It's too early to write off the last four games of this season as a team that is just playing out the stretch with no intent to improve, but in the first 12 games of this season, the 5-7 Washington Redskins have been every bit as bad as a Redskins team has ever been since Dan Snyder has owned the team.

In some ways, they are worse than any other Snyder-owned Redskins team.  And there have been some bad ones.

Part of this realization -- with which my argument that this is in fact the worst Redskins team I can ever remember seeing -- is that maybe things haven't been so terrible in the last ten years.  Sure, expectations have been completely out of whack for more than a decade, but it's not like any of the past 11 Redskins teams have re-defined what it means to be a terrible team.  The Redskins have never picked higher than fourth in the NFL draft in the last decade, which is where they selected last year.  They will not be picking in the top three this year either.  And chances are, they will probably win one of their final four remaining games, and end the season as one of, but not the worst, Snyder era Redskin teams.

But we don't know that.  What we do know is that given all the available evidence, we can conclude that the Redskins have made the playoffs just twice in the last ten years.  A loss to the Tampa Bay Bucs will officially make it twice in the last 11 years.  The Redskins are just one loss away from not winning the division for the 11th consecutive year, a feat that makes Mike Shanahan's plight (1 division title in his last 11 seasons as head coach -- in the AFC West, mind you) seem fairly acceptable by comparison.  And of those 9 teams that failed to make the playoffs, there have been some bad teams.

None of those teams appear to be as bad as this team.

When we're trying to determine which Snyder era team is the worst of the worst, we're really talking about a team that "disappointed" because it won 8 games in its first year, then 8 games again in its second (which was not seen as a disappointment), then 7 games in 2002.  That seems like an incredibly mediocre team.  Then things got bad under Spurrier in 2003, winning just 5 games, then stayed bad a year later under Joe Gibbs at 6 wins.  After the most successful Snyder-era season in 2005, the Redskins were bad again in 2006 (5 wins).  Both of the 2007 and 2008 teams were above average, and combined for 19 wins.  Then there was the disaster last year (4 wins), and whatever you want to call this season (5 wins).  If you go strictly by record, the 2003, 2006, and 2009 teams are all worse than the current version, and the 2009 team is the worst of the bunch.  But if this were the case, you'd expect this team to compare favorably with those teams in a bunch of other ways, and it just simply does not.

There have been offenses far worse than the current group of Redskins led by Kyle Shanahan and Donovan McNabb.  The offense ranked in the bottom five of the league in DVOA in both 2001 and 2004.  Those were not bad Redskins teams, however.  They were poorly quarterbacked teams (Banks in 2001, Brunell in 2004), but they were well coached, played strong defense and strong special teams.  They won 8 games in 2001 and 6 games in 2004 without any contribution from the quarterbacks.  At best, it appears this team can win as many games as the 2004 team did (6), but will not exceed it's win total.  My point is: you wouldn't lump 2004 in with the disaster seasons above.  It was a bad year from a team that wasn't expected to contend, nothing more.  From that foundation, the Redskins built the 2005 team.

Despite the line that the Redskins are where they are because they haven't solved the franchise quarterback fallacy, and have played some real embarassing offense throughout the decade, none of that holds true upon further examination.  The only other below average offenses the Redskins have had in the Snyder-era are from 2002, 2003, 2009, and this season, 2010.  The offense in 2010 is a just a hair below the median offensive efficiency of all offenses owned and operated by Daniel Snyder, which puts it somewhere in between the offense that got Jim Zorn fired, and whatever Steve Spurrier was running earlier in this decade.  Spurrier's best offense could run, but couldn't throw the football.  Jim Zorn's worst offense could throw, but couldn't run the football.  They were near perfect equals of each other in DVOA efficiency.  The only other thing they have in common is that: they were better than the offense we're seeing right now.  The biggest difference has been in the passing game, where Jason Campbell's 20 TDs to 15 INTs were traded for Donovan McNabb's 12 TDs for the same 15 INTs.

But one of the biggest reasons I think we know that the 2010 isn't as good as the 2009 team was is because that offense -- which has declined -- is no longer the team's biggest problem.  In the last four weeks, the Redskins defense has thrown itself into contention for the worst defense of the decade.  The four worst defenses of the last ten years would be (in no order): 2003, 2006, and 2010.  A George Edwards year, a Gregg Williams year, and a Jim Haslett year.

Fundamentally since 2003, the Redskins have always been good up on the line and able to stop the run.  Even in the disasterous 2006 defensive season, run defense was never a problem.  That was one of the worst passing defenses of all time, however, and that likely remains the worst defense of the Snyder-era Redskins.  The Redskins had talent in 2003, just no idea how to use it.  In both 2006 and 2010, the Redskins had limited talent, a reliance on bad players, and a poor pass defense.  What's making it a real contest between 2006 and 2010 for the worst Redskins defense I've ever seen is the lack of fundamental run defense from the current group.  The pass defense appears to be improving and will not be reaching 2006 levels.  Stopping the run and tackling, however, are two things the Redskins have always been good at.  If they do not improve soon in those facets, the Redskins could be staring at the worst defense they've had in the last decade.

This defense is ranked last in yards, but probably isn't one of the five worst defenses in football, which is likely the biggest difference between this group and the 2006 group.  They may very well end the season with the league's worst run defense, but are unlike to sink to, for example, the level of pass defense the Dallas Cowboys display.  Back in 2006, that's where they were at, mind you.  The 2006 defense remains the worst defense of the Dan Snyder-era, but the 2010 defense is a too-close second.

While this year, we've seen more creativity on special teams, as well as an improvement in both punt returns and kick returns with Brandon Banks back there.  We've also seen improved kickoff production with Graham Gano.  The punting and kicking games are still horrible, and add to bad outcomes for the Redskins offense on third down.  These problems could be avoided by going for it on all fourth downs, but the Redskins offense isn't very deserving of an extra opportunity to pick up an additional down.  When you can't kick, and you can't punt, it's tough to call your special teams units even average, even with the league's best kickoff team and the improved return game.

So combining below average special teams with bad offense and very bad defense gets you a bad football team.  That's obvious to all observers.  But the worst team we've seen in the last ten years?  What makes this team worse than the 2003, 2006, and 2009 messes?

The Redskins may have won fewer games in 2009 than any other year of the Snyder era, but if we can accept the offense not being worse than last year's offense, I'll admit that at the very least, that defense (18th in points, 10th in yards) was average.  I thought it was bad against the pass, but no worse than this current defense has been, and was much better at the run.  Hey, I criticized that unit for not being good enough.  For the investment made in it, "average" wasn't good enough. And look, we invested nothing in our defense in transitioning it from a 4-3 to a 3-4 and we've suffered for the lack of investment.  There's such a big gap between the run defense in 2009 and the run defense in 2010 that no amount of Brandon Banks can lead us to the conclusion that the 2010 team is better than the 2009 team.

So we can then conclude that the 2010 team is one of the three worst teams of the Snyder era.  It actually compares really terribly to the dreadful 2006 team though.  Not on defense, at least.  As bad as the run defense played against the Giants, the 2006 team would never have reached the points where stopping Brandon Jacobs would have had an effect on the game.  But Al Saunders' first offense was his best, first for nine games with Mark Brunell, then for seven more with Jason Campbell. Yes, that team clutched it's way out of a dreadful 3-13 finish with late wins over the Jaguars and Cowboys and Panthers, and is the team most similar to the 2010 team.  But #1) that was a much stronger special teams unit, and #2) that team was far stronger on offense, with strong QB play from Mark Brunell, and that career year from Ladell Betts.  As bad as that defense was, that was a better team than the 2010 team.

So then, the worst Redskins team of the Snyder era was either the 2003 Spurrier team, or the current mess of a team that the Redskins are currently putting out there.  One of those teams produced the 2nd worst defense of the era, the other the 3rd worst, both of which behind the 2006 team in terms of just raw, horrible pass defense.  Hard to say.  One team is 23rd in points against, the other was 24th.  That 2003 team really struggled to run the ball at times, but had success when Trung Canidate was hurt and Rock Cartwright was carrying the load.  This team has struggled to run the ball ever since Portis got hurt, since they won't give the ball to Keiland Williams in key situations.  Advantage: 2003 team.  This 2010 team throws the ball better than that team did.  The receiver situation was similar: Darnarian McCants was Anthony Armstrong back then and Rod Gardner played the role of Joey Galloway, but Coles and Moss were having similar seasons.  This team has excellent receiving tight ends when it wants to use them.  Conversely, the fun 'n gun didn't use tight ends much, which was for the best because that team played Zeron Flemister and Robert Royal a lot.  There's a clear passing advantage for the 2010 team and probably a small offensive advantage.

With a convincing special teams edge to John Hall, Chad Morton, and the other JetSkins, and a competent punt team led by Bryan Barker, there appears to be no clear edge between the 2003 team and the 2010 team in terms of which team was less competent.  These were the worst teams of the Snyder era: the worst Redskins teams that I have ever seen.  If we're going to trust the process as the process according to Mike Shanahan, Bruce Allen, and company, I think it's a legitimate question to look at the fact that this win now effort has produced results just as bad or worse than all of the win now efforts in the "fantasy football" Snyder era, and wonder: exactly when does this re-building begin?

For the life of me, I can't see what the Redskins don't like about Keiland Williams as a runner.  He's really good at it.  Maybe it's a scheme thing.  We've now had 4 different running backs carry the ball at least 15 times on this team, none of whom more effectively than Keiland Williams has all season.  Still, in the name of evaluating other players, Williams has 8 carries for 35 yards in the last two weeks, which is about 1/2 of the team's production on the ground and 1/3 of the carries.  Williams had career days against Detroit, then Philly, then Tennessee.  At 5-5, the Redskins decided that they didn't like their new-found running game, and so now they don't have one.

They, do however, have a passing game.  And in the last three games, the Redskins had discovered that their cover-two happy opponents had a little bit of a weakness right in the middle of the field.  The Giants are no different.  FS Antrel Rolle is a bad player having a bad year who was bad in this game and tried many times to let the Redskins right back into the ball game.  McNabb completed countless completions over the middle of the field, and threw for better than 290 passing yards.  Anthony Armstrong was as proportionally close to an 100 yard day as McNabb was to 300.  This wasn't the Redskins playing the little sisters of the poor, or Orville Reddenbacher's FarmBoys, these were the New York Giants who have one of the fiercest passing defenses in all the land.  McNabb was sacked four times, but those sacks were mostly third down drive enders and other insignificant anomalies, as the Giants really weren't that close to McNabb all day.  With time to throw and open receivers in what Madden players would call the "vision cone", this was an offensive explosion waiting to happen.

The coaches set it up like this.  After years of Jim Zorn trying to outdiscipline and outlast the Giants while Greg Blache's defense gave up long-sustained drives one after another, the Shanahan duo finally went after and attacked the Giants where they were weak.  It was great preparation and a passing onslaught designed to knock the Giants from their perch.

And it didn't work, because the Redskins couldn't get out of their own way.

This was not a coaching/administrative issue.  Like the defense, this was a flat failure of the offensive skill positions (not to mention individual pass blocking breakdowns [plural] by Keiland Williams, Stephon Heyer, Jammal Brown, and Will Montgomery).  This game featured poor quarterback play, and it featured a lot of it.  It featured an endless string of dropped balls -- both before and after the catch -- from receivers who looked like they just wanted to go home.  Fred Davis, a drop. Chris Cooley, a fumble.  Mike Sellers, a drop.  Keiland Williams, a fumble.  Santana Moss, a really bad drop.  Anthony Armstrong, a really costly fumble.  Donovan McNabb threw two interceptions and fumbled twice.  The first interception was a horrible, deflating lack of first down discipline.  The second was probably a worse lack of discipline, because it was essentially meaningless on the last play of the game and the play had no upside.  The intended receiver, Anthony Armstrong, could have easily been hurt on the play (and was, though he appears to be fine now).

It's hard to say who won their individual match-ups on the defensive line.  I thought Kory Lichtensteiger and Casey Rabach combined to protect the quarterback pretty well, and Lichtensteiger had one of his best run blocking games, helping to lead an attack that had fantastic success running to the left.  Trent Williams played in, I think, 3 series and did very well against Osi Umeniyora.  He left because their wasn't much strength in his shoulder.  Stephon Heyer was excellent in run blocking at left tackle, but did poorly on his two screen/delay blocks, and was beaten around the edge by Osi Umeniyora for a critical sack.  He also had a procedure penalty on a third and short that the Redskins needed to convert, because he's Stephon Heyer.  The Redskins really needed more out of Heyer in this one, because running the ball became a luxury the scoreboard didn't allow them to have.

The right side of the line only performed adequately.  Will Montgomery did not win the critical battle with Chris Canty, but did well enough to limit the damage, which is likely better than Artis Hicks would have done.  He didn't move him anywhere in the running game, and that limited the Redskins' ability to go to the right side on the ground.  Jammal Brown was pretty good, but had one inexcusable bad beat where he let his guard down with great position on Justin Tuck in the fourth quarter, and got beaten.  Brown was put in a lot of bad situations, and while that one wasn't one of them, he had one of his best games, and the protection for McNabb was really not an issue.  A lot of times, McNabb could have evaded one guy and had a lot of time to make a play downfield, but gave himself up at the first sign of pressure.

Donovan's decision making was poor all day.  When you look at the Redskins third down performance in this one, it was a lot of short yardage situations set up by good plays on first and second down, and then the ball would go to Donovan to convert on third down.  He made questionable reads both before and after the snap.  Some of the sacks don't happen if McNabb has a good idea of where he wants to go with the football.  Roydell Williams was a popular target of McNabb on these downs and distances, with no success.  That's not a good match-up for McNabb.  Moss or Armstrong are better match-ups.  This was a dreadful performance against a good pass defense in very manageable downs and distances.

A bigger problem was that the Redskins could drive into Giants territory and never get to a third down situation because the turnovers came on early downs.  Six turnovers in all: two interceptions, four lost fumbles, and four of the six turnovers came on first down, including both interceptions.  The other two turnovers came after the Redskins had gained enough yardage for the first down, just not protecting the football.  It's going to be hard for McNabb to justify next year's salary after putting this game on film, as I can't think of a single time in his career where he made more mistakes in a game than this one.  There don't appear to be any answers either: the Kyle Shanahan response to all the bad things that happened in the first half was to start throwing the ball to Mike Sellers out of the backfield.  The game was already over at that point but...it's depressing.

One thing that worked really well for the Redskins was their 3 TE sets.  It's a good formation to run or pass out of and the Redskins have three great tight ends.  The other thing is that Chris Cooley is having a remarkably great year as a blocker, and got the assignment matched up with Osi Umeniyora about four times in this game.  Chris won on three of them, unfortunately he allowed pressure once on a third down, and McNabb threw high, not seeing an open receiver in the flat.  But the three TE sets also open up great running lanes for the backs and create matchups against the front that the Redskins can dominate: Chris Cooley on a safety, Fred Davis on a linebacker, Kory Lichtensteiger up on the middle linebacker, and Trent Williams/Stephon Heyer kicking out the end.  Both weakside and strongside runs worked out of this formation.  It's just another running game wrinkle the Redskins have for opponents.

At this point, it sounds like the running game should be really effective with all these different concepts the Redskins have to run with, but there is a refusal to commit to our best against their best in critical downs.  We have a fairly proven runner in Williams who runs with good vision, and knows all the plays because he's been here from the start.  With the season on the line since his career day against Tennessee, he's averaging 4 carries per game the last two games.  For context, the Redskins have averaged 59 offensive plays in the same timeframe.  Watching the film, I can understand why there is faith in the passing game: things look like they should be working against these cover two defenses with great consistency.  The Redskins have protected McNabb very well on the road this year, and he's selling his playfakes on boot action to buy himself even more time.  But even with great protection and open receivers, the Redskins passing game didn't work against the Giants.  There was little play-to-play offensive rhythm, and turnovers rained down from the sky while there was just a lone passing touchdown.  

The Redskins showed that they could both run and pass on a great defense, which is a positive.  They also proved how little that means if you fumble six times in a game.  The Redskins went into this game as one of the best teams at keeping the football off the ground, and left as pretty much an average team.  That doesn't mean much when we look at the talent of this team as a whole, but it's just one more thing to add to the list of "things the Redskins aren't really good at".  Which, I think, leaves just kickoffs.  Even that skill is more useful for a team that scores.

This review is coming out a little later than it usually does because I took a day to get caught up on the stats for the year that I keep week-to-week, but just never totaled.  At the mid-way point, there was no specific reason to believe that things were about to get worse for the Redskins, who were about to get blown out by division rivals in two of their next four games.  As of this writing, we're still trying to analyze what has happened.

What we know is that the Redskins might be without defensive backs LaRon Landry and Carlos Rogers for the rest of the season, and will definitely be without Albert Haynesworth for the rest of the season.  When the Redskins defense had played well this season, Landry, Rogers, and Haynesworth were a big part of the success they enjoyed.  Without them, there's not a whole lot of youth to turn to in order to improve the performance of this unit.

In no way was this more evident than watching the tape of the Giants game. It may be difficult to remember, but the Redskins went into the bye week as one of the better rush defenses in the NFL, on the strength of LaRon Landry and London Fletcher being sideline to sideline backfield tacklers, as well as good run support on the edges by Carlos Rogers and DeAngelo Hall, and the irreplacable force that Albert Haynesworth was in short-yardage situations.  Fletcher and Hall are still out there doing their thing, but they are surrounded by a lot of players who do not execute the scheme to the level we need to.

In this game, Defensive Coordinator Jim Haslett went into the game with a pretty clear and sound gameplan for stymying the Giants injury-riddled offense based on stopping the run early and winning what he perceived to be the key match-up in the passing gmae: DeAngelo Hall on Mario Manningham.  The Redskins won that match-up and were still dominated by the Giants because their front seven and eight simply could not beat the Giants on the ground.  On multiple occasions the Redskins were beat by great blocking on the part of the Giants, but too often, a majority of the players did their job in terms of gap responsibility, only for the last guy or two guys to come over and not finish the play with an effective form tackle.  This wasn't a breakdown in team defense, it was the abscence of 11 guys who all shared the same desire to stop the Giants from beating them on the ground.  In other words: bad run defense independent of scheme.

If everyone had come to play as hard as SS Reed Doughty did, the outcome of this game would have been very different.  Doughty limited his errors and wasn't targeted in coverage, basically spending the whole game running around and demonstrating correct form tackling.  This was lost on pretty much everyone.  I thought Phillip Daniels also had a really good game in limited time, and that Ma'ake Kemoeatu and Adam Carriker both played very well in the second half.  That meant much better DL (and consequently, LB) play in the second half of this game than in the first, when the front seven was getting dominated.  

While Doughty and Daniels deserve credit for being "good executers" on a day where the Redskins absolutely could not execute the defensive scheme, let's also give some credit to DeAngelo Hall and the pass defense in general.  The plan was to go in and stop Eli Manning from being able to throw all over the Redskins like he had done in pretty much every other game against us thanks to scheme deficiencies.  While the Redskins had no solution for Derek Hagan, who played like a number one receiver on this day (7 catches, 65 yards), Manning was largely ineffective.  The Giants scored just once on a drive where they passed more than they ran, and that drive was only extended by a holding call on London Fletcher.  The next play: a 28 yard TD run by Jacobs.  I'll take that split of runs and passes any day of the week, but in order to not sound like a fool for saying that, the Redskins HAVE to be able to at least slow a rushing attack down.  Good scheme in this one, not awful team defense, but terrible lapses in execution ruled this game.

The pass defense worked because Hall won his match-up.  The strategy wasn't to overload and pressure Eli Manning, rather to take advantage of the Giants' tendency to max protect by winning the match-ups on the outside and trying to force coverage sacks.  They didn't get any of those because they only won the battle one side at a time.  They did get two holding calls on Brian Orakpo, however, and could have easily gotten three more with a more competent officiating crew (these guys had last years Giants-Redskins MNF game at FedEx and this year's Rams game as well).  They (the Redskins) also might have jumped offsides once or twice if the officials had seen it.  Oh well.  There's only so much you can see with seven sets of eyes.

The other thing about the pass defense is that the Redskins are legitimately better at playing zone coverage than they were earlier in the season, and the pass coverage in the secondary is getting tighter by the week.  Now, in this game, the Redskins were playing a little bit of man coverage, particularly behind their blitzes.  But one way I measure zone coverage efficiency is by looking at how many uncontested completions the Redskins allow.  When that number goes down, it's because the safeties, corners and LBs are doing a better job at passing off receivers at the right time and not allowing the quarterback to break down zones by throwing while receivers are uncovered.  Here are the week by week occurences of uncontested completions allowed:

• Week 1 vs Cowboys - no data
• Week 2 vs Texans - 10
• Week 3 at Rams - 4
• Week 4 at Eagles - 3
• Week 5 vs Packers - 6
• Week 6 vs Colts - 6
• Week 7 at Bears - 4
• Week 8 at Lions - 3
• Week 10 vs Eagles - 2
• Week 11 at Titans - 0
• Week 12 vs Vikings - 1
• Week 13 at Giants - 0

You can separate that into four game sets and total: 17+ Cowboys game (probably 5 or 6) in the first quarter of the season, 19 in the second quarter in the season.  3 since the bye.  On the whole, the Redskins haven't changed their defensive coverage scheme, but what they have done since the Lions team is emphasize coverage over pass rush, and the results have improved.  Since the switch to more coverage and less pressure, the hole in zone completion total sits at just over one per game, a very respectable number.

The other way to look at this is to see how many passes the Redskins are defensing, looking specifically at the pass breakups from week to week (I count dropped interceptions as passes defensed, because I still love you, Carlos Rogers).

• Week 1 vs Cowboys - 2
• Week 2 vs Texans - 0 (1 INT)
• Week 3 at Rams - 3 (1 INT)
• Week 4 at Eagles - 2 (1 INT)
• Week 5 vs Packers - 2 (1 INT)
• Week 6 vs Colts - 5
• Week 7 at Bears - 1 (4 INT)
• Week 8 at Lions - 3 (1 INT)
• Week 10 vs Eagles - 0
• Week 11 at Titans - 3 (1 INT)
• Week 12 vs Vikings - 2
• Week 13 at Giants - 3 (1 INT)

The correlation is not as strong here, if because teams have run on the Redskins a lot more in the last quarter of the season than the first half of it.  However, if zone coverage continues to improve, you might expect the Redskins to defense more passes in the final quarter of the season than in any quarter prior.  They've eliminated those horrible holes in the zones from earlier in the year, the only reason the Texans were able to come back to beat the Redskins.

Unfortunately, the decline in the play of the front seven, mostly in terms of run defense, has lead an overall decline of the Redskins defense, as we now feature one of the worst run defenses in football.  The Redskins are now giving up 5.0 yards per carry, worst in football.  In all games started by LaRon Landry, that figure was close to 4.0.  The only team that ranks lower than the Redskins in run defense DVOA is...Tampa Bay, the Redskins next opponent.  For a team that went through most of the season above average in run defense, the fall of the last four weeks is a nice reminder that, while a couple of really good run defenders really CAN make a great run defense, you can't always count on them being there.  This team needs Adam Carriker and Ma'ake Kemoeatu to play every one of the last 16 quarters like they did in the second half of the Giants game, and not like they did in the first.  They need Kedric Golston and Rocky McIntosh to...take a seat.  I hope Jeremy Jarmon and Perry Riley are healthy enough to be in this lineup, because the Redskins need them.

The benching of Phillip Buchanon in this game was unfortunate, because it over-estimated the control that Buchanon had over the level of play of his match-up, Derek Hagan.  To be clear, Buchanon was part of the execution issue the Redskins had in this game.  He made a pair of lazy tackle attempts and didn't do much in coverage, allowing 69 yards in 7 targets.  Kevin Barnes came off the bench and played...a little better.  I really like Kevin Barnes because he reads plays well, will stick his nose in on a tackle, and provides good run support.  I don't think he'll ever be a great coverage player though, and Buchanon is having a fantastic coverage season.  

In this game, Buchanon was the weak link of the secondary.  But the secondary wasn't the problem.  The problem was that the game was lost in the front seven when the three starting defensive linemen as well as first backup Anthony Bryant failed to get anything done against a banged up Giants OL that still threw the kitchen sink at the Redskins in terms of rushing scheme.  While they were able to slow down Ahmad Bradshaw anywhere except inside the ten yard line, they couldn't stop Brandon Jacobs anywhere.  Too many guys who started for the Redskins in this game, including Buchanon, McIntosh, and Kareem Moore wanted no part of the physical nature of the game the Giants established from the second play forth.  That is why the Redskins lost.

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The Washington Redskins suspended Albert Haynesworth, their recalcitrant defensive lineman, for the four remaining games of the season.

Haynesworth was inactive for Sunday's game with the New York Giants after being late for a team practice or meeting. I'm not sure with so many versions of this story going around.

CSN Washington sports reporter Kelli Johnson tweeted that unnamed team sources (more on that later) said that Haynesworth appeared drunk when he arrived at Redskins Park Friday. Haynesworth forcefully denied that allegation in a Monday evening interview with the Kevin and Rock Show on 106.7 The Fan FM radio.

But Haynesworth went on to say that he could be the best defensive lineman "like they pay me to do" if Redskins coaches let him do what he does best, "cause havoc" on the other team.

Perhaps the Redskins would have taken an "employee action" by Wednesday anyway. Haynesworth's self-justification on the Kevin and Rock Show solidified Mike Shanahan decision to (finally) act.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." ~Sir Winston Churchill

Haynesworth's departure brings to a close Washington's latest ill-conceived roster move in a decade-long string of ill-conceived roster moves.  The Albert saga is over. It's not done with.

For one thing, Haynesworth intends to appeal his suspension, according to his agent. We will hear a lot of background information as this dispute moves to arbitration.

The timing of the thing has the feel of pulling Donovan McNabb in the fourth quarter. That move unbalanced the team. The aftershock lasted until the Eagles game.

Dropping Albert is not the shock that benching McNabb proved to be. Is there anyone who didn't see this coming? But the players will burn some brain matter processing all this while wondering what it all means to their career prospects. We would be better off with them wholly focused on the Buccaneers.

The Shanahans either should have benched McNabb earlier in the Lions game, or have played the string out.  If Washington was going to separate Haynesworth from the team, they should have done it by the trade deadline for whatever they could get. Tennessee reportedly offered a fourth-round draft pick for Haynesworth. Washington wanted multiple picks. That deal is looking very good now.

Otherwise, the Shanahans should have played the Haynesworth string out until the end of the season.  And they should have played Haynesworth in that time with the hope of getting the draft picks the team needs to rebuild.  (Yes, I used that word.)

Shanahan made a series of, um, incredible statements to justify the McNabb pull. I hope he learned from that.  The only appropriate thing to say is "coaching decision made in the best interest of the team." Nothing more.

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Washington Redskins DL Albert Haynesworth was deactivated for the Giants game yesterday for an undisclosed, at the time, illness. It turns out that the "illness" was a slight case of procrastination.

Haynesworth and others say that he was two minutes late for a team meeting Friday. Haynesworth says that he was sick. An exasperated Phillip Daniels says he's never been late to e team meeting (mini-camp, OTA, practice) even when he was sick.

"Haynesworth hasn't fully grasped the concept of team," says Daniels.  

This latest episode of As Albertworld Turns spawned a new round of rumors that the Washington Redskins are on the verge of dumping Haynesworth.

Where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, the 24/7 media channels surface those stories, usually citing reliable sources close to the Redskins. Jason LaCanfora reported that a trade of Haynesworth was "imminent" just before the 2010 NFL Draft. Other stories reported that Washington was close to a trade of Haynesworth to Tennessee. That deal reportedly fell apart when Jeff fisher would not budge from a fourth-round pick for Big Al. the Redskins wanted multiple picks. Who knew at the time that Tennessee's fourth-round pick would have the feel of a third-round pick? The Titans are just that bad.

That reliable source close to the Redskins needs to keep their mouths shut, or their thumbs off the handheld. These stories haven't panned out. I suspect that Washington's plan to rebuild involve shedding players for multiple draft picks. 

Washington Redskins head coach says he will address the matter Wednesday after he's spoken to Haynesworth.

Now we have something. That phrase has the feel of an employee action, when the employee is about to go on one of those 90 day improvement plans or dimissal. Employee actions are confidential, as they should be, even when the subject is a high-profile sports figure.

Besides, I hope they keep Haynesworth and burnish his reputation. Buff him up to entice multiple draft picks for him. Washington needs multiple picks if they are going to rebuild (yes, I said it). After this weekend, multiple picks may be a pipe-dream. After this weekend, it's also clear that the Redskins need Haynesworth on defense. Badly.

Whatever happens, I won't respect Bruce Allen if he can't extract something of value in trade for Haynesworth. That's a tough assignment. GMs on other teams already believe the 'Skins will cut him at the end of the season.

The Haynesworth melodrama must come to an end at the end of the season, whether Allen finds a trade partner or not.   

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Maybe Sherm Lewis wasn't available.

The Denver Broncos fired head coach Josh McDaniels today according to stories on ESPN and elsewhere. the loss comes one week after team owner Pat Bowlen gave McDaniels a vote of confidence after the team discovered that a team videographer  secretly tamed a San Francisco 49er practice. The NFL assessed a $50,000 fine on McDaniels for the infraction.

It seems the more serious infraction was is the long-term fade the Broncos are mired in after McDaniels' fast start to the 2009 season. The Kansas City Chiefs contained Denver's high flying offense in a 10-6 win over the Broncos.

Bowlen fired long-time coach Mike Shanahan at the end of the 2008 season to make room for McDaniels. ESPN's Adam Schefter points out that the Broncos will have three head coaches on the payroll next season: Shanahan, McDaniels and McDaniels' replacement.  

Oh yeah, I only assume Shanahan's disinterest in returning to the Broncos. It's not like he returned my call or anything. 

Related story - Mike Shanahan: Denver's Loss is Washington's Gain  

Don Meredith passed away Sunday. If you are a football fan of a certain age, Meredith was the Dandy Don of the Monday Night Football trio of Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford and Meredith.  A generation of fans grew up with MNF, when Monday was the biggest night of football.

If you are my age, Meredith was the nemesis from the Dallas just when the Cowboys emerged as a power team in the 'Sixties. To really understand the importance of Meredith to the Washington Redskins, you had to see...not read about, but see...the epic passing duels between Dandy Don and Sonny Jurgensen in the 1965 through 1967 seasons.

The Redskins and Cowboys in four games produced a combined total of 222 points with only 10 points of overall difference between the two teams.

Jurgy snatches victory from jaws of defeat 

November 28, 1965, DC Stadium. The Cowboys slapped the Skins with a 21-0 lead on a pass play, a running play and a 60 yard fumble recovery. Despite Jurgensen's 26 yard TD strike to Charley Taylor, the fans in the stands, as impatient as always, called for Sonny to be benched in favor of second string QB Dick Shiner. Jurgy drove the Redskins down field for a second touchdown to cut the Cowboys lead to 24-13. The Skins scored another touchdown on the ground to make it 24-20. Meredith tossed a 53 yard scoring strike to Frank Clarke. Against any other team the Redskins would have folded. Against the Cowboys, Jurgensen pulled another dart from his quiver with a 10 yard pass to Bobby Mitchell. Cowboys 31-27. The Boys couldn't move the ball but used a lot of clock. The Redskins got the ball on their 20 yard line with less than two minutes to go. Jurgy gained nine yards on a busted play. Chuck Howley was called for pass interference on the next play, then Jurgensen completed a 22 yard pass play to Jerry Smith. Next Jurgensen tossed a bomb to Bobby Mitchell that carried to the Dallas 5 yard line. Jurgensen's pass to tight end Angelo Coia gave the Redskins their first lead, 34-31, with about one minute to play.

Meredith was not done. He drove the Cowboys to the Redskins 37 yard line with seven seconds to go. With every orifice in every Redskins fan clinched tight, Danny Villaneuva attempted a tying field goal. It was blocked by Redskins defensive back Lonnie Sanders.

Jurgensen was 26 of 42 passes for 411 yards and 3 TD passes. He also ran for a score. The Redskins gained 51 yards on the ground.

Dandy Don on the comeback trail

November 13, 1966, DC Stadium. The Cowboys featured "the fastest man in football" in the person of Bob Hayes. He was dangerous. In the second quarter with the score 7-6 Dallas, Meredith threw a 52 yard touchdown bomb to Bullet Bob, followed in the third quarter with a 95 yard repeat. Cowboys 21-7. Washington scored three consecutive times with Jurgensen's 4 yard pass to Jerry Smith and 78 yard pass to Charlie Taylor, followed by a Charlie Gogolak field goal. Redskins 23-21. Meredith drove the Cowboys down field to set up a 1 yard TD run by Dan Reeves. The Skins came back on a drive ending with Jurgensen's 18 yard scoring toss to Charlie Taylor. Skins 30-28.

Meredith got the ball back with no timeouts and the Redskins playing deep prevent. He threw a 26 yard pass to Pete Gent. On the next play Meredith rolled out for a 12 yard gain and ran out of bounds, stopping the clock. The Redskins were 59 seconds from victory. Two plays to Walt Garrison were inconsequential. On third and nine, Meredith completed another pass to Pete Gent that carried the Cowboys to the Redskins 33. The Redskins mounted a strong pass rush to push the Cowboys out of field goal range. Meredith was hit just as he scrambled out of bounds. The penalty put the 'Boys on the Redskins 12 for an easy Villanueva field goal. Cowboys 31-30.

Meredith completed 21 of 28 passes for 406 yards and 2 TDs. Jurgensen was 26 of 35 for 347 yards and 3 scores.

Meredith missed the rematch on December 11, 1966, but Washington upset the Cowboys 34-31. Dallas won the Eastern Conference title then lost to the Green Bay Packers. 

Cowboys escape the Redskins

October 8, 1967, DC Stadium. This was the lowest scoring of the four games. The Redskins led 14-10 with 70 seconds to go in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys took possession on their 29. Meredith completed a 17 yarder to Craig Baynham, who ran out of bounds. The next two plays were inconsequential. Meredith hit Lance Renzel for 12 yards and a second time for 6. On fourth down with 23 seconds remaining, Meredith hit an open Dan Reeves who beat out linebacker Chris Hanberger to score. Cowboys 17-14. After the kick-off with 7 seconds to go, Jurgensen pitched a long bomb (in the Cold War era, there were a lot of football references to "bombs") to Charlie Taylor, who was brought to ground at the Cowboys 20 yard line as time ran out.

The Redskins of the 'Sixties were lousy teams despite the efforts of four Hall of Fame players: Jurgensen, Bobby Mitchell, Charley Taylor, and Sam Huff. When the Redskins might have lost a generation of fans--and their children and grandchildren, Meredith was the perfect foil to Jurgensen. Their rivalry seeded season ticket sales and the waiting list that followed.  

In fiction writing, the greatness of the hero is set by the threat of the antagonist. Don Meredith was that antagonist when Redskins owner George Preston Marshall needed something to hold fan interest. The very existence of the Cowboys threatened to cut off the Redskins southern fan base. Cowboys quarterback Meredith was as important to the Redskins franchise as he was to the Cowboys. 

Meredith retired from football in 1968 and from the broadcast booth in 1984. His final football show was Super Bowl 19 with Frank Gifford and Joe Theisman. 

A portion of this story was originally published on the Running Redskins blog in 2006 in a three-part series about the Redskins-Cowboys rivalry. Part II - Aces Wild.

DMagazine.com - Don Meredith: The First Dallas Cowboys