Forgive Mike Shanahan if he had no idea how to respond to the Redskins' 23-0 loss to the Bills, but the man has never experienced a defeat quite like it before in the NFL.
That's because Sunday marked the first time Shanahan has ever been shut out in his 24 seasons as an NFL coach or offensive coordinator, according to STATS LLC. To put it another way, it took 268 games (281 including playoffs) as a head coach before one of Shanahan's teams finally laid a goose egg.
That'll happen when your offense is decimated by injuries and John Beck is your starting quarterback. But against the Bills' 31st-ranked defense? It's a tough pill to swallow for the third-winningest active coach in the NFL.
"Well, it's as bad as I have ever been a part of as an offensive coach or a head coach" said Shanahan, who has two Super Bowl wins on his résumé. "I've never been in that situation where we were shut out, so it's a tough one to take. It's pretty humbling to take that."
Being shut out is a first experience Shanahan could have done without.
"You think I'm satisfied? we didn't score a point," Shanahan said. "Obviously I'm disappointed with our execution, but we are going to go back and work on the execution."
It's a tough task. But if anybody has the coaching chops to make something out of nothing, it's got to be Shanahan, right? But if this happens again next week against the 49ers' stout defense, forget about it.
