Redskins’ sudden need

Suddenly.

Jim Zorn floated it out there Monday when asked where he wants to see improvement from the Washington Redskins’ offense. After practice Thursday, it became Zorn’s word of the week while describing how everything needs to be precise and cohesive for a play to work.

“To me, ’suddenly’ means as soon as the ball is snapped, everybody knows so well what they’re doing and they can go there fast,” he said. “You can move faster on offense if you know your exact assignment and exactly how to use your techniques and ’suddenly’ has to do with your finish. Ball is snapped and ’Pow!’ - everybody is explosive.”

Heading into Monday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers’ top-ranked defense, the Redskins rank fifth in yards (364.3) but only 23rd in scoring (20.6 points per game). Just when the Redskins appear to be on the cusp of becoming an offense that moves the ball and scores touchdowns, a “sudden”-type mistake occurs - a missed assignment, a dropped pass or a penalty - to derail the drive or force a punt or a field goal attempt by Shaun Suisham.

“With the yardage we’re putting up, we’re not scoring touchdowns,” Zorn said. “We’re concerned about that.”

Said tight end Chris Cooley: “We’ve done a great job driving the ball down the field and there’s something to be said for just doing that and for making a lot of plays. Obviously, we’ve ended with a lot of field goals.”

Suisham’s 16 field goals are tied for fourth in the NFL, and eight of his makes have been from 40 or more yards, suggesting that the Redskins often stall before they get into the red zone.

“It just happens to be where we’ve had a missed assignment, a penalty or a turnover,” right tackle Jon Jansen said. “The drives where we don’t have those mistakes, we get an opportunity to score. We have to clean them up when we get into that area.”

Just getting into scoring position is often hard labor for the Redskins. The Redskins have started only 11 drives in the opponent’s territory; three came at the end of games, when all Jason Campbell did was take a knee. Washington has scored the other eight times - five touchdowns and a field goal.

Only eight takeaways and not much from the punt return game before Santana Moss’ 80-yard touchdown have not produced the much-desired short field. Last week in Detroit, the Redskins won despite getting only two field goals out of three trips to the red zone. They ran eight plays inside the Detroit 20 and lost a combined 32 yards, including penalty yardage.

Entering Monday’s game against Pittsburgh, the Redskins rank 14th with an 88.5 percent success rate in the red zone - 23-for-26 (touchdowns and field goals).

“Everything speeds up, and everything flattens out in the red zone,” Zorn said. “Because things happen fast, decisions have to be made quicker. You have to be more exact. Unfortunately, we’re not as exact as we need to be in certain situations. It’s just a matter of us continuing along. I’m not alarmed, but I know where we have to push and where we have to get.”

The Redskins’ defense is also pointing at itself as a reason for the lack of scoring. Only Detroit, Denver and Seattle have fewer than the Redskins’ eight takeaways. The only takeaway in the past four games was a fumble recovery by LaRon Landry early in the St. Louis game. The Redskins have yet to force a turnover while sacking the quarterback.

The offense has scored after five of the takeaways - two touchdowns and three field goals.

“We need to create more turnovers,” linebacker London Fletcher said. “If we can do that and give our offense more opportunities, these close ballgames we’ve been having won’t be the case.”

As Fletcher sees it, if the Redskins can create early takeaways that result in touchdowns, it would create breathing room and allow the offense to do what it does best: churn out yards with the run game and control time of possession. The Redskins rank second in rushing yards per game (155.3) and third in yards per carry (4.7); they’ve held the possession edge in six games (5-1 record).

“We’ve been able to run the ball a lot and eat up the clock, and the games have been shortened,” Fletcher said. “If we can create separation and give the offense short fields, that will help us.”

Said Zorn: “We need to make the interception when we have the chance. We’re almost getting there. We have to flip over the top.”

Doing so suddenly would be ideal.