Tough slate in trying times for Redskins

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By Ryan O'Halloran

For most of this season, the Washington Redskins have been a punch line for their inability to take advantage of a soft early season schedule and the constant tumult surrounding coach Jim Zorn and the front office.

They might spend November as a punching bag.

Back at practice Monday following a five-day break, the Redskins know they will be underdogs for the foreseeable future because of injuries, offensive struggles and a difficult schedule.

The Redskins' four November games come against teams with a combined 20-8 record, including three teams that lead or are tied for their division lead - Denver (6-1), Philadelphia (5-2) and Dallas (5-2). First up this Sunday is Atlanta, which fell to 4-3 after losing to New Orleans on Monday night.

No other team faces winning teams in each of its next four games.

"It's going to be tough, no doubt," center Casey Rabach said. "We're over our easy part of the schedule, which wasn't so easy, and now on to the tough part. We have to prepare like normal and go out and try to play good football."

The players used the short vacation to travel to their offseason homes, stay in the area, heal their injuries or, in the case of tight end Fred Davis, work on route running and blocking in one-player practice sessions.

Zorn used the time to review the previous seven games to evaluate why the offense is tied for 28th in points and has yet to score more than 17 in a game.

"Having the record we have makes it more painful," Zorn said of the process. "You can look at all the games and notice what some of the trends are, what some of the glaring recurrences that happened. ... You're able to isolate things, put them on video and there's some revelation there. It creates some subtle changes, and it may create some resolve in how to do it a little bit differently."