‘I’ve got to get better’: Zorn sure to take more heat after Redskins fall to 2-4

After latest loss, Zorn questioned about future

LANDOVER, Md. — Jim Zorn stood alone on the sideline Sunday, 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.

“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.”

There will be plenty of questions over the coming days about Washington’s quarterback situation. Zorn yanked starter Jason Campbell at halftime and replaced him with Todd Collins, who hadn’t played since the end of the 2007 season.

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 who calls Washington’s plays on offense, is overseeing a team that hasn’t scored more than 17 points in any game this season.

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

“This offense is better than six points, 100 percent. And that’s on me,” Zorn said. “It’s my fault.”

There were other issues Sunday, including special teams problems (Washington had a punt 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 — a run of futility that not only sounds like something an expansion team would do, but is: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got started in the 1970s by going 2-28.

“We’ve got to come together as a complete team,” Redskins defensive end Phillip Daniels said. “If you don’t get all three phases, then it makes for a bad day. We just didn’t have all three phases today.”