The Washington Post

ASHBURN

The tenor that ran through the locker room Monday at Redskins Park combined annoyance with optimism, familiarity with frustration. Last year, the Washington Redskins needed to win their final four regular season games to reach the playoffs, and they did . This year, after three losses in four outings, they could be in that spot again, and it's wearing on the entire operation.

"I'm tired of going on December runs," special teams captain Rock Cartwright said. "Tired of it. We've been that way for a while now, putting ourselves in this position, and I have no clue why. "

Twice in the four years under former coach Joe Gibbs, the Redskins turned stirring Decembers into playoff appearances. If they're to do so again, it'll be under first-year head coach Jim Zorn, who's evaluating how to revive a stagnant, unproductive offense .

The Redskins' offense has five touchdowns in its last five games combined, including just one in Sunday's 23-7 loss to the New York Giants .

Circumstances are so dire Zorn said - six days before the Redskins play Baltimore - he's considering which parts of the offense to jettison, potentially simplifying a system that was more productive in the season's first two months than in November.

Even as he defended quarterback Jason Campbell - emphasizing there's been no consideration to turning to backup Todd Collins, who led last year's playoff run - Zorn said the installation of his West Coast offense hasn't produced the results he envisioned . The Redskins remain one of three teams who have yet to score 30 points in a game.

"Each week, as we try to grow in our game plan, I'm always torn between that fine line of pushing the envelope a little bit," Zorn said, "or should we back off and not work so much on the things that I'd like to do, but work on those things that we have to do? "

Zorn blamed the struggles on execution. He said Campbell, for instance, underthrew a deep ball Sunday to Antwaan Randle El that was picked off . Though Campbell threw four interceptions and two touchdowns in four November games, Zorn said any offensive adjustments wouldn't come about only because of the quarterback.

"It's really for the whole group," he said " ... Everybody's in the mix, and there's a QB that's learning to deal with all of it."

Now Zorn must learn how to deal with the perilous position his team finds itself. Three teams - Carolina (9-3), Atlanta (8-4) and Dallas (8-4) - are ahead of Washington for the two NFC wildcard spots. When the Redskins (7-5) ran off four straight wins at the end of last season, they reached the postseason at 9-7.

Being in this position before, however, doesn't guarantee anything . The idea there's a switch that can be flipped to yield better performances is ludicrous, players said.

"I don't think you can hang your hat on that and say, 'We've been here before, we know we'll be able to do it,'\" linebacker London Fletcher said. "You can't just automatically assume that it's going to happen for us. The bottom line is, over the last five, six ballgames, we haven't played well. We're kidding ourselves. ...

"We have to continue to (have) each man look at himself individually, each coach look at himself individually."

That's what Zorn is trying to do, by looking both at his scheme and how his players are executing it. There won't be major adjustments to the week's routines . "I think if we had just total chaos and disarray," he would change things, Zorn said. The solution is simpler. "I think we have to score points."

Redskins in a rut First eight games 20.6 points and 364.3 yards a game.

Past four games 10.8 points and 288.8 yards a game.

Sunday at Baltimore, which has the NFL's No. 2 defense (8:15 p.m., WAVY)