yet, no real defined style.Theyare31st intheleaguein third-down efficiency, but they rank in the top 10 in yards per play. Their passing offense ranks seventh in the NFL, but their red zoneoffenseisabysmal.Oncethey get inside the 20-yard line, only one team is less efficient in scor- ing touchdowns. “We’reworkingtoget that iden-
tity, if it’s a running team, if it’s a throwing team,” quarterback DonovanMcNabbsaid, “whatever itmay be.”
An offense thatwillwork Despite the statistical dispari-
ties, theRedskins are3-2and—by virtue of their 2-0 intra-divisional record — lead the NFC East. But the way they arrived at that point shows Shanahan is still trying to apply his system to the team he inherited and began reshaping. More than anything, the first five weeks of the season revealed that this is a process that, as McNabb said, “will take awhile.” “You always have to adjust to
your personnel,” Shanahan said. “You have the offense that you’d like to run, and you take a look at the offense andwhat you can run, and what you think will work. If you’regoingtotakeanoffenseand say, ‘Hey, this ismyoffense,’andall of a sudden you don’t have the pieces, then you don’t have the ability to do that. So you try to evaluate your personnel, seewhat they do best, and run the type of offense that gives you a chance to be successful.” Because Shanahan is, at base,
an offensive coachwith awell-de- fined philosophy — his Broncos ranmore frequently thanany oth- er team in the league during his 14-year stint as the head coach in Denver — there was an easy as- sumption that he would arrive in Washington and run, run, run. Shanahan’s reputation precedes himto such an extent that, as the teamprepared to kick off against Green Bay last week, former Dal- las quarterback Troy Aikman, now an analyst for Fox, outlined his expectations for the Redskins’ offense. “Somany times, nowadays, you
see a lot of teams going to the spread offenses, quarterbacks in shotgunformations,”Aikmansaid on the broadcast. “Not so much here inWashington. This is a two- back offensive set.” And then the Redskins pro-
ceeded to use a three-wideout, no-fullback set for their first two series. That, then, began the dis- parity against the Packers, when
TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST
Chris Cooley, left, Fred Davis and the Redskins’ offense have employed game plans that appear all over the map, running 35 times and throwing 19 times vs. Philadelphia, then a 21-49 split against the Packers.
the Redskins ran 21 times and threw 49. The split, in the previ- ousweekinPhiladelphia:35rush- es, 19 passes. “We’re not going to be one-di-
mensional and say, ‘Hey, we’re a running team; we’re going to try to stick to the run no matter what,’ ” center CaseyRabach said. “I’mnot saying we’ll be a passing teamandwe’ll stick to the passno matter what, either. What works thatday iswhatwe’re going todo.” That’swhy they could enter the
game against Philadelphia with a plan to run the ball, something they did on nine of their first 12 plays, two drives that led to two touchdowns. That’swhy, too, they can almost completely alter that plan against Green Bay, when they called first-down passes to open four of their six first-half possessions. Sometimes, as guard Artis Hicks said, “It can change quarter to quarter.” Is this confusion? Or progres-
sion? “We, as anoffense, arenot com-
fortable with everything yet,” wide receiver Santana Moss said. “People expect us to be like, ‘Okay, you have Donovan, you have this going on, you have this new of- fense. Why [are] you not seeing more from the offense?’ Because we [are] still learning.”
Adjusting the ‘D’, aswell That is certainly true of the
defense aswell.While the offense is adjusting to a zone-blocking scheme and Shanahan’s emphasis on play-action passes — perhaps the most consistent aspect of the attack—thedefensehas struggled at times in the 3-4 scheme of new coordinator JimHaslett.Andthey are similarly schizophrenic as the offense. They allowedmore yards per game (410.2) thanany teamin
the league,but still rank inthe top 10 inpoints allowed.Through five weeks of the season, only two teams—theRedskins andColts— havehadtwo games inwhichthey allowed asmany as 30 points and three others in which they al- lowed 14 or fewer. They are, in effect, all over themap. Under formercoordinatorGreg
Blache, the Redskins ran a straightforward 4-3 alignment in whichblitzeswereusedonlyocca- sionally. Haslett has not only al- tered the mentality and the scheme — occasionally playing onlyonedownlinemaninpassing situations — but also the willing- ness tomix things up. “I think ‘Haz’ naturally is an
aggressive guy, a get-after-it blitzer,” said linebacker Lorenzo Alexander, a converted defensive lineman. “Buthe’s alsosmart.He’s not going to blitz all the time if it’s not necessary.” So as varied as the Redskins’
offensive game plans have been, their defensive approaches have been perhaps more difficult to predict — though, in terms of yardageallowed,apparentlyfairly easy to solve. Washington has been outgained in each of its five games, but not in the same man- ner each time. After theRedskins consistently
pressured Houston quarterback Matt Schaub on Sept. 19 — fre- quently sending strong safety La- Ron Landry to the line of scrim- mage, collecting five sacks as a team—they followedwitha game plan against St. Louis and rookie quarterback Sam Bradford that was almost completely the oppo- site. As cornerback DeAngelo Hall
said in the locker roomfollowing that surprising loss, “We came here against this group,we didn’t
sayweweregoingtogooutanddo too much. We just felt like we would go out and beat them. We felt likewewere better.” The followingweek,against the
Philadelphia Eagles—a teamthe Redskins couldn’t simply feel bet- ter than — Haslett also all but eliminated the blitz to better con- tain mobile quarterback Michael Vick. He also confounded the Ea- gles’ dangerous receiverswith dif- ferent coverages. The Redskins allowed a season-low353 yards— and then returned the following week against Green Bay, blitzing again. “In past years here, it was man [-to-man coverage] no mat- terwhat,” cornerback Carlos Rog- ers said. “. . . Being able to have a lot of flexibility and change up a lot of things, not letting them know that, ‘Okay, they’re playing Cover-2,’ [is an advantage]. Nah, that ain’t going towork this year.” Whatworks for theRedskins in
2010 apparently could change fromweek to week, on both sides of the ball. “We all just have to build that
comfort level where it don’t mat- ter what plays there are, we can kind of go off schedule a little bit, and make some plays down the road,” McNabb said. “It can hap- pen this year, and I expect it to.” The reality, though, is Shanah-
an’s vision of theRedskins’ identi- ty is evolving. Theymay be in the running for a playoff berth. They may contend for the NFC East title.ButonlywhenShanahanhas the precise players he wants with the skill sets he deems appropri- ate will the Redskins’ long-term identity be unveiled. “Ultimately,” Shanahan said,
“you’re trying to put that unit together where, in the long run, youcandoexactlywhatyouwant.”
svrlugab@washpost.com
Thus far, NFL is lacking dominant teams parity from D1
Orleans Saints, have a modest combined record of 6-4.The Colts already have lost to AFC South rivals Houston and Jacksonville, and their league-record streak of seven straight years with at least 12 regular season victories could be in jeopardy. The Saints, the defending Super Bowl champi- ons, lost to an undrafted rookie quarterback,MaxHall,whomade his first NFL start last Sunday in Arizona. The Colts and Saints are thriv-
ing compared to the Dallas Cow- boys and Minnesota Vikings, teams that met in last season’s NFC playoffs and began this sea- son with Super Bowl aspirations. Each has a record of 1-3, and the two teams play Sunday inMinne- apolis in what could amount to a mid-October elimination game.
Parity has been the norm The NFL always has been
known for its parity. The league is set up to promote a regression to the mean. The worst teams from the previous season select first in the NFL draft. A team’s schedule is based in part on where it finished in the standings the year before, so better teams have tougher schedules. The league’s revenue-sharing system was de- signed to keep franchises on rela- tively even financial footing, and when the salary cap was in effect, it discouraged teams from at- tempting to buy a championship. Free agency has made it more difficult than it once was to keep good teams intact. But that hasn’t stopped mini-
dynasties from emerging and teams from threatening to join the all-time greats. TheNewEng- land Patriots have won three Su- per Bowls with Bill Belichick as their coach and Tom Brady as their quarterback. Pittsburgh
quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is a two-time Super Bowl winner. The Colts have been annual con- tenders with Peyton Manning, a four-time league most valuable player, at quarterback. The Phila- delphia Eagles reached five NFC title games in 11 seasons with the duo of Coach Andy Reid and quarterback Donovan McNabb beforeMcNabb was traded to the Washington Redskins in the off- season. In the 2007 season, the Patriots
tookan18-0record into the Super Bowl before they were upset by theNewYork Giants. Last season, the NFL had two 13-0 teams for the first time ever, before the Saints lost their final three regu- lar season games and the Colts lost their last two while resting their starters. In the previous five seasons, six NFL teams started 9-0 or better. The members of the ’72 Dolphins at least had to sweat it out in those years. This season, they were safe by Oct. 10. “I think it’s just one of those
years, the luck of the draw,” Gi- ants co-owner JohnMara said. “I don’t think there’s any particular significance to that. We do have parity. You look at the talent on the 32 teams, it’s pretty evenly distributed. Sometimes it’s just a matter of the right coaching and the right players staying healthy.” It’s not that there aren’t teams
playing well. There are eight teams with one loss each, five of them in the AFC. “I don’t think it’s nobody being
good,” former NFL coach Mike Ditka said. “I think it’s more parity. You take a look at even an 0-5 team like the 49ers. The 49ers have to findaway to quit shooting themselves in the foot and start winning. There’s a thin line be- tween winning and losing. You watch the Colts. They’re strug- gling, too, because if you make mistakes and you can’t do certain
things, you’re going to have prob- lems.” The New York Jets and Balti-
more Ravens in particular have resembled complete, imposing teams at times, and the Steelers managed to go 3-1 with Dennis Dixon and Charlie Batch splitting the quarterback duties while Ro- ethlisberger served his four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. Roethlisberger is scheduled to return to the lineup Sunday. With him, the Steelers could be a con- tender to fill the dominant-team void.
“Before this thing’s over, there
may be one or two teams sitting there 14-2 or 13-3,” Ditka said. “That will be pretty dominant, I would think . . . That’s what I feel will happen.”
NFC is devoid of kingpins Identifying a favored team is
particularly difficult in the NFC. The Green Bay Packers were a popular choice for a while but are 3-2 and dealing with a lengthy list of injuries. The Chicago Bears are 4-1 but had one particularly dreadful performance, permit- ting quarterback Jay Cutler to be sacked nine times in the first half of a loss to the Giants two weeks ago. The Atlanta Falcons, at 4-1, might be the conference’s most promising team at the moment. They and the Tampa Bay Bucca- neers are ahead of the Saints in the NFC South. Fewpreseason prognosticators
predicted big things for the Buc- caneers or Chiefs this season, but they’re a combined 6-2 after man- aging only seven wins between them all of last season. “We’re a team transitioning
into trying to become a good team,” Chiefs Coach Todd Haley said after last Sunday’s loss to the Colts. “I’ve been very clear on that. We’re not there. If we had
won this game, I’d be saying the same thing because good is much bigger than four games. Good is measured a little differently. But we are transitioning, and we are making progress.” Mara said he is “not particular-
ly” surprised that there is such balance around the league, even without a salary cap this season, thanks to the lack of an extension of the sport’s labor deal. The disappearance of the salary cap was accompanied by new rules last offseason that further limited which players qualified for unre- stricted free agency and curbing free agent signings by the top eight finishers in last season’s playoffs. Ditka said any bid to purchase
a Super Bowl title in an uncapped season wouldn’t have been suc- cessful, anyway. “You can’t buy a champion-
ship,” Ditka said. “You’ve got to put the right people in the right places over a period of time. It comes through free agency. It comes through the draft. You as- semble a team. It’s like a puzzle: What do I have? What do I need? What I don’t have, I’ve got to get.” The lack of a dominant team
does notappeartobeasignificant factor in the slight dropoff in ticket sales league-wide or the potential increase in the number of games blacked out on local television for failing to sell out the required 72 hours before kickoff. NFL officials have cited the econ- omy for this season’s expected drop in attendance. The league’s TV ratings remain strong, and Mara said he thinks this season’s anyone-can-win quality is capti- vating. “I kind of like it when everyone
has a chance to win,” he said. “It gives a lot of fans hope. “Unless we’re the [dominant]
team.”
maskem@washpost.com
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2010 SOCCER
D.C.United continues to show stability on road
Drawwith Fire is its 7th point in last four away fromhome
BY STEVEN GOFF
bridgeview, ill. — Before and after Saturday’s MLS match at Toyota Park, the Chi- cago Fire honored the retiring Brian McBride, a legendary figure in American soccer who was making his final home appearance. D.C. United’s Troy Perkins
and teammates tempered the celebration. Perkins made an outstand-
ing save on McBride’s header just before halftime and, sec- onds after the Fire striker was replaced by Calen Carr, the visiting goalkeeper stopped Carr’s 89th-minute effort to secure a 0-0 draw in front of 19,056. Despite being shut out for
the 17th time, inflating the league record it set last week, United (6-19-4) continued to show stability on the road with its seventh point in the past four awaymatches. “I told myself coming in
here, ‘I’m not letting him score today,’” Perkins said of McBride, a three-time World Cup performer. “Even though it was his last home game, I wasn’t going to let him have that satisfaction.” Perkins’s counterpart, Os-
bourn Park High graduate An- drewDykstra,made three qual- ity stops for the Fire (8-12-9). “A tie was probably the right
result,” said United interim coach Ben Olsen, whose club is unbeaten in its past five visits to Bridgeview. Assessing Perkins,who start-
ed the season in poor form, Olsen added: “That’s the Troy we know. We expect that from Troy, and if Troy can give us those type of games, it is going to help us throughout a long season.” Perkins, reacquired last win-
ter amid high expectations, lost the starting job early in the season and shuffled in and out of the lineup before getting the call again. During a stretch of
ROUNDUP
Manchester United settles for a draw
ASSOCIATED PRESS Manchester United, with
Wayne Rooney not playing un- til the last 20minutes, drew2-2 with visiting West Bromwich Albion on Saturday after blow- ing a two-goal lead. It was the third straight tie for Man- chester United. In another key Premier
League game, U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel helped host Aston Villa hold first-place Chelsea to a scoreless tie. Chelsea has just four points
from its last three matches. It has 19 points and is five ahead of Arsenal,Manchester United, Manchester City and Totten- ham. Manchester City, howev- er, has played one less game. Rooney was benched days
after contradicting Manager Alex Ferguson by denying he had missed games because of an ankle injury. United didn’t appear to be
missing Rooney when Javier Hernandez and Nani scored in the first half. But after the break, Chris
Brunt’s free kick went in off Patrice Evra before Somen Tchoyi tapped in fromsix yards after Edwin van der Saar dropped a cross fromBrunt. By the time Rooney entered, the score was 2-2.
Liverpool meets Henry Liverpool players met John
Henry and New England Sports Ventures executives one day after the group won a courtroom fight for ownership of the relegation-threatened team. FellowAmericansTomHicks
and George Gillett Jr. gave up their legal fight to hang onto the club, which was sold against their wishes by English directors to the owners of the Boston Red Sox. The $476 million deal with
NESVends the turbulent three- year ownership by Hicks and Gillett. Henry,who headsNESV, and
Chairman Tom Werner watchedLiverpool practice and addressed the players at the Melwood complex.
Mexico keeps searching Mexico is still looking for a
national soccer coach. Victor Manuel Vucetich says
he is turning down the chance of succeeding Javier Aguirre because of family reasons. That leaves JoseManuel De La Torre as a top candidate. Vucetich will remain coach
of the Mexican club Monterrey Rayados. He said at a news conference that the national coaching job was a unique opportunity, but personal mat- ters left himno choice. The Mexican soccer federa-
tion had called a meeting of club owners for Monday to choose between Vucetich and Toluca Coach De La Torre as a permanent successor to Agu- irre, who left after Mexico was eliminated in the second round of theWorld Cup. The teamhas had two interimcoaches since.
Keeper scores key goal Will Hesmer of Columbus
became only the second goal- keeper to score a goal in MLS history when he tied the game inthe secondminute of second- half stoppage time to help the visiting Crew to a 2-2 tie with Toronto FC. The goal came off a scramble
after a Columbus corner kick hit a defender and bounced down. Hesmer settled it with a touch and scored on a right- footed shot from seven yards out. . . . Fred put Philadelphia ahead
andMichaelOrozco Fiscal dou- bled the lead to help the expan- sion Union to a 2-1 win over New York in Chester, Pa.
six consecutive starts, he has registered three shutouts on the road. “When things went com-
pletely againstme the first half of the season, you start think- ing too much,” he said. “You’ve got to fight your way back through it. It’s really just com- posure, and when you get that back, you find yourself again.” Aside from the goalkeepers
andMcBride tributes, itwas an artless affair between wayward clubs. United rookie Andy Na- jar provided a refreshing inter- ruption. His footwork in tight space was marvelous: In one slick sequence, he pulled the ball from an intruding defend- er as if it were tethered to his boot and knifed inside his marker. The Fire, menacing in the
early stages, nearly went ahead on the final touch of the first half when McBride’s glancing header off a free kick — a vintage bid by the aerial genius — was touched aside by the diving Perkins. “You know he is hunting it,
you know he is going to get to it, so you just try to get to a good spot to make a save,” he said. Three minutes after the
break, United’s Stephen King tested Dykstra with a rising 12-yard stab. Chicago’s Peter Lowry had two prime chances within a minute, heading wide off a corner kick and missing from18 yards. Dykstra rescued the Fire in
the 78th, reaching back to tap away a misdirected clearance by teammate Wilman Conde. Eight minutes later, he posi- tioned himself well to block Santino Quaranta’s one-timer in the box, the result of sloppy defending. Having made all three sub-
stitutions,United played short- handed for the final six min- utes after Jed Zayner severely sprained his right ankle. Chica- go almost took advantage, but Perkins made a foot save on Carr’s clear effort and, on the rebound, Clyde Simms blocked at Freddie Ljungberg’s attempt. United will close the season
next Saturday at RFK Stadium against Toronto FC.
goffs@washpost.com
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