Dan Daly: Zorn can handle the truth

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By Dan Daly

For a soft-spoken type, Jim Zorn sure doesn't pull many punches. I refer to his day-after comments following the 47-3 preseason loss at Carolina, the first Certified Debacle of his head coaching career.

Joe Gibbs, his famed predecessor, would have served us heaping bowls of mush in such circumstances - the kind Coach Joe faced all too often in recent years.

"It all begins with me," he would have said.

"You win as a team, you lose as a team."

"We've just got to work harder - and get back to playing Redskins football" ... and blah, blah, blah.

Interestingly, Zorn said none of those things. In fact, rarely if ever has a Redskins coach been so candid about his club's shortcomings. His players had embarrassed themselves, and for him, at least, there was no running away from it. And so, one after another, these utterances sprang from his lips:

The offensive line was "very soft in pass protection."

In the running game, blockers had trouble "sustaining one-on-one blocks."

As far as the play calling was concerned, "It was very challenging. I was [worried] about ... putting our quarterback in a situation where he had to hold on to the ball for a very long time. That would have gotten [us] into an even bigger mess."

More on the same subject: "It was hard [for the quarterback] to trust [his blockers]. You have to feel solid in that pocket, feel they're going to be able to hold 'em off.