A weekend loss leaves Redskins wondering aloud

By Joseph White

ASHBURN

Jim Zorn produced another priceless visual moment at his weekly press conference. The Redskins coach lifted his shoulders and began strutting in place - a hint of a Michael Jackson moonwalk? - to emphasize his point.

"I don't think we saw ourselves as an elite team, strutting ourselves, walking in and saying, 'We are so awesome,'" Zorn said Monday. "I just think we tried to win the game. We played hard.... I don't think we overlooked this team at all and I don't think we're going to overlook any team."

Zorn was responding to comments by running back Clinton Portis, who said the Redskins "overlooked" winless St. Louis in Sunday's 19-17 loss. Kick returner Rock Cartwright said the Redskins "relaxed" against the two-touchdown underdogs.

As Zorn indicated, those feelings weren't unanimous. When players and coaches met to dissect what went wrong, the focus was on the perfect storm of unusual turnovers and the handful of plays that didn't go as planned.

"I disagree with Clinton, but who's to say who's right?" guard Pete Kendall said. "It was my opinion that we'd had a good week of practice, that we had the right amount of focus."

In the days leading up to the game, the Redskins (4-2) discussed the need not to overlook the Rams, even as conventional wisdom had Washington defeating St. Louis, Cleveland and Detroit to get to 7-1. Impressive road wins against NFC East foes Dallas and Philadelphia had made Zorn's team the flavor of the month.

"We talked about all week how this was going to be a tough game, how those guys were going to come in here at us, so it wasn't like it was a surprise," linebacker Marcus Washington said. "We felt we should have been victorious, just from the way we've been playing. But those guys made plays, too."

One by one, the culprits of Sunday's first-half turnovers - the first three committed by the offense all season - were asked to give a play-by-play of what happened. None shirked the responsibility.

"I was in a crowd. To tell you the truth, I felt like I was protecting the ball," said tight end Chris Cooley, who had the ball jarred loose after a reception. "I felt like I had it wrapped up. It's football. It happens."

Center Casey Rabach, usually as reliable as they come, uttered an unprintable word to describe his bad snap in a shotgun formation.

"When it rains, it pours," Rabach said. "And that definitely happened to us with the turnovers."

Kendall still hasn't forgiven himself for catching a tipped pass instead of knocking it down. Unaccustomed to handling the ball, the big lineman was stripped and the fumble was returned for the Rams' only touchdown.

"It's a team game and there were other opportunities for the team to get me off the hook," Kendall said. "But the problem is, I put the team on the hook."

The turnovers, however, weren't at the top of Zorn's frustration list. The innovator of offbeat practice drills said he isn't going to make the linemen work on batting the ball down.

"I just feel like that would be foolishness," he said.

Zorn then rattled off four plays that were killed by false starts.

"That I'm going to address," he said in frustration. "We had a couple of really big plays that we couldn't execute. They were 'no plays' because of lack of concentration.

"That's inexcusable."

Notes: Backup RB Ladell Betts sprained his left knee Sunday and will be out 2-4 weeks.... Zorn said rookie WR Malcolm Kelly has had his knee drained twice in the past week and could be headed to injured reserve.... Portis, who has had three straight 100-yard games, leads the NFL in rushing with 643 yards.