December 9, 2008 Redskins Park • 21300 Redskin Park Drive • Ashburn, VA 20147 • 703-726-7000 • www.redskins.com REDSKINS TRAVEL TO QUEEN CITY IN SEARCH OF WIN The Washington Redskins, in need of a East opponents closely. four games, the Washington defense has win to keep their playoff hopes alive, In fact, the Bengals tied Philadelphia seen a rapid increase in takeaways. Since travel to Cincinnati for their first ever four weeks ago and lost to the Giants in the acquisition of cornerback DeAngelo game at Paul Brown Stadium to take on overtime in Week Three. Cincinnati also Hall on Nov. 8, the Redskins have six in- the Bengals (1-11-1). Kickoff off is set for forced Dallas to hold on for a 31-22 win terceptions and a fumble recovery, all 1 p.m. ET. after the Bengals missed a two-point con- created by members of the secondary, The contest will be broadcast nation- version attempt to tie the game at 24 in compared to only two in the five games ally by FOX-TV with Kenny Albert calling the fourth quarter, before the Cowboys prior. the play-by-play, Daryl Johnston adding scored the game’s final touchdown with This will be Washington's seventh road the analysis and Tony Siragusa reporting less than two minutes remaining. game of 2008, but ironically, the Redskins from the sidelines. Washington started the season running have enjoyed more success as the visit- The game can also be heard on the the ball well, with Clinton Portis racking ing team, showing a 4-2 record away Redskins Radio Network with Larry up 944 yards through the first eight from FedExField, compared to a 3-4 Michael on the play-by-play, former Red- games of the season and vaulting into the home record. skins greats and Pro Football Hall of Fame conversation for league MVP. In the five With the NFC Playoff race tightening, members Sam Huff and Sonny Jurgensen games since, he has been nagged by in- the Redskins have left themselves little adding color and Doc Walker reporting juries and been held to less than 70 yards room for error in the season’s final three from the sideline. in four of them against some of the weeks. Washington found itself in similar The Redskins (7-6), led by Jim Zorn, league’s toughest rush defenses. circumstances in both 2005 and 2007 and look to bounce back not only from a 24- Following the Baltimore game, Portis won its final three contests to qualify for 10 loss last week to the Ravens, but from promised to return to Wednesday prac- the playoffs. a late-season skid that has seen them tice for the first time in weeks, and a re- This will be the eighth regular season drop four of their last five. turn to health, combined with a matchup meeting between the clubs and only the The Bengals, meanwhile, are hopeful against the 29th-ranked Bengals rush de- second since 1991. The Redskins own a 4- that the Redskins will become their sec- fense, offers Portis a chance to recover 3 advantage, although the Bengals came ond win of the season, after they have his early-season form. to FedExField and won the last meeting played all three of their previous NFC Despite the team's record over the last in 2004. 2008 RESULTS/SCHEDULE WASHINGTON REDSKINS (7-6) at CINCINNATI BENGALS (1-11-1) Thu, 9/4 @ New York Giants L 7-16 Sun, 9/14 NEW ORLEANS SAINTS W 29-24 DATE: Sunday, December 14, 2008 TIME: 1 p.m. ET Sun, 9/21 ARIZONA CARDINALS W 24-17 SITE: Paul Brown Stadium SURFACE: FieldTurf CAPACITY: 65,515 Sun, 9/28 @ Dallas Cowboys W 26-24 Sun, 10/5 @ Philadelphia Eagles W 23-17 TELEVISION: FOX-TV Sun, 10/12 ST. LOUIS RAMS L 17-19 Play-by-play: Kenny Albert Sun, 10/19 CLEVELAND BROWNS W 14-11 Color: Daryl Johnston Sun, 10/26 @ Detroit Lions W 25-17 Sidelines: Tony Siragusa Mon, 11/3 PITTSBURGH STEELERS L 6-23 Sun, 11/9 — Bye Week — REDSKINS RADIO NETWORK: The Redskins Radio Broadcast Network can be Sun, 11/16 DALLAS COWBOYS L 10-14 heard in the Washington, D.C., area on ESPN Radio WTEM 980 AM, WWXX 94.3 Sun, 11/23 @ Seattle Seahawks W 20-17 FM, WWXT 92.7 FM, WTNT 570 AM and WWRC 1260 AM. Sun, 11/30 NEW YORK GIANTS L 7-23 Play-by-play: Larry Michael Sun, 12/7 @ Baltimore Ravens L 10-24 Color: Sam Huff and Sonny Jurgensen Sun, 12/14 @ Cincinnati Bengals 1 p.m. FOX Sideline: Doc Walker Sun, 12/21 PHILADELPHIA EAGLES 4:15 p.m. FOX Sun, 12/28 @ San Francisco 49ers 4:15 p.m.** FOX REDSKINS SPANISH RADIO: ESPN Deportes 730 Play-by-play: Raul Saenz ** Game subject to possible flexible scheduling adjustment Color: Jorge Alfaro WASHINGTON REDSKINS HEAD COACH JIM ZORN On February 10, 2008, Redskins Owner Daniel M. Snyder the NFL’s second-ranked offense to a franchise-record 11 welcomed Jim Zorn as the franchise’s 27th head coach, ush- consecutive wins and in his four December games he posted ering in a new chapter in Redskins history. the fourth-best passer rating in NFL history (135.5), includ- Zorn, an NFL quarterback from 1976-87 and an NFL assis- ing 10 touchdowns to one interception, and completed 76% tant coach the last 11 years, brings an approach that he de- of his passes. scribes as “constant and Zorn’s 2002 campaign had Trent consistent” in terms of how he Dilfer open the season as the manages coaches and players. starter and concluded with Hassel- “My hope is to hold the tradi- beck under center. Seattle’s pass- tions and the fight that the Red- ing attack ranked third in the NFL skins have always had in high averaging 254.9-yards a game. regard,” Zorn said. “I am going Hasselbeck finished the season to try in my best effort to con- ranked first in the NFC with a 63.7 tinue that tradition in my tenure completion percentage and second here as the head football in the NFC with a 87.8 passer rat- coach.” ing. Hasselbeck passed for more Zorn reached the top of his than 300 yards four times, includ- profession in an exciting couple ing a franchise-record 449 in the of weeks. season finale at San Diego. Has- Zorn was originally hired as the selbeck joined Zorn as the only Redskins’ offensive coordinator Seahawks quarterbacks to pass for on January 26, 2008. He im- at least 300 yards in back to back pressed Snyder and Executive games. Zorn accomplished the Vice President of Football Oper- feat in 1979 and 1981. ations Vinny Cerrato so much Zorn’s 2001 quarterback crop in- that, two weeks later, they decided to offer him the head cluded Holmgren’s hand-picked starter Hasselbeck, Super coaching job. He succeeds Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs. Bowl XXXV quarterback Dilfer and 2000 part-time starter “We wanted a head coach that had great character, in- Brock Huard. Zorn groomed Hasselbeck and helped the tegrity, leadership skills, smarts, drive, energy and pas- first-year starter to become the AFC’s fifth-rated passer on sion,” said Snyder. “In Coach Zorn, we ended up with a third-down with a rating of 80.6. person that has all of those attributes, plus much, much Zorn joined the Seahawks as quarterbacks coach after more.” serving in the same capacity with the Detroit Lions (1998- Zorn joined the Redskins from the Seattle Seahawks 00). He was instrumental in the development of rookie where he spent the last seven seasons (2001-07) as quarter- quarterback Charlie Batch in 1998. Batch’s 88.3 passer rat- backs coach. The Seahawks won four consecutive division ing that season ranks as the fourth-highest rookie mark in titles, made five straight playoff appearances and posted a NFL history. Zorn broke into the NFL coaching ranks as an franchise-best 13-3 record and first-ever Super Bowl ap- offensive assistant for the Seahawks in 1997. pearance in 2005. Zorn spent eight seasons in the collegiate ranks before his During his time in Seattle, Zorn worked with Seahawks pro debut. He spent two seasons (1995-96) as quarterbacks Head Coach Mike Holmgren and Offensive Coordinator Gil coach at the University of Minnesota and three seasons Haskell in implementing the team’s offense while also con- (1992-94) as the offensive coordinator at Utah State. His tinuing in the development of the team’s quarterbacks. first collegiate coaching job was as an offensive Zorn tutored QB Matt Hasselbeck who set a franchise assistant/quarterbacks coach at Boise State from 1989-91. record with 3,841 passing yards in 2003. Hasselbeck has be- His playing career began in the Seahawks’ inaugural 1976 come the franchise’s most-efficient passer (85.1 rating) season, starting all 14 games at quarterback. He went on while joining Zorn as the only franchise quarterback to pass to play nine seasons for the Seahawks. After departing Seat- for 3,000-plus yards in three consecutive seasons. tle, he finished his playing career with the Green Bay Pack- In 2007, Hasselbeck set Seattle single-season marks for ers (1985), the Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg Blue attempts (562), completions (352) and yards (3,966). He Bombers (1986) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1987). also threw for a career-high 28 touchdowns en route to his Along with Jacksonville’s Jack Del Rio, Zorn had the longest third Pro Bowl selection.