GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -First Santana Moss benched himself, then blamed himself for the Redskins' 17-14 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. His Washington teammates declined to pile on, saying Moss was being too critical of his play.
``I just didn't feel right. I took myself out,'' said Moss, who left the game shortly after a costly fumble. ``Something wasn't feeling right with me and why go out there and keep another guy from helping us win? ... I wasn't making the plays that I should have been making.''
Moss finished without a catch and allowed the go-ahead touchdown when he fumbled on a reverse that Charles Woodson picked up and returned 57 yards with 2:05 left in the third quarter.
``I can go home and sit there and probably break my TV based on what I'm going to see tonight,'' Moss said. ``I know that's not the solution.''
Despite a cramp in his leg, Moss kept the focus solely on his miserable performance, which included several uncharacteristic dropped passes.
``I'm going to blame me first,'' Moss said. ``I look at myself way harder than any of you guys do or really harder than any teammate or coach is going to.''
While Moss' honesty was refreshing, the truth was all the Redskins squandered multiple opportunities after looking in control with a 14-7 halftime lead.
``We all know that when you play as hard as he does there may be days like this that come up for you,'' Redskins coach Joe Gibbs said. ``It's not any one guy, and I never look at it as any one guy. We had a lot of things happen to us today in a lot of different areas. It's Redskins together. It certainly wasn't any one player.''
Washington went 0-for-7 on third down and 0-for-2 on fourth down in the second half and dropped at least eight passes during the game. It became apparent early in the third quarter that the momentum had shifted.
Jason Campbell found James Thrash for a 40-yard play that was nullified by offsetting penalties, including pass interference on Thrash. Moss couldn't catch the next pass in double coverage and Washington was forced to punt.
Moss also dropped another deep toss down the right side with 48 seconds left in the third quarter, and decided to let Keenan McCardell take his place. McCardell finished with two receptions for 30 yards, but Washington receivers only caught four of Campbell's 37 throws.
``He is a great person, and I don't want the city or anyone else to say anything bad about him or get down on him,'' Campbell said of Moss.
Moss, who signed a six-year, $31 million contract in 2005 after being traded from the Jets, hopes to forget about his bad day and bounce back quickly.
``I never had a game like this and I hope I never have another one,'' he said. ``You've got to dig within and see what you have.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
