The Virginian-Pilot

LANDOVER, Md.

Hate to darken what Redskins coach Jim Zorn called the "bright" side of Sunday's 23-7 throttling by the New York Giants at FedEx Field, but duty isn't just calling, it's clanging pots and pans together.

Yes, Zorn's team is 7-5 and still in playoff contention, barely, with four weeks left in the season. Here's the thing: it also looks very much like a 7-5 team that's staring really hard at finishing 7-9.

Now, that disaster scenario from their hearts-and-flowers 4-1 start probably won't happen, if only because of the scheduled visit to the pitiful Cincinnati Bengals the week after next.

But the only thing bright about getting hammered in Sunday's miserable cold and rain - Washington's fourth loss in five home games - was . . . well, you've got me.

Let's think. OK, Chesapeake's DeAngelo Hall made a very nice interception, his second in three games with the Redskins. (The Redskins couldn't turn it into points, alas.)

And rookie receiver Devin Thomas scored his first career touchdown on a 29-yard end around in the second quarter that got the Redskins to within 13-7.

But go back one paragraph to that parenthetical about the Redskins not being able to score points. This is a malaise that has officially reached three-alarm status, with full-out panic racing toward the stage.

Washington has scored just four touchdowns in its last four games. Only one team has been more offensively futile in that time, the 2-10 St. Louis Rams. It doesn't take John Madden to suggest this is going to doom the Redskins, what with top-10 defenses Baltimore and Philadelphia on tap in the next three weeks.

No matter how Zorn spins it - and he spun hard Sunday about believing he has enough weapons to be successful - his offensive unit has deteriorated frighteningly over the second half of the season.

* The Redskins have scored as many as 21 points once in the last seven games.

* Workhorse running back Clinton Portis is playing hurt, bravely but ineffectively, because of a knee injury. He has followed his great run of five straight games surpassing 120 yards with 284 yards total in the four games since.

* Quarterback Jason Campbell, much more of a game manager rather than a play maker, hasn't had much to manage or much time to do it. Campbell has been sacked an average of four times per game over the last four games and hasn't even sniffed 250 yards passing in a month. Zorn chastised his receivers Sunday for running poor routes, but Campbell regularly throws low or behind them. And that leads to ...

* The Redskins are utterly incapable of scaring defenses with big strikes through the air. Granted, Sunday was a lousy day to pass, but Campbell's one deep shot was badly underthrown to Antwaan Randle El in the third quarter and intercepted at the Giants' 5.

In the first seven games, Washington's air game recorded long plays from 26 to 67 yards. In the last five, the Skins have hit one 50-yarder - a TD to Santana Moss at Detroit. Their other "big" plays in four games: 29, 24, 24 and 23. That's pop-gun stuff.

Nor is defense helping the Redskins a great deal lately. The offense got no short fields to work with Sunday - Washington started every drive on its own turf. And last week, it took over in Seattle's end of the field just once before the final minute.

Zorn, a personable guy, is flailing for answers that just aren't there, and it's getting uncomfortable to watch him squirm as the promise of September fades.

Sunday, presumably after time enough to collect his thoughts, he actually said, "We knew coming in we were going to have to score more than seven points to win this game."

If there's a bright side to a statement like that - made on the last day of November, with a playoff drive going backwards - it's not shining through.

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com

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