LANDOVER, Md. — Now that the 49ers have been guaranteed at least 10 regular-season victories because of a 2-0 start and eight upcoming gimmies against the NFC West's pushovers, they can begin thinking about resting their starters for the playoffs.
Playing a Nebraska-like schedule, the 49ers dispatched the Akron Zips, otherwise known in NFL circles as the Washington Redskins, 45-10, on Monday night before 76,798 in Jack Kent Cooke Stadium with San Francisco quarterback Steve Young throwing for three touchdowns and running for another.
It was San Francisco's seventh- consecutive victory over the Zips, ah, Redskins, and left Washington football fans, who witnessed the worst home defeat in 50 years, calling for impeachment hearings--even though Coach Norv Turner has three years remaining in his term.
"I don't know--1948--I wasn't even born," Washington wide receiver Leslie Shepherd said. "I could care less about the worst loss here. Any time you get booed in your home stadium something's going wrong."
Turner, responsible for obstructing any chance the Redskins had of making a franchise turnaround after the panic switch from quarterback Gus Frerotte--signed to a huge contract last season--to Trent Green in the second game of the season, has compiled a 26-38-1 record in office.
Frerotte took a beating in last week's loss to the Giants, but a skittish Turner acknowledged later that he intended to start Green in the second week of the season regardless of Frerotte's physical condition. That, after building a team in the off-season around Frerotte, and then jumping to Green, who had the benefit of throwing one career pass coming into this season after being an eighth-round draft pick of the Chargers in 1993.
Green was so bad early in his career the quarterback-starved Chargers cut him. No one claimed him, and he sat at home in 1994, played five weeks in 1995 for British Columbia and then sat on the Redskins' bench without ever getting into a game until last year.
The Redskins ran 1,028 plays last season and allowed Green to participate in one. He threw an incomplete pass. But now he's the Redskins' savior, Turner confirming after the drubbing by the 49ers that Green will remain in command.
"We have to continue to fight," said Turner, and if that's any indication of his pregame pep talks then the final results are understandable. "We can play a lot better."
