No offense taken as Zorn is relieved of play-calling

PAUL WOODY COLUMN: How long can the Skins go with Zorn?

LANDOVER, Md. -- Jim Zorn stood alone on the sideline yesterday, his headset off, his arms folded across his chest, hearing the dwindling crowd's boos and watching the seconds tick away on his Washington Redskins' latest loss to a previously winless team.

Zorn began his postgame news conference with a loud, lengthy sigh into the microphone. And the coach kept on sighing as he discussed Washington's 14-6 setback against the Kansas City Chiefs, which dropped the Redskins to 2-4 this season and 4-10 over their past 14 games.

Afterward, the Redskins took away Zorn's play-calling duties and plan to announce a new play caller today. Zorn discussed the change with executive vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato. According to Redskins spokesman Zack Bolno, Cerrato told Zorn he believes the coach had too many responsibilities and someone else should call the offensive plays. Zorn did not disagree with that assessment, Bolno said.

Zorn yanked starting quarterback Jason Campbell at halftime and replaced him with Todd Collins, who hadn't played since the end of the 2007 season.

"I've got to be better. And it really irritates me. Truly irritates me," Zorn said. "And I'm just not going to rest until I get that taken care of."

The heat on Zorn is sure to increase leading up to Washington's next outing: a high-profile Monday night game Oct. 26 against the Philadelphia Eagles, which is followed by the Redskins' bye week.

"Winning would help," linebacker London Fletcher said. "We haven't performed up to our abilities to help coach Zorn out."

As it is, the Redskins are the first team in NFL history to face six consecutive winless opponents, but they haven't managed to take advantage.

In Week 3, the Redskins lost to the Detroit Lions, 0-2 at the time and riding a 19-game losing streak. Last weekend, the Redskins lost to the Carolina Panthers, who were 0-3 entering that game.

Now comes the loss to Kansas City, which was 0-5.

"It's going to be a very hard week. Last week, I thought that was as hard as it can get," Zorn said. "It just got harder."

Asked directly whether he is concerned about his future, Zorn replied: "That part's not up to me, so I won't answer that question."

Zorn said Campbell was "a little late in hitting some things" and "inaccurate." Zorn did not make clear who his QB will be moving forward.

Zorn, a former NFL quarterback, is overseeing a team that hasn't scored more than 17 points in any game this season.

The Chiefs entered yesterday allowing 27.6 points and 402.8 yards per game, yet Washington managed only 265 yards, a total of seven first downs and went 2 for 14 on third-down conversions.

There were other issues yesterday, including special teams problems (a Washington punt was blocked), penalties (two of Kansas City's scores were essentially set up by personal fouls) and clock-management trouble.

All of this happened against a Chiefs team that had lost 28 of its previous 30.