This one was supposed to be easy. This one was supposed to make the team 2-1 and be a tune up for Dallas, New Orleans and San Diego further down the slate.

It wasn’t supposed to go like this.

When the Washington Redskins lost to the Detroit Lions this afternoon, it marked the beginning of the end of not only the 2009 season, but the Jim Zorn era in Washington.

Is this Jim Zorn’s fault? Is it Jason Campbell’s?

No. Well, not really.

It all starts at the top.

Flashback to January 2008

When Coach Gibbs decided to return to the Redskins in 2004 after a 12 year layoff, the Hall of Fame coach had one goal in mind: to bring the team back to its winning ways, and put them in the perennial hunt for the Super Bowl championship.

Gibbs resigned after four mediocre and difficult seasons, but with two trips to the playoffs under his belt.

When Gibbs left, he left the following:

Defensive Coordinator/Head Coach in Waiting Gregg Williams.
Williams signed on with the team after a failed stint in Buffalo with the idea of learning how to be a Head Coach from the best in Gibbs. Williams worked a thousand hours a week, was incredibly aggressive, and continues to be one of the best defensive minds in football.

Offensive Coordinator/Assistant Head Coach Al Saunders (and his 700 page playbook).
Saunders had the most complicated system in the NFL when he was with the Redskins. In fact, he brought in his own backup quarterback in Todd Collins to help teach Washington’s young starter Jason Campbell how to run the system.

Collins claimed at the time that it took two full seasons before a player became comfortable with the offense. He backed it up, taking over for the injured Campbell late in the 2007 season and leading the team to the playoffs despite deteriorating arm strength and mobility. Collins showed the world just a glimpse of what Washington would be capable of once the entire 700 pages were in.

The best all-around RB in the league and an offensive line built to run.
Clinton Portis can run, catch, block, and play all three downs with no question. While there were and are better pure runners in the league, there are very few that can do everything at an all-star level.

The offensive line featured five huge, strong, and gritty blockers who may not have been the most athletic, but they consistently bulldozed their way downfield and were solid if unspectacular pass-blockers as well.

A young quarterback with all the tools and two years in the same system.
Jason Campbell is strong, agile, smart, and cool under pressure. He’s got great character and leads by example. Those are the tangibles and intangibles. Campbell also had begun to pick up the incredibly complicated offensive system and showed good signs of improvement before he was hurt.

With the running game and the consistency on the offensive line, his third year in Saunders’ system was his chance to break out and take his place among the great NFL QB's.

A deep and talented defense.
While the defense did have its holes (no dominant pass-rusher and the gaping void left by the death of Sean Taylor), it was among the deeper and overall talented units in the league. Williams had honed a system of accountability, aggressiveness, and intelligence that permeated across the entire group.

The team was only a couple of players away and had one of the better coaching staffs in the league. Gibbs had realized his goal; he had brought the team to the precipice of greatness.

So what happened?

Enter Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerato.

When Gibbs left the team, his stated reasons of health and lack of family time made sense, but for some reason felt completely hollow.

Given how quickly Snyder re-inserted himself into the day-to-day operations of the team, you had the feeling that he had been held at bay by Gibbs for the last four years and Gibbs was simply tired of constantly explaining himself to his inexperienced boss.

Williams, Saunders Fired

First, there was that strange coaching search. Everyone inside and outside the beltway was surprised that no press release was issued regarding Williams’ promotion minutes after Gibbs’ resignation.

Williams was interviewed four times over the course of a few days. By the third, fans began to sense something was amiss; it was clear that Snyder and Cerato had spent most every day of the last four years with Williams; why the need for the multiple interviews?

It was then announced that Williams had been fired. Not simply passed over for the Head Coach position, but fired.

Passing on Williams was strange enough, but usually it would be up to the new head man to decide who should stay and who should go. You can probably count on one hand how often an owner has fired an individual coach over the last several years.

The Redskins, of course, not only fired Williams but promptly followed that up by firing Saunders as well.

There were never any official reasons given for the firings, and never even an unofficial one for Saunders. Snyder, however, let it be known through his hatchet-man/stooge/puppet/overall lackey Karl Swanson (official title: Vice President) that Williams had somehow degraded Gibbs in one of his interviews, therefore he had been passed over.

(Williams' response: “I’m rubber, you’re glue. Whatever you say, bounces off of me and sticks back to you")

Team Announces West Coast Offense

Shortly after the two play-callers were let go (but the rest of the staff was not), Snyder and Cerato announced that the team would be featuring a West Coast offense in 2008.

Really guys?

Saunders’ offense featured a power running game which was used to set up a read-heavy vertical passing game with speedy receivers who gain yards after the catch.

A traditional West Coast offense features athletic offensive linemen, a pass-catching running back, big receivers who go over the middle, and a quarterback schooled in timing and footwork.

On paper, this made no sense.

In reality, it made even less. How could a team announce an offensive system with (a) incorrect personnel, (b) no Head Coach, (c) no Offensive Coordinator?

Then things got even weirder, as one of those three were resolved.

Zorn Hired, the First Time

Jim Zorn was named Offensive Coordinator in mid-January 2008.

Never mind that the team had no Head Coach, and never mind that the Head Coach typically picks the systems that he wants to install and hired the coaches he needs to make that happen.

Snyder and Cerato had no business interviewing, let alone hiring, an offensive coordinator. Cerato had never coached in the NFL and Snyder hadn’t ever coached a down of pee-wee flag football. But these two now had themselves an offensive coordinator.

Two Weeks Pass…

The team seemed poised to name retread Jim Fassel (he who had recently been passed over for the Stanford job) head coach, but somewhere along the line that all fell apart. Fassel eventually would find his way to the UFL.

No real reports were issued during this period of confusion. Coaches were supposedly brought in and out with the usual suspects rumors to have floated through the Snyder compound in Potomac (where Snyder reportedly once billed former Ravens owner Art Modell for lunch), but none were ever confirmed.

And the Head Coach is…ZORN!

Zorn was eventually named Head Coach of the Washington Redskins.

At the press conference, a tired Joe Gibbs stepped to the podium to offer his endorsement and congratulations to Zorn, but even the affable Gibbs failed to summon a smile. He simply looked tired and disappointed.

Cerato and Snyder lavished praise on Zorn, saying how he was the right guy all along and speaking volumes about his offensive mind and how he was an oft-overlooked diamond in the rough.

No one bought it, and the perennial winner of the Most Exciting Team in March award went underground for the next several months, avoiding even their routine Washington Post puff pieces. We’ve all seen the results since.

A Letter to Redskins Nation

We of the Redskins nation buy all of our own hype every year. Every year we spend hours upon hours discussing why this year is the year, why last year couldn’t possibly have been the year, and start booking our trips to the Super Bowl during training camp in July.

Given this comedy of errors, we’re the ones to blame for the team perennially failing to meet our expectations. Snyder and Cerato can’t even conduct a decent coaching search; how can we believe that they could possibly run a team? How can fans continue to buy tickets and jerseys for this mess?

FedEx Field is a shrine to expanding Snyder’s vast fortunes, not to a commitment to excellence.

Until that changes, it doesn’t matter who is the head coach, who calls the plays, what the system is, or who the quarterback is.

Dan Snyder, it’s time to step up and take some accountability. This is YOUR fault.