Washington Redskins head coach Jim Zorn hasn't seen his play calling questioned much this year. Well, except here. And here. And here, and here, and here, and here...

If Zorn thought the boo-birds were after his head before, he's about to get a new lesson in career guidance from everyone in the nation's capital. And he'll deserve every bit of it after the work he did in Washington's 14-6 loss to the formerly winless Kansas City Chiefs. In a day that saw the Redskins get only seven first downs despite 265 total offensive yards gained, Zorn reached a new low in clipboard theory.

First, there was the formation used in the play with six seconds left in the first half. The Redskins were down, 3-0, and they had fourth-and-2 at the Kansas City 36. For all the crap Zorn has taken for running risk-averse offenses when he'd be better off going for the gusto, it's a standard principle of the West Coast Offense he's so familiar with to get a quick out to your most reliable receiver in situations like these. Dink it for ten to Chris Cooley(notes), get out of bounds, and play to tie at the end of the half. Instead, Zorn went with four receivers -- none of whom were Cooley -- and Campbell in the shotgun. At the snap, the wide guys all ran deep routes, and Antwaan Randle-El went up the middle from the right slot. To complicate matters, Campbell had to wait for the routes to develop and moved forward under pressure. By the time the ball was in the air, the clock had run out. Whatever happened here, it would be the last play of the half. What happened there was an interception by cornerback Brandon Flowers(notes), and a lost scoring opportunity for the Redskins.

The Redskins responded to this debacle in the way you'd expect any dysfunctional team to -- by replacing their quarterback. Now we would find out if, as Sonny Jurgensen insisted, the 'Skins would be undefeated with backup "savior" Todd Collins(notes) in the game. Collins started out well, completing a 42-yard pass to Santana Moss(notes) on a drive that led to a field goal early in the second half. Clinton Portis(notes) started Washington's second third-quarter drive out with a bang -- a 78-yard run that put the ball at the Kansas City 10-yard line. And then, Zorn rolled out the following calls:

1. Shotgun, empty backfield. Collins overthrows Moss.
2. Shotgun, empty backfield. Collins overthrows Randle El.
3. Shotgun, single-back. Collins gets his pass deflected at the line.
4. Field goal.

As a head coach and play-caller, you know you're doing something very, very wrong when field goals are considered mammoth upgrades in the results department. The game ended when Tamba Hali(notes) sacked Collins in the end zone for a safety with seconds left in the game.

There are many problems that plague this team, from the front office to the recent draft picks, but the heat on Zorn is justifiable. The Redskins face the Eagles next Monday night, and then they have a bye. If Zorn's still on the payroll at the other side of that bye, I will be absolutely shocked.

It's clear that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers(notes) is out of step with Blamescaping in the NFL, 2009-Style. While Seahawks coach Jim Mora calls his kicker out in public, Maurice Jones-Drew(notes) makes his dissatisfaction with the Jaguars' play-calling very public, and Clinton Portis(notes) negates the contributions of fullback Mike Sellers(notes), one guy with a legitimate beef against five of his teammates has refused to get sucked in.

That would be Rodgers, whose 20 sacks leads the NFL. Most of you saw just how bad the Packers' injury-decimated line was in that Monday Night Favreapalooza game, when Jared Allen(notes) went ballistic and spent full time in the Packers' backfield. Still, with all that going on, when Rodgers was asked about his pass protection on Wednesday, he stuck with the old-school code.

"It really doesn't do any good. I trust those guys. I love those guys. They take care of me, I take care of them. That's the way it goes. We have a tight-knit relationship. Nothing gets done when you do something like that publicly.

"We're all pros. We all hold ourselves to a standard of play, and I'd say myself and those guys included would probably all agree that personally, we haven't played up to our potential at all times. We all want to play better. We're going to play better."

Rodgers has a few things on his side this Sunday. The Packers are going up against the Detroit Lions, whose pass rush doesn't inspire fear. Over the next couple of weeks, the Pack will get left tackle Chad Clifton(notes) back from injury, which will do a lot to right the ship. The Packers have some work to do in re-energizing their line (expect it to be a focus in the 2010 draft) but in the meantime, kudos to Aaron Rodgers for being a stand-up guy -- even when he's spending far too much time on his butt.

Tom Brady(notes), QB, New England Patriots. At the two-minute warning, the Patrtios had the ball, 1st and 10, at their own 49 yard line, with the score tied. Tom Brady wins in that situation 100 times out of 100, right? Maybe not anymore. On second down, Brady took a sack and coughed up the football, the Broncos forced overtime and they snatched the win. For five games now, Tom Brady has not been the Tom Brady we're used to, and I think it's fair to wonder how much of that is because Josh McDaniels is now on the opposite sideline, and not on Brady's sideline.

Chris Brown, RB, Houston Texans. Even after DRC made the play late in the fourth quarter yesterday, the Texans had every opportunity to send the game into overtime, where momentum would have still been on their side. But two of their last three offensive plays where Chris Brown getting the ball at the one-yard-line, and then being unable to do anything but run into a guy and stay there. Of course, Matt Schaub(notes) can take some of the blame for overshooting Joel Dreessen(notes) in the back of the endzone on third down, too, and so can whoever called those plays, because the Texans clearly weren't going to get any kind of a push against the Cardinals defensive front.

Clinton Portis(notes), RB, Washington Redskins. Clinton Portis accepts this award on behalf of all the Redskins, but he gets chosen for the honors for whining to the coaches about a teammate, when he's not exactly lighting the world on fire, either. Last week, Portis yapped to the coaches to get fullback Mike Sellers(notes) pulled from the game, and while it may have been true that Sellers blew a play, Portis can feel free to pull his own weight, too. He's averaging 3.7 yards per carry on the year (backup Ladell Betts(notes) is at 4.9) and got just 57 yards on 19 carries yesterday.

Kerry Collins(notes), QB, Tennessee Titans. Having Kerry Collins as your quarterback is fine, as long as you don't ever plan to be trailing. When he's got to throw the ball 32 times, you just aren't going to win. Of course, you could take the Raiders approach, trail all game, and still not let your quarterback throw (JaMarcuss Russell [obviously, we're not getting through an LVP post without at least a mention] threw 13 times yesterday), but I guess you'll lose either way.

Derek Anderson(notes), QB, Cleveland Browns. I believe DA is the first player to ever win a game and be included among the least valuable players. Congratulations, Mr. 2-of-27 for 23 yards. Did Brady Quinn(notes) do something to Eric Mangini's wife or something? Does Derek Anderson have pictures of Mangini and an underage sheep?

The Desperation Index features disappointing teams thought to be in the hunt at one point (excluding your Lions, Chiefs, Browns and Rams), but are now struggling to save their seasons after rough starts in 2009. Who is most on the hook for a win this week?

Desperation Index: 10.0 -- Tennessee Titans (0-4): Right now, the only thing keeping the Titans on this list if the fact that they were the NFL's 1-seed in 2008. They look nothing like that team in 2009. It could have been argued that they were the NFL's best winless team until last Sunday, when they were convincingly beaten by the Jaguars, 37-17. Now they're one more loss away from done, and the specter of the "Hey, let's see if Vince Young(notes) can actually play quarterback in the NFL" discussion again. Eek.

Desperation Index: 10.0 -- Carolina Panthers (0-3): Similarly, last year's 2-seed in the NFC can't buy a win. Before their Week 4 bye, the Panthers lost, 21-7 to the uneven Cowboys. They haven't had a 100-yard rusher in a single game yet, which is very bad news for their smashmouth offense. Why the Kats are playing keep-away from their running game is a mystery, but if they have any hope of salvaging their season, it's time to load up the tight ends and get back to power against the Redskins today.

Desperation Index: 10.0 -- Seattle Seahawks (1-3): Last year, their 4-12 record was more about a historic number of offensive injuries, and the front office got a pass. Now, team president Tim Ruskell is one loss away from a dead season and a great many questions about his tenure. He's the guy who ran Mike Holmgren out of town, and has failed to find necessary replacements for Matt Hasselbeck(notes), Walter Jones(notes), and Shaun Alexander(notes). Another sub-500 season in the Emerald City could lead to a much-needed rebuild.

Desperation Index: 9.0 -- Arizona Cardinals (1-2): Last year's NFC Champs were blown out by the Colts in Week 3, and they've had the bye week to fix a running game that has failed to produce a single player going over 30 yards in two of their three games. More distressingly, Kurt Warner(notes) is not hitting his downfield targets -- his Yards per Pass Attempt is down from 7.7 in 2008 to 7.1 in 2009, which is his worst since 2003. They need to figure it out against the Houston Texans, a team that can actually outgun them these days.

Desperation Index: 8.0 -- Washington Redskins (2-2): What a lovely week it's been for the Beltway Bunglers. First, Danny and Vinny pulled Sherm Lewis out of the bingo hall to "oversee" Jim Zorn ("Okay, now call B-1!"). Then, there was defensive coordinator Greg Blache's insistence that he wouldn't talk to the media for the rest of the season, which is a real shame, as he's the most quotable coach in the NFL. Then, the catfight between Clinton Portis(notes) and Mike Sellers(notes) over Portis wanting Sellers pulled because of his blocking. This is one week, folks. The Panthers may have problems, but at least they're not an ongoing soap opera. If the Redskins dip under .500 by losing to Carolina, what will NEXT week look like?

Desperation Index: 8.0 -- Miami Dolphins (1-3): The Dolphins finally got their first win of the season against the Bills last week, a 38-10 shellacking that actually put them with more points scored than allowed for the season. They've lost two close games -- one to the Colts where they had the ball for 45 minutes, and one to the Chargers in which San Diego exploited Miami's holes in their red zone defense. Now, they have a chance to crawl back to relevance against the Jets on Monday night, but they're facing Rex Ryan -- the same guy who ran the Baltimore defense that shut down the Wildcat last year.