Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
Friday, October 20, 2006, Washington Post

Redskins' Season: Potential Disaster

Potential is a big word in sports. Fans love to talk about how great some player or team is going to be. But one of the wonderful things about sports is that you can't just say that you are going to be terrific. You have to prove it. A player or team has to turn all that potential into performance. If they don't, maybe they weren't so great after all.

Before this season, the Redskins had loads of potential. The Skins had a new offensive coach (Al Saunders) and new receivers (Brandon Lloyd and Antwaan Randle-El) who were supposed to turn the Redskins into a high-scoring machine. New players on defense (Andre Carter and Adam Archuleta) were going to make a good defense even better. And Washington still had several all-pros, including Santana Moss and Marcus Washington, plus three-time Super Bowl-winning coach Joe Gibbs.

Redskin fans were making plans for the playoffs and maybe even the Super Bowl. Nothing could stop the Skins this year. Right?

Wrong.

The offense has struggled to score. The new players haven't helped much. The Redskins have won only two of their first six games, and their hopes for the playoffs look slim. The Redskins' potential has not turned into performance on the field. It's hard to say the Skins are a good team when they couldn't even beat the Tennessee Titans at FedEx Field.

Of course, potential is a big word with kids, too. Parents, teachers and coaches might say you have lots of potential and that you could be a terrific athlete or a straight-A student. But saying you can do something doesn't get it done.

Just like the Redskins, kids have to turn their potential into performance. It's hard to say you are a great student if you keep getting C's and D's on your report card. It takes work, practice and the ability to bounce back when things go wrong -- whether you're a good athlete or a good math student.

Can the Redskins bounce back? To get better, the Skins will have to stop teams from running all over them. The Titans gained nearly 200 yards on the ground. And Mark Brunell has to do a much better job passing the ball downfield to the Redskins' playmakers. If Brunell can't, maybe Coach Gibbs should try second-year quarterback Jason Campbell.

Even if the Skins play better, they might not win many games. Their schedule for the rest of the season is brutal. The next three games are against the Indianapolis Colts (5 wins, 0 losses), Dallas Cowboys (3-2) and Philadelphia Eagles (4-2). In their 10 remaining games, the Skins play only one team (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) with a losing record.

With a schedule like that, you might say the Redskins have the potential for a losing season.