Steve Spurrier has been nothing if not humble when discussing his first season in the NFL. The Washington Redskins coach concedes he made his fair share of mistakes in 2002, from bringing in too many of his former Florida players to not paying enough attention to special teams.
Perhaps Spurrier’s biggest mistake, though, came before his team ever took the field for a regular-season game.
“I maybe got misled a little bit by preseason,” he said. “The real season began, and we sort of got overwhelmed a little bit.”
Anyone who watched Spurrier’s Redskins steamroll to 4-1 and score 164 points during the 2002 preseason could have been excused for considering it a sign of great things to come. But there will be no such blanket assessments this year. No matter the outcome, Washington’s preseason opener tonight at Carolina won’t carry any more significance than it merits.
“We’re going to play everybody, so it’s not like it’s a major game where you do everything in the world,” Spurrier said this week. “It’s a practice game — we all know that.”
The same might not have been said a year ago. Shunning conventional NFL wisdom, Spurrier threw everything he had into the five preseason games. Starters got more snaps, quarterbacks got more pass attempts and scoreboard operators got carpal tunnel syndrome.
Washington set a franchise record for preseason points, averaging 32.8, and became the first team in NFL history to score 35 or more in four straight preseason games.
That lofty preseason average was cut drastically once the games actually counted, with the Fun ’n’ Gun averaging 19.2. Not surprisingly, the Redskins plodded their way through a disappointing 7-9 season.
Spurrier isn’t interested as much in piling on the points tonight in Charlotte, N.C., as he is in giving his starters a few snaps against a live opponent, then letting the backups and rookies take center stage. Unlike a year ago, there is no quarterback controversy. Patrick Ramsey will start and likely play two or three series, depending on how many passing attempts he gets.
Ramsey’s goal for this game is simple.
“Just consistency,” the second-year quarterback said. “It’s hard to get into a rhythm when you’re not playing a whole lot of plays, so I’d like to throw the ball well, be crisp early and then come out of the game healthy.”
Spurrier and quarterbacks coach Noah Brindise will scrutinize their backup quarterbacks closely, with veterans Rob Johnson and Danny Wuerffel seeking to improve their chances of being Ramsey’s backup. Rookie Gibran Hamdan, Washington’s seventh-round draft pick, will see little if any action against the Panthers.
The preseason opener also will give the coaching staff its first opportunity to sort out the crowd at running back, though with Ladell Betts not making the trip because of a sprained elbow and Kenny Watson limited by a sprained knee, it’s unlikely any rock-hard conclusions will be drawn.
Trung Canidate will line up with the first team, to be followed by Watson and youngsters Sultan McCullough and Robert Gillespie. Return man Chad Morton could get a few carries in third-down situations.
“We’re all going to be anxious,” said Canidate, who will make his Redskins debut after being acquired from St. Louis in an offseason trade. “It’s the first preseason game of the year, so everybody wants to do well. We’re going to have some mistakes, but the bottom line is you have to go full speed. It’s one of those games to gauge where you’re at.”
Injuries have taken a greater toll on Washington’s defense, with three key veterans out of action because of lingering knee problems: defensive ends Bruce Smith and Regan Upshaw and linebacker Jeremiah Trotter. Second-year end Ladairis Jackson is expected to start in place of Upshaw and Smith, while veteran linebacker Kevin Mitchell figures to step in for Trotter.
Perhaps the most notable absence on the Redskins’ charter yesterday, though, was John Hall. The newly signed kicker strained his groin during a post-practice conditioning session Thursday and was left behind.
Washington yesterday signed rookie Matt Simonton, a former Southern Illinois kicker who spent the last two training camps with the Rams, to take over Hall’s duties on a temporary basis.
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