Reasons for Skins' loss are as easy as 1, 2, 3

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.

Three glaring things were wrong with the Washington Redskins when they opened their season Thursday night against the New York Giants.

They're known as first down, second down and third down.

Granted, a fourth thing - known as wide receiver Plaxico Burress - also did the Redskins no favors in their 16-7 loss to the defending Super Bowl champs.

Virginia Beach's Burress marked the occasion of signing a two-year contract extension before the game by catching 10 Eli Manning passes for 133 yards against the apparently overmatched Redskins' secondary.

Particularly hurtful were Burress' three catches for 60 yards that fueled New York's opening 11-play, 84-yard touchdown march.

"I thought Manning did a wonderful job of getting the ball to his favorite receiver," Redskins rookie coach Jim Zorn charitably noted.

Eventually, though, Washington's defense got it. The Giants dominated the stats, but scored no more touchdowns, only three field goals - and no points at all in the second half.

So, credit there.

No, the iron ball around the Redskins' ankle in Zorn's debut was the West Coast offense Zorn brought with him from out West. Seattle, to be exact, where Zorn was quarterbacks coach.

If Zorn's West Coast version is supposed to be a bore, create a game-long series of third-and-long situations and generate just eight first downs - three more came via Giants' penalties - Thursday was a rousing success.

If not, guess what? The Redskins have some serious work ahead.

"My first game was very frustrating," Zorn said after the Redskins piled up only 209 yards. "I feel like we learned where we need to improve tonight. If anything's positive, it's gotta be that. We saw where we're at offensively."

In that case, Zorn's offense is at the corner of Sluggish and Inept. By sputtering around - Zorn's word - in the first half and falling behind 16-0, the Redskins gave themselves an impossible task out of the gate.

Their first play foreshadowed a ghastly evening; Justin Tuck sacked Jason Campbell when - surprise - Campbell held onto the ball too long, a flaw Zorn is endeavoring to correct.

But - surprise, again - the Redskins allowed no more sacks. What they could not muster, however, was any semblance of an attack that put the Giants' defenders on their heels.

Running back Clinton Portis did finish with 84 hard-earned yards on 23 carries. The problem, though, had more to do with when the Redskins collected their yards in general.

For the night, they barely averaged 3 yards on first down. Launching such pedestrian possessions invariably led to predictable third downs in which passing was Washington's only real option. Out of that came their lousy 3-for-13 conversion rate on third down.

Not including a garbage-time drive as the clock ran out, the Redskins snapped the ball a dozen times on third down. Only three times, they had fewer than five yards to go for a first down.

On the other nine times, they threw eight passes. Only one gained a first down - the 12-yard crossing pattern to Santana Moss in the second quarter that actually went for the Redskins' only TD.

Many of the rest were completions that still wound up short of the first-down stick, thanks in large part to the Giants' confidence that a pass was coming. Three for 13 on third down is no way to run an offense.

"It was a matter of them being able to come up and make a tackle and stop us," said Zorn. "You call a third-and-6 play and get 5, or third-and-9 and get 8... it's just frustrating.

"We'll see we probably could've made a couple of those with a strain here or there."

The irony is, on this game tape, Zorn will see more offensive strain than he'll care to recount.

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