Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.sports From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Redskins' lost offense won't be found in end zone Date: Tue, 3 Nov 92 15:19:55 EST Message-ID: \SE D;SPORTS \HD Redskins' lost offense won't be found in end zone \BY Dan Daly \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES No reason to get alarmed, folks. We're only witnessing one of the biggest offensive free falls in pro football history. Compared to what the Redskins are going through, the stock market crash was a mild downturn. If Rypien and Co. continue scoring at their current pace - and with five road games and six tough defenses still to go, there's no reason to believe they won't - they'll finish with 286 points. Last season, you may recall, they led the league with 485 points. The difference (for those of you who cut arithmetic class): 199. That's not just a huge drop, it's almost off the charts. That's more points than Indianapolis (143) and Phoenix (196) scored last year. That's more points than Seattle (53 at the halfway point), New England (87) and Indy (99) may score this year. Or look at it this way: In 1982, when the Redskins played just nine games because of the strike, their offensive output declined only 157 points from the previous season. The record in this category I just invented, by the way, is 207 points by the 1964 New York Giants and the '74 Atlanta Falcons. Now there are two teams you'd want to be lumped together with. The Redskins' projected 199-point drop-off would put them third all-time. (Unless you count the 1950 San Francisco 49ers, who'd played the previous year in another league, the All-America Football Conference. Their point total slid 203 points.) Repeat: The Redskins are in the process of taking the third-worst offensive nosedive in NFL history. What's unusual about it - unbelievable almost - is that the Redskins have the same quarterback, the same wide receivers, the same running backs, all the same skill-position players they had a year ago. Often when an offense goes into hiding, it's because one or more of its big playmakers goes down. Consider the 1984 Dallas Cowboys, the last team to go into this deep an offensive coma. They had a quarterback controversy (Gary Hogeboom or Danny White?). They had to get along without wideout Drew Pearson (preseason car accident) and longtime tight end Billy Joe DuPree (retirement). It was a prescription for disaster, and the Cowboys' scoring output plummeted 171 points. The Redskins' situation isn't nearly as catastrophic as the '84 Cowboys'. Granted, injuries have made a mess of the offensive line, but you can't tell me Jim Lachey and Jeff Bostic are worth 199 points. The Redskins are where they are because there isn't a single area of the offense that's playing as well as it did last season. Not one. In fact, I can think of only two individual players who are playing up to par - Earnest Byner and Ricky Sanders. Rypien's been erratic. Gary Clark and Art Monk have been dropping too many passes, and both misjudged deep balls in Sunday night's 24-7 gouging by the Giants. Byner has been his steady self, but Ricky Ervins hasn't been the stick of dynamite he was last year. And the pass blocking has been pretty much hit or miss (and when the Hogs miss, Ryp gets hit). What we're talking about, basically, is a group slump. "I think it's everything," Joe Gibbs said yesterday, and for once he wasn't trying to gloss things over. "We're just off a little bit. One time it's the [pass] route, another time it's the throw, another time it's the protection." Add it all up and you get 11 1/2 quarters without an offensive touchdown. Add it all up and you get Rypien with a lower passer rating than Stan Humphries, the surplus quarterback the Redskins sent to San Diego. Add it all up and you get 15.3 points a game (excluding the three touchdowns scored by the special teams and defense). Who was the last NFL champ to score 15.3 points a game, the 1926 Frankford Yellow Jackets? Few offenses ever had a smoother ride than the Redskins' did last season. Last season they were cruising down the Autobahn at 120. This season they're stuck on the Dulles Toll Road and low on change. That's what makes the grinding of the gears so hard to take, the fact that last year it looked so darn easy. Mo Elewonibi isn't going to become Jim Lachey anytime soon. Joe Jacoby isn't going to get any younger. Jeff Bostic isn't going to come back (not this season, at least). Desmond Howard might be ready to help out some, but that doesn't mean he'll get the chance. What you see is pretty much what you're going to get, for the forseeable future. If things are going to pick up, people such as Rypien, Monk and Clark are going to have to do the heavy lifting. The offense is so lost now, though, it may need Lewis and Clark more than it needs Monk and Clark. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM