Redskins are Routed by Division Rivals, 45-12

I don't want to dwell on this game because I'm simply too mad, but a lot of things went wrong last night and it shows us a lot about his Washington Redskins team.

1. Jason Campbell needs to go.

Everyone has been sympathetic to Campbell this season because he has no offensive line. True, but I refuse to believe that if you put Peyton Manning or Drew Brees on this Redskins team they would not be able to do any better. Last night I think he proved that. I can already hear the protests "Campbell was sacked five times, he couldn't do anything!" True, again Campbell was tossed around like a rag doll, but watch his interception to Terrell Thomas in the third quarter. Campbell rolled out, had no pressure on him, had two wide open receivers about 7 yards in front of him, and he threw it over both their heads into the waiting arms of Thomas who took it in for a touchdown. THAT WAS AN INEXCUSABLE PLAY! There was no reason for Campbell to miss that throw and it proves he can't make it as a starting quarterback, period. If you keep arguing that it's because of his offensive line, ok, let's take a look. The Redskins are 27th in the league in sacks allowed. Five teams have allowed more sacks than the Redskins. Two of those teams are Green Bay and Pittsburgh. Who is having the worst season between Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisburger, or Campbell? Both Green Bay and Pittsburgh are in the playoff hunt. Some of the blame must be put on Campbell's shoulders. GET HIM OUT OF DC!!! And why was he in the game so long? When Campbell was injured in the first half, Todd Collins came in and in one play threw for more yards than Campbell had. The Giants pulled Eli Manning but Campbell stayed in the entire game. While I may be biased against Campbell, Coach Zorn, who has stuck by him, needed to pull him out. After that first interception, any NFL coach would have pulled Campbell. That was a disgusting throw and the game was not in doubt; it was over. Unless Zorn was hoping the Giants would knock Campbell out for the season, there was no reason to keep him in the game.

2. Jim Zorn is not a head coach.

Watch the end of the first half. The Redskins line up for a field goal with 2 seconds left and then shifted the line to the left and Hunter Smith lined up as a quarterback. The Giants were caught completely off guard by the formation and Tom Coughlin called a time out. I applaud the decision to go for the fake. The Redskins were down 24-0 with 2 seconds left in the first half. You might as well go for it and give your team a chance. But then, after the timeout was called, the Redskins lined up for a field goal and again shifted the line to the left. Let's think about this. One reason why fake field goals work is the element of surprise. Teams are prepared to defend a field goal, but they aren't prepared to defend an actual play. They don't always work, but the fake field goal and punt the Redskins have successfully pulled off this season worked mostly because the other team wasn't prepared for it. What do you think the Giants talked about when they called the timeout? The coaches no doubt told the players "Hey, if they do that again, here's what you do..." The Giants set up for a defensive play and were ready in case the Redskins tried that formation again. You give yourself no advantage by running the exact same play again. They might as well have put the offense back in. Instead they ran the play, the Giants knew exactly how to defend it, and they picked the ball off. By the way, what was that play? "Throw the ball as high as you can to the left side of the field"? That's what Zorn drew up? Time for him to move on.

3. The defense isn't our saving grace any more.

So many times this season, fans have walked away saying, well at least our defense played ok. That doesn't really work anymore. The Giants scored TDs off their first two possessions and a field goal on their third. Even if our offense wasn't lead by a hopeless quarterback and a nonexistent offensive line, it's hard for professional teams to match three straight scores. In the end the Giants managed 382 offensive yards and that was only through 2 1/2 quarters since the Giants essentially gave up. This entire team needs to start over.

4. What did we expect?

When an entire organization starts looking ahead to the next season, the team responds as we saw last night. How can you expect Zorn to coach when candidates are being interviewed for his job? How can you expect players to play when the organization has already given up? People may be critical of Daniel Snyder and his quick trigger when it comes to firing coaches, but he might as well have fired Zorn earlier in the season. It's clear that he made up his mind pretty quickly about Zorn's future. Telling the media that Zorn will be the coach "hopefully into the future" while at the same time interviewing candidates helps no one. If Zorn is out, then fire him and send a message to your team that they still have something to play for this season. Why not? Could the season have been any worse if they had fired Zorn earlier? I didn't think after the Detroit game that it could get worse, but it did last night. If players want to give up on this season then they shouldn't even show up. It may not mean anything to them but it still means a lot to the fans who still go to the games to cheer on their team. My calendar still says 2009, so that's what I'm worried about. The goal of this season is not next season, it should now be to finish with a 6-10 record. We'll see if anyone in this organization can send a clear message to a team clearly going in different directions.