Mike Shanahan, the overrated Redskins coach, met the media after Washington lost at home to Carolina, 21-13, and sounded like a guy who was throwing in the towel on the season. Washington is 3-6 and in the cellar in the NFC East.

“Now you’re playing to see who obviously is going to be on your football team for years to come. Now we get a chance to evaluate players and see where we’re at. Obviously, we’re not out of it statistically, but now we find out what type of character we’ve got and how guys keep on fighting through the rest of the season.”

The Redskins have lost three in a row, but fortunately have a bye next weekend. After that? Yikes:

vs. Philadelphia
at Dallas
vs. the Giants
vs. the Ravens.

Could easily be 0-4 or 1-3, which would drop the Redskins into 3-10/4-9 territory heading into late December.

At what point does Shanahan begin to worry about job security? Little Danny Snyder loves Shanahan, and ESPN’s Adam Schefter does too, but with Sean Payton on the market, and Bill Cowher forever looming as an option … eh, maybe Shanahan will just fire his son the offensive coordinator.

Or perhaps he’ll remind everyone about the injuries on defense and to Fred Davis and Pierre Garcon and the long-suffering fanbase (one playoff win since 2000; two playoff wins since 1993) will give him a pass. [Wash Post]