What Now for Jim Zorn and the Redskins After Historically Bad Loss in Detroit?

Jim Zorn just wrapped up his Monday press conference. He made it through the entire thing without being fired. Here are some choice excerpts via Washington Post’s Rick Maese:

I’m not sure how going from barely beating the Rams at home to being dominated by the Lions equates to “getting better.”

Washington players were available to the media this morning on the heels of one of the worst losses in franchise history.

Some highlights from The Washington Times:

SBN’s Skins blog Hogs Haven calls Sunday’s loss as bad as any in D.C. sports history, says they should “blow it up” by trading their talent for draft picks before calling for Russ Grimm, he of Hogs lore and current Cardinals assistant coach, to replace Zorn:

Grimm was on the Skins radar to succeed Joe Gibbs 2.0 and would be a fine option as the next head coach. Although Bill Cowher and Mike Shanahan would likely be better options.

The Washington Times’ Ryan O’Halloran says firing Zorn mid-season would be a logistical nightmare, making many of the same points we did this morning and coming to this conclusion:

O’Halloran, and the rest of the D.C. media, will get to speak with the players starting at 11 a.m. Hopefully that will yield more insight into the state of this team.

The early word following the Redskins disaster in Detroit was the Jim Zorn would not be fired. And this is to be expected — even the likes of Dan Snyder wouldn’t march into the locker room and fire the head coach minutes after a loss. But it also doesn’t mean Snyder & Co. won’t change their minds as this week of infinite sadness in Washington progresses.

To that point, as Chris Chase notes, the last time high-ranking sources within the organization were making claims about the future of the team’s head coaching position, they all turned out to be dead wrong.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting that despite the disappointment in Redskins camp, Jim Zorn’s not going anywhere:

Lions head coach Jim Schwartz spoke to NBC’s Bob Costas, and had this to say on today’s historic win:

He continued:

With today’s loss to the Detroit Lions—and after the team was booed off the field last week after a win—the Redskins have officially spiraled into his disarray. Or, at least, that’s what you’d think listening to the Washington media. Dan Steinberg over at the DC Sports Bog collected some thoughts from personalities around the area:

The players-quitting-on-coach is a popular refrain in sports, but rarely is that cliche trotted out in September. That trusted analysts like Chase would draw that conclusion speaks volumes: maybe the Redskins really have quit on Zorn. Santana Moss, for one, openly questioned Zorn’s decision to go for it on fourth down early in the first quarter.

To most football fans, the Lions’ win over the Redskins is little more than the end of a statistical curiosity. But to Lions fans — the diehard fans who have weathered a losing streak that has lasted nearly two years, and blog faithfully throughout — there’s nothing but happiness and relief. Here’s the partial reaction from SB Nation’s Lions blog, Pride of Detroit: