ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Kai Forbath, basking in the glow of kicking the game-winning 22-yard field goal with three seconds left in Washington’s 19-17 win over Tennessee at FedEx Field, wanted to share the glory of the victory.
“I couldn’t ask for better field position to kick the game-winner, so hats off to our offense for getting us there,” he told reporters after the game.
Nobody should be tipping their hat to anyone in that Redskins locker room — heck, in this Redskins organization — for barely beating a bad Titans team. Except maybe to Colt McCoy, the third-string quarterback who saved the franchise from one of its most embarrassing losses at home in a long list of embarrassing losses.
If anything, they should keep those hats pulled down, because they came close to being replaced with paper bags Sunday.
A 1-6 record would have done that. A 2-5 mark, heading to Dallas to face the Cowboys next Monday night? Keep those hats pulled down low, Kai.
A win is a win, they say — except when you beat a team that is at least as bad as you are, playing with its backup quarterback. Charlie Whitehurst completed 17 of 26 passes against Jim Haslett’s unshackled Redskins defense, with two touchdown passes.
Yes, it was just for 160 yards, and he did throw one interception. But they were facing “Clipboard Jesus,” Whitehurst’s nickname for being a career backup quarterback (he never entered a game for the San Diego Chargers from 2007-2009). It wasn’t Russell Wilson or Eli Manning or Nick Foles.
There doesn’t seem to be a quarterback in the NFL who can’t shackle the Redskins defense. That would seem to a problem moving forward for the team — except for their bigger problem, the one that defines the aura of self-destruction that surrounds the Washington Redskins.
The quarterback controversy may be they don’t have a quarterback of the future.
They needed McCoy — on his third team since being drafted in the third round by the Cleveland Browns in 2010 — to keep the ship from sinking Sunday. He provided a lifeboat, but that boat has a lot of holes, and it’s filling up with water.
There were the Redskins two young, crown jewel quarterbacks, Kirk Cousins and Robert Griffin III, sitting glumly, side-by-side on the bench, after Cousins was benched following a first half performance that reeked of fear — 10 of 16 for 139 yards, a fumble, and one key interception.
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Washington led 6-3 with the ball on its own 42 yard line when Cousins threw an interception over the middle to Tennessee linebacker Wesley Woodyard. The Titans were able to take the ball and go down to score on a 14-yard pass from Whitehurst to Kendall Wright to take a 10-6 lead going into the locker room at halftime.
It was then that Redskins coach Jay Gruden walked up to Cousins — now leading the NFL with nine interceptions — and said, son, take a seat next to the other quarterback of the future on the bench.
And there they sat, Robert and Kirk, and no one knows if either of them can be the answer for this team moving forward. Griffin has hardly shown enough since his comeback from 2012 knee surgery to believe he can succeed — or even stay healthy enough to get that chance.
He may get his shot sooner than later, as Gruden suggested in this postgame press conference that the Redskins will take a close look at Griffin, recovering from ankle surgery, this week before deciding who will start at quarterback against the Cowboys.
“Robert has a chance to practice on Wednesday and we have to see where he is … see where he is health-wise, and from there I will make a decision from watching the tape of what I’m going to do,” Gruden said.
Previously, Gruden was doing all he could to distance himself from the possibility of considering Griffin’s return anytime soon. Now he is looking for a new lifeboat to survive his rookie season as Redskins head coach. The good ship McCoy will float for only so long.
If Griffin can’t go, it will likely be McCoy. “It’s a good sign the way Colt finished the game and ran the offense — very smart and very efficient,” Gruden said.
It’s not a good sign, though, when the future of the most important position on this team is faced with so much uncertainty, given the investment in Griffin and the hopes for Cousins.
The future, though, isn’t what this team is about. Team president and general manager Bruce Allen — the architect of this 2-5 team — took the field Sunday at halftime for the induction of a quarterback of the past, Mark Rypien, into the Redskins Ring of Fame.
“Homecoming and Alumni weekend is very special,” Rypien said at halftime. “We get to honor those that played before us that paved the path for what it was like to be a Redskin. We get to honor those who played after us that represented this organization.”
And you get to see how far away this organization is from that path.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 radio and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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