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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Report scores and results to 425-339-3470 or 1-866-6-SCORES (Call after 4:30 p.m.) E-mail information including items for Tuesday's Communities Sports Roundup and Thursday's Outdoor Calendar, to sports@heraldnet.com Kevin Brown, Sports Editor kbrown@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, October 25, 2009 Redskins’ Zorn prepared for ‘awkward’ night on sideline By Rick Maese The Washington Post For the first time in 23 games as head coach of the Washington Redskins, Jim Zorn will not be calling his team’s offensive plays, a bold decision management made last week to clear the second-year coach’s plate. “I don’t look at that as a positive,” Zorn said matter-of-factly about his lighter workload. In truth, he says it’ll be “awkward” to pace the sideline of Monday night’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles at FedEx Field. If all doesn’t go smoothly with the team’s new and unorthodox play-calling process, it could be awkward to watch as well. Sherman Lewis, who was hired as offensive consultant Oct. 6 and installed as the play-caller after the loss last week to Kansas City, will watch Monday’s game from the coaches’ booth, and offensive coordinator Sherman Smith will move to the sideline for the first time since joining the team in February 2008. Using headsets, Lewis will select a play and radio it down to Smith, who will then relay the call to quarterback Jason Campbell on the field. Although Zorn has been mostly eliminated from the process, he also will hear the Lewis-Smith-Campbell dialogue in his headset. Zorn had initially planned to serve as the relay man but said, “I just don’t want any temptation of overriding him when it’s necessary.” It’s a clunky approach to an important aspect of the game. Redskins coaches say it’s not ideal and enter the game knowing there could be problems. Lewis has had less than three weeks to learn the terminology of Zorn’s offense. One wrong word — just a few seconds — could spell disaster. And Zorn knows that another voice on the line — his own — could delay the entire process. “When you’re a play-caller, you’re concentrating. I’m not going to be chiming in, going, ‘Oh, my gosh,’” Zorn said. “Or ‘Did you really just call that?’ or ‘Hey, that’s a great call, way to go.’ I’m just going to keep quiet.” The complicated part is developing a rhythm in selecting plays while working against the clock and dealing with the changing game situations. Lewis will have to be aware of down and distance, available personnel and potential defensive matchups. “That’s play-calling right there,” Smith said. “The biggest thing that’s got to happen, since it’s going from A to B to C, (Lewis is) going to have to have the plays real fast.” Of the potential for delay-of-game penalties, Smith said, “I’ll tell you, that’s possible.” The entire exchange is a race against the clock. League rules require a team’s communications system to shut off when 15 seconds remain on the play clock. In an effort to avoid delay-of-game penalties, Campbell might wear a wristband with a limited number of plays written on it so he could call one quickly if problems develop. “There will probably be a couple plays I’ll have in my head just in case for some reason if it doesn’t get in on time, we can keep the tempo up and keep moving,” Campbell said. “There will be some things we’ll have to adjust to a little bit, and getting plays in faster will have to be one of them because now it comes through one more person.” Though a middle man is extremely rare, Smith has seen it first-hand before. When he was an assistant coach in Tennessee, the Titans relied on a similar setup in 2005-06. Offensive coordinator Norm Chow called plays from the booth down to quarterbacks coach Craig Johnson, who then relayed the call to Steve McNair on the field. Smith said there were “start-up costs” to such an arrangement and that some delay-of-game penalties “can’t be helped.” After committing four delay-of-game infractions during the 2005 preseason, the Titans apparently worked out the bugs. They had only three during the 16-game regular season. “It happened every so often,” Smith said, “enough that (coach) Jeff Fisher, what he would do, he’d get on the headset after every play and say, ‘Give me the play. Give us the play.’ And it forced Norm to have to think a little bit faster. We’re going to try not to get those penalties. I don’t want to say it’s inevitable. But it could happen. I wouldn’t be like, ‘Whoa, what is that all about?’ That’s part of it.” To ease the transition, Redskins coaches did some practicing of their own last week. On Friday, coaches had headsets at practice and Campbell received the plays from Lewis via Smith. On Saturday, they practiced the routine again verbally, though, without the headsets. Zorn said the dry runs “looked pretty good.” “Will there be glitches?” he said. “There might be a couple. There won’t be that many.” Lewis’s specialty is receivers and passing routes in the West Coast system. He’s not as familiar with the running game or pass protection. But that might not be a major hurdle because each specific play is already composed of protection schemes, offensive formations and receiver routes. So if Lewis is going to call the plays and Smith will relay them, what exactly Zorn will do during the game? He says he’ll still have his hand in all of the important in-game decisions: timeouts, major substitutions, fourth-down decisions, challenges. Zorn will also be in discussion with Smith and Lewis between offensive possessions, discussing specific plays and strategy. So while he won’t be sending each play into the huddle, Zorn can still have a heavy influence on how the game is called. “In between the series, we’ll be communicating,” Zorn said, “and I’ll be communicating to (Lewis). And then we’ll start working on the plan for the next series. I’ll be talking to the players. There’s a lot to do.” READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

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