How to lose control of a perfectly good football team

It really is amazing how fast things can go from "Horny for Zorny" to "FIRE HIM!!!!"

Just a few months ago, Zorn was entering his second season, offseason spent bolstering his team's talent. 2009 was to be a playoff-run year.

Now, the team is a mess. They've faced six straight winless teams and won just two games.

Thank god for the Tampa Bay Bucs, or they might be the worst team in the NFL. And I'm not totally convinced that if the Bucs played the Redskins again, there wouldn't be a different result.

One of the worst things about this year's team is that the defense isn't very bad at all. The Redskins' defense is ranked fifth overall, third for pass defense. They had five sacks Sunday against Kansas City (1-5). Another absolutely wasted defense. Last year the Redskins finished with the fourth-ranked defense. A waste.

Adios Zorn
A year ago, Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato hired Jim Zorn as an offensive coordinator while looking for a new head coach. Zorn was brought in to call plays and manage the offense. But when Cerrato and Snyder couldn't find another coach they wanted, they offered Zorn a shot at the head coaching job.

A year and a half later, with the offense sputtering, they've taken play calling away from Zorn. So what exactly is Zorn going to do now? Is he a good game manager? All he's wanted to do was to call plays. He had never called plays before he came to the Redskins. But he comes to the Skins and they unexpectantly make him the head guy.

Snyder and Cerrato went looking for the next Mike Tomlin and unfortunately found the next Jim Zorn. Oops.

The team is a mess.

What exactly will taking the play calling away from Zorn do? Isn't this just a precursor to firing Zorn midseason? The problems with the offense go way beyond play calling. Snyder and Cerrato already brought in "consultant" Sherman Lewis to take a look at the offense. Now they take the play calling duties from Zorn. Is there any other way to undercut the man's authority and his responsibilities?

Speaking of problems with the offense ...
Why the hell did Cerrato/Snyder dump Chase Daniel when they put Colt Brennan on IR? The Redskins have no young backup on the team. With Brennan on IR, Todd Collins looks like he's going to be the guy from here on out. Which does nothing good for the future of the team. When Cerrato stashed Brennan on IR, it would have been a great idea to keep Daniel around to learn. But instead, Daniel is now in New Orleans and probably infinitely better off than he was here.

Jason Campbell is done. It's becoming very clear that his five-year experiment is over. The problem remains that there is no one ready to take over for him.

I'd like to see what Brennan has, but it's looking more and more like we will never see what Brennan has because he's injured in this critical situation. The Redskins might be forced to draft a young QB without first seeing what Brennan can do. And if the Redskins do draft a young first-round QB, Brennan might as well be as good as gone.

One thing is clear
This team is a mess.

We'll see how it all shakes out, but I don't expect to see Zorn last past the bye week, which comes after Monday night's game against the Eagles.

It's a shame, too. The defense is good enough for a playoff run. But the offense is bad enough to lose the rest of the team's games.