Tales of Woe Leave Bills, Redskins With Little Hope

Pick your poison.

Washington Redskins. Buffalo Bills.

One from the NFC. One from the AFC.

Both with new coaches. Both 0-3. Both scraping the bottom of the NFL’s barrel of ineptitude. Neither with any help in sight.

Marty Schottenheimer, who had been 10-0 in home openers while he coached the Kansas City Chiefs, watched his old team--which was winless before Sunday--come into FedEx Field and hand him and the Redskins a 45-13 loss in his home debut.

As Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon wrote of Schottenheimer’s already failing approach: “At some point, beating one’s head against the wall must be replaced by stepping back to see the bigger picture, asking whether there’s a different way to attack the problem. And, oh, the problems are massive.”

To think that a year ago the Redskins actually were talking Super Bowl.

The Bills’ troubles run just as deep, although injuries and an lack of cohesion in the transformation into a new system under Coach Gregg Williams are the main culprits.

“It’s terrible,” Johnson said of the Bills’ fortunes after a 20-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. “It’s not a lot of fun. We have to fix it.”

But longtime Buffalo News columnist Larry Felser has a bit of perspective on the matter.

“I have to cackle at Buffalo Bills’ fans,” Felser wrote after last week’s loss to Indianapolis. “One medium-sized pratfall and they think the football world has gone into permanent eclipse. ... I’ve seen worse. Much worse. There was the period as the ‘60s turned into the ‘70s when the Bills won just nine games. That was in four years.”

Sharpe Still Has Edge

For most of his 10 seasons in Denver, tight end Shannon Sharpe was the go-to receiver.

Put a different uniform on him, and the result is the same.

Returning to Denver for the first time since he signed a free-agent contract with the Baltimore Ravens in 2000, Sharpe caught two clutch passes in the fourth-quarter drive that lifted the Ravens to a 20-13 victory.

Although playing in a different stadium in Denver--the Broncos’ new Invesco Field at Mile High instead of the soon-to-be-razed Mile High Stadium--Sharpe said it felt familiar.

“The fans gave me some boos and a lot of cheers,” he said. “It was kind of mixed. I kind of wanted them to boo so I could get upset. Then if I caught a pass, I could get up and celebrate. But they kind of cheered, and I’m like, ‘I can’t be a jerk. I can’t be what I want to be. So I just might as well gracefully accept it.”’

Favre Dishes It Out

Brett Favre can hardly remember when he’s had this much fun.

He’s playing like a kid, the Green Bay Packers are winning and his body is finally back to its old self again.

Favre even showed flashes of his younger self in a 28-7 win against the Carolina Panthers, using a stiff arm to shake off Dan Morgan’s sack attempt--a move that sidelined the linebacker for four to six weeks with a broken left leg.

“The old man still can do it. I hate to see someone get hurt, but if you can’t outrun them, you have to do something,” Favre said.

Losing This Turf War

Tom Vaughan has some explaining to do today.

Who is Tom Vaughan?

He’s the head groundskeeper for the Carolina Panthers at Ericsson Stadium. And if you saw any of Sunday’s game, you’d think someone’s been asleep on the job.

With chunks of turf ripping with practically every step, it was clear something had gone afoul on this field that the Panthers’ media guide describes as “state-of-the-art” with “sophisticated drainage and irrigation systems.”

Players, referees and members of the grounds crew spent every break in the action Sunday repairing divots in the grass.

The team said that an unusually cool summer is to blame for the field’s poor condition.

The Raider Way

Howie and Spike and even Darth Raider no doubt are feeling pretty good about Oakland’s rout of Seattle and Elijah Alexander’s antics.

The Raider linebacker was ejected from the game after he made a helmet-to-helmet hit on Seahawk quarterback Trent Dilfer.

The Seahawks said Dilfer suffered a concussion and will be re-evaluated today.

The Raiders were leading 38-0 when Alexander leveled Dilfer after the quarterback threw a 54-yard pass to Darrell Jackson midway through the third quarter.

Dilfer, who entered the game just two plays earlier after starter Matt Hasselbeck was benched, lay motionless and face down on the field for several moments.

To complete the ugly moment, Alexander removed his helmet on the field while protesting the call, then gave high-fives to several Oakland fans as he was escorted to the locker room.

*

Compiled by Jim Barrero