Opening setback humbles Washington Redskins

ASHBURN — Watching game film on Tuesday morning, Redskins coach Mike Shanahan remained optimistic about his team and its prospects.

The confidence and swagger Washington displayed all offseason was nowhere to be found, though.

“We made a lot of mistakes in that first half,” Shanahan said of Monday’s 33-27 loss. “But we still had a chance to come back and at least make it a game.”

As the Skins head back to work today, they will try to piece together how an offseason so full of optimism deflated as quickly as it did.

The obvious explanation was a lack of preseason time for star players Robert Griffin III and Alfred Morris, who each had just one season of experience in the NFL.

Any inevitability of a rusty performance, though, did not ease the sting when it happened.

“I understand I wasn’t as good of a player mentally or physically last night,” Morris said Tuesday. “It was one of those things where I had never done that before, so [there were] the jitters of trying to get back into a rhythm, and it took a little more than I thought it would.”

Morris fumbled on his first carry, and dropped a pitch in the end zone that turned into a safety.

He said he appreciated that the coaches allowed him to continue playing and put the mistakes behind him.

“They could have easily pulled me, but it goes to show the faith and trust the coaches have in me,” Morris said. “If anything makes me feel better, it’s to know they’re behind me.”

By the time the second half rolled around, the entire offense was beginning to click.

To try to catch up, though, most of the half was devoted to passing the ball. Asked to evaluate Washington’s running game, Shanahan joked, “What running game?”

What has yet to be seen is whether the Skins’ success was a result of the circumstance — short passes against a defense guarding the home run — or whether Griffin had shaken off the rust and was turning a corner.

If it’s the latter, the Redskins can expect to be competitive this weekend in Green Bay, where they’ll be 7-point underdogs to the Packers.

But if Griffin and Morris need more time to return to form, things could turn ugly.

One area Shanahan didn’t have concerns about was his defense, citing the fact that Philadelphia stayed on the field for almost the entire first quarter with just 10 offensive points to show for it.

“They did a good job controlling the tempo of the game, especially in that first quarter, but they didn’t score any touchdowns until that seventh and eighth drive,” Shanahan said.

The Eagles scored a touchdown on just one of their first six drives, a one-play series that resulted from a Redskins fumble.

While Shanahan continues to look on the bright side, the team approaches today’s practice with a newfound humility, having seen their bubble burst in the first half hour of the season.

Injury update: Redskins linebacker Ryan Kerrigan left Monday night’s game in the fourth quarter to be evaluated, because he was displaying concussionlike symptoms. He said doctors do not believe he sustained a concussion, and he does not anticipate missing any practice time going forward.

Uniform update: Griffin was told by a league official on Monday that he had to cover up his knee brace, a policy that was new to him. An NFL spokesman said Tuesday that request was the result of a “miscommunication,” and that players do have the option of wearing a brace on the outside of their uniform.

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