We have a Wuerffel situation

Just give the ball to Patrick Ramsey and forget about it.

There is nothing more to ponder, nothing more to evaluate, nothing more to consider following the most recent no-show of the Redskins offense.

Just give the ball to the strong-armed Ramsey and accept that sometimes he is going to force a throw into the jaws of the defense.

Nothing personal against Mark Brunell, but at this point in his career he has a lot of Danny Wuerffel in him.

You remember how it was with Wuerffel.

Whenever he released the ball, the team’s supporters would make the sign of the cross. Several minutes later, all these players would converge to one spot on the field, with each fighting another for the ball, as if it were a rugby scrum.

Wuerffel’s passes could not break paper. His passes hung in the air like a hot-air balloon. To some, his passes signaled a restroom timeout. You could be back in time to watch the end of the ball’s dying trajectory.

Yet Steve Spurrier, the coach at the time, could see no wrong in Wuerffel.

To borrow from Winston Churchill, it was a Florida-inspired riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Wuerffel still would have been with the Redskins last season if not for Dan Snyder’s decision to stick him in the Witness Protection Program.

It was the one time the team’s fans cheered Snyder’s proclivity to intervene.

Saving Spurrier from Wuerffel ended up being the least of the issues, of course.

There also was the issue of Spurrier sending nine guys out to catch a pass while employing one guy to block eight.

The history lesson is appropriate.

We seemingly are reliving the Spurrier-Wuerffel obsession with Joe Gibbs and Brunell.

Gibbs comes out each week and issues a vote of confidence to Brunell, only Gibbs means it.

Gibbs sees positives in Brunell that no one else is seeing. He sees positives in the game film and in the practices, and he instinctively falls on the sword for his hand-picked quarterback.

As you know from Gibbs, the anemia of the offense is everyone’s fault, not just Brunell’s. It also is the fault of the towel boys, the ball boys, the soap boys, everyone. That could be the case.

Who wants to argue with a Hall of Fame coach?

Washington, though, is a fairly sophisticated quarterback town, going back to the days of Billy and Sonny.

Gibbs sees a quarterback who possibly can run his offense in mistake-free fashion. Others see a junkball pitcher, if only because Brunell throws the turf ball, the curve ball, the change-of-pace ball, the Rip Sewell eephus pitch ball, the Stu Miller slow and slower ball and the punt-like ball to Deion Sanders in the last game.

Alas, Brunell does not throw the 40-yard strike ball, which is a problem if the defense is creeping ever closer to the line of scrimmage, and one of the defenders is Ray Lewis talking crazily into a microphone.

The commitment to Brunell ignores the encouraging work of Ramsey before Gibbs was hired to walk on water again.

Not too long ago, Ramsey was considered the future of the franchise. He was a fearless quarterback who could make the big play.

Then Brunell was signed to a fat contract, and Ramsey was left in the lurch.

Ramsey knew the deal from the beginning, which is why he initially sought an exit slip from the team before going into the fetal position in August. Worse than the fetal position, Ramsey made a three-interception cameo appearance against the Giants in September.

So Ramsey is almost toxic material now.

Gibbs seemingly refuses to go near him unless he is ensconced in a hazmat suit.

For whatever reasons — stubborn listed among them — Gibbs is sticking with the conductor of the 1-yard-pass, cloud-of-questions game plan.

You never know.

Brunell is overdue to put 20 points on the board, to say the least.