Zorn takes blame for struggles
Washington Commanders coach Jim Zorn lost more than a game on Sunday.
Zorn was told after a 14-6 setback to the previously winless Kansas City Chiefs that he will not call offensive plays anymore.
Executive vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato met with Zorn and told him that he has too many responsibilities right now, Commanders' director of communications Zack Bolno told ESPN.com's Matt Mosley. The team did not reveal who would call plays, but an announcement is expected on Monday.
Zorn began his postgame news conference with a loud, lengthy sigh into the microphone. And the coach kept on sighing as he discussed a loss which dropped the Commanders 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 Commanders' 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 Commanders 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 Commanders lost to the Detroit Lions, 0-2 at the time and riding a 19-game losing streak. Last weekend, the Commanders 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, 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. It's my fault," Zorn said, before he was stripped of play-calling duties.
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," Commanders 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."
Matt Mosley covers the NFC East for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
