Dan Daly: Excuses keep piling up for Redskins

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By Dan Daly

The worst thing about Chris Cooley's broken bone in his right ankle - other than that he won't be able to do the Electric Slide for a while - is that it gives the Redskins another excuse. The Redskins don't need another excuse for their train wreck of a season. What they need right now, more than anything, is honest self-evaluation, otherwise all this losing will be for naught.

If Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato fall back on injuries as an alibi - "If we'd only had Cooley for the last nine games," "If we only hadn't lost Chris Samuels and Randy Thomas" - they'll miss the chance to get this derailed franchise back on the tracks. No, this should be a time for, well, maybe not self-flagellation, but certainly an unblinking, unsparing appraisal of where the club is and how it can avoid calamities like this in the future.

Of course, based on their track record, Dan and Vinny are probably the last two people who should be conducting this review. In a game that prizes consistency, the only thing consistent about the Redskins has been their ability to make the same mistakes over and over again - mistakes with coaches, free agents and draft picks, mistakes with the salary cap, the composition of the roster and the care and feeding of the fan base.

So expecting the owner and VP to critique themselves cold-bloodedly, to see the errors of their ways, now that requires a leap of faith. But we can dream, can't we? We can dream of a dusty, naked light bulb going on in the attic of Snyder's or Cerrato's mind.

It's just that the odds of that happening would be greater, I'm convinced, if Cooley hadn't gotten hurt. The Pro Bowl tight end's injury provides his bosses with some cover at the end of the season ("We're not as bad as our record would suggest") if they want to avail themselves of it; and they likely do. Neither, after all, has shown much of a stomach for the plain, unvarnished truth.

One of the questions they should ask themselves, though - if they're so inclined - is: Have we really stocked this roster with winning players (or merely well-compensated ones)? I ask this because the Redskins have had a habit this year of starting games horribly. Let's review, shall we?

Week 1 - The Giants take the opening kickoff, drive 67 yards in 12 plays for a field goal and never look back.

Week 3 - On their first series, the Redskins get stopped on fourth-and-goal at the Detroit 1.

Week 4 - Turnover on the third offensive play; Tampa Bay touchdown two plays after that.

Week 6 - Turnover on the third offensive play. (Fortunately for the Redskins, the Chiefs fail to capitalize.)