Redskins Insider: Being upfront about offense

ATLANTA

The Hogs weren’t just a media creation during Washington’s first Joe Gibbs era. Russ Grimm, Joe Jacoby and Jim Lachey were all Pro Bowl studs, and fellow linemen Mark Schlereth, Mark May and Jeff Bostic also had periods of sustained excellence.

The Redskins wouldn’t have won Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks and three No. 1 running backs, none of whom will be enshrined in Canton - sorry, Joey T. - if not for the consistently superior play by the warriors up front under the direction of line coaches Joe Bugel and Jim Hanifan.

Bugel is in the sixth season of his second Redskins tenure, but those days of winning the battle in the trenches seem as if they happened in a different lifetime.

Forget whether ace running back Clinton Portis, who left in the first quarter of Sunday’s 31-17 defeat in Atlanta with a concussion, has lost a step, whether the second-year pass catchers ever routinely will have more big plays than drops, whether Pro Bowl tight end Chris Cooley returns from his surgically repaired fractured ankle before 2010 or whether quarterback Jason Campbell ever gets fully in sync.

The Redskins simply won’t be a productive offense until they have a line that can give the quarterback time to find his targets and can open some semblance of holes for the running back.

Think Portis is the main culprit in his fall from 944 yards at midseason 2008, when he led the NFL in rushing, to 494 after eight games in 2009?

Think Campbell is to blame for being sacked 17 times the last four games (five times during Sunday’s first half) compared with 16 during the first eight games of 2008?

“Offensively, we just weren’t answering the bell,” said Campbell, who left the game briefly twice with injuries to an ankle and his chest. “Those guys were more physical than we were in the first half. Those guys were doing a great job of bringing the heat.”

Think it was a coincidence that the offense did a 180 after halftime (14 first downs and 269 yards compared with three and 69 in the first half) after Bugel and the line said “enough is enough,” according to center Casey Rabach?

“It’s just us doing our job: go out there and block the man in front of you and let Jason throw the ball downfield,” Rabach said. “That’s our job: to protect Jason. We didn’t do that the first half. Why can’t we put two halves together like the second half? Until we fix that, we’re going to struggle.”

The Redskins have allowed 28 sacks through eight games, just one fewer than they surrendered total during their 2007 playoff season. They’re on pace to surrender 56 for the year, easily Washington’s most in 24 years other than 1998, when the final total was 61.

On the ground, the Redskins came to Atlanta tied for 26th in rushing with just 93.4 yards a game. Their 3.9 yards a carry ranked 22nd. Before backup Ladell Betts and the line got going in the second half, those numbers were 32 yards and 3.6 a carry Sunday.

Of course, the line would be a heck of a lot better if Chris Samuels and Randy Thomas were on the field and not done for the year - and quite possibly for good - with serious injuries. But the Redskins should have been prepared for their absences given that each had two offseason surgeries and that Samuels is 32 and Thomas is 33, senior citizen territory for men who hurl around their 300-plus pounds play after play.

Bugel can be faulted for not developing a lineman other than average guard Derrick Dockery and mediocre undrafted tackle Stephon Heyer since he returned to the Redskins in 2004. However, front office bosses Gibbs and Vinny Cerrato drafted only one lineman above the fifth round (apparent bust Chad Rinehart, third, 2008) since Dockery was chosen in the third in 2003. And other than Rabach in 2005 (and not counting the homegrown Dockery), Washington hasn’t signed a starter-type lineman in free agency in six years.

Neither Dockery nor Rabach, the only proven starters on the current line, is having a good season, but each has remained remarkably healthy throughout his career. So at least the Redskins need to find only three starting linemen next offseason.

Trouble is, a smart team, a good team, would be drafting the eventual successors to Dockery and Rabach instead of having to find three players who can replace Samuels, Thomas and Heyer immediately. But the 2-6 Redskins aren’t smart, nor are they good.