Published: November 13, 2009 12:07 am      

Redskins deal with down year

ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Redskins have already gone through their share of denial, anger, bargaining and depression, at least in a football sense. They’re now reaching the final stage of grief over a losing season: acceptance.

Slowly but surely, the Redskins (2-6) this week began to deal with the fact that the season is going nowhere. Nobody said it outright, but it was there when players were asked how they’ll stay motivated over the final eight weeks.

“We’ve got to go out there and play for pride,” third-year defensive lineman Lorenzo Alexander said, “play for the fans and play for ourselves and try to get some respect around the league, man, and just try to really finish out strong.”

It’s a thought expressed in many losing locker rooms, but usually not until December. With the goals of the season fading fast, it’s time to play for jobs.

“It’s your job. You’ve got to have pride,” said running back Rock Cartwright, a team captain. “This is how you take care of your family. You’re paid to play football, so that’s what you need to go out and do. Just continue to work hard and come to work every day and prepare to be the best that we can be. We can’t worry about playoffs right now; we just have to worry about wining football games because we’re 2-6 and we’ve got to get the bad taste out of our mouth.”

It’s taken a while to sink in, and all the emotions have been there. When the team was 2-2, there was denial that anything was amiss, even though the two victories were over lowly St. Louis and Tampa Bay and the offense was barely moving the ball. Clinton Portis kept telling anybody who would listen that the Redskins had talent on par with any team in the league, a clearly debatable assertion.

Anger has best been expressed by $100 million man Albert Haynesworth, who has vented to his teammates behind closed doors. Haynesworth, who had to undergo anger management sessions after stomping Dallas center Andre Gurode in 2006, wishes his teammates were more amped up.

“Sometimes I’m not comfortable with how relaxed we are,” Haynesworth said this week. “Different people handle it different ways. At Tennessee if this is going on, I can tell how we’re going to bounce back. If people are relaxed, it’s not a good thing.”

Bargaining has been the Redskins’ specialty. If the offense could just score two touchdowns a game, the defense might be good enough to carry the season. Maybe a new offensive consultant — one who was retired and calling bingo games — can make a difference. Maybe even let that consultant, Sherm Lewis, call the plays instead of coach Jim Zorn, even if it has the effect of humiliating Zorn and turning the team into the butt of jokes across the country.

“I don’t think it’s an ideal situation ... but it seems like drastic measures are called for,” quarterback Todd Collins said at the time.

Depression is too strong of a word for football, but it’s fair to say losing teams go into a deep funk. For many Redskins, it hit after the Monday night loss to Philadelphia before the bye, when players shook their heads in the locker room and said they never would have believed it if they had been told they would be 2-5 going into the break. Zorn, realizing his team needed the time away, gave the players five days off even though they certainly could have used the practice.

Acceptance showed as the team came back from the bye and played an extremely flat first half at Atlanta. For a change, Zorn and offensive line coach Joe Bugel raised their voices at halftime, getting the team motivated enough to lose only by two touchdowns, 31-17.

“I can be really excited that they responded,” Zorn said, “but I want the response on Play 1, not Play 30.”

The Redskins are battered by injuries and have a difficult schedule ahead, including Sunday’s game against Denver (6-2). They probably won’t be favored to win again this season. Soon, talk will turn to the status of players’ contracts and speculation about a new coach.

But everyone isn’t there yet. The team’s goals, as secondary coach Jerry Gray pointed out, can still be met.

“You can go 10-6 and get into the playoffs,” Gray said Thursday. “That’s pretty much what everyone wants to do, is get into the playoffs. I look at the Philadelphia Eagles (9-6-1 last year), who got to the NFC championship game. It can happen. The big thing is we can’t sit around and wait for it to happen, we’ve got to take it.”

Playoffs? NFC championship game? It sounds like denial all over again, but coaches are paid to keep the faith as long as it’s mathematically possible.

“They haven’t lost heart,” Zorn said. “I think we can tell that just by how hard we’re working at practice, because they could just be going through the motions. But they’ve done well. We’ve dug a deep hole, but we’re not out of it yet. When there’s a glimmer of hope there, we’re going to continue to work and that’s what we have before us.”