Only one man who has coached the Redskins in as many as 23 games during the last 50 years got off to a worse start than Mike Shanahan.
That was Norv Turner, who went just 5-18 in 1994-95 after inheriting an aging team whose payroll was way over the newly-implemented salary cap.
But Turner, despite his two Super Bowl rings as the offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, was a neophyte head coach.
Fellow offensive specialist Shanahan, who slipped to 9-14 in Washington after last Sunday's 23-0 shutout by Buffalo, had coached 267 regular season games during his 16 full seasons and parts of two others without ever being whitewashed.
So where does the author of two Super Bowl victories, seven playoff runs and nine winning seasons with the Denver Broncos go from here with the reeling, battered Redskins?
"First thing you try to do is go back to the basics and that's good practices," Shanahan said. "That's the only way you have a chance."
With the Redskins—minus five injured offensive starters, three of whom are out for the season and a fourth likely gone for another month—having failed to score against a Bills defense that was surrendering 24.5 points per game, how are they going to do much this week against a San Francisco 49ers defense allowing a league-low 15.3?
"We've got some young players that are playing (that) I think have a big upside," Shanahan said. "It takes some time for those guys to work together. Some games will be better than others. … It's not going to happen overnight. I've got a lot of belief in these guys that they'll play well, hopefully much better than they did (against Buffalo)."
