Coach Joe Gibbs, despite having posted a career win-loss record that is just to die for, has never once won an opening week game on a Monday night. It makes you wonder why he’d willingly go through it again, especially after last night’s dispiriting loss to the Minnesota Vikings and their newly befuglified uniforms—squandering both a home game and a match against a very beatable team.

In a game set against the backdrop of September 11th and attended by no less than Tom Cruise and his fiancee, Washington’s offense played in fits and starts. They did not look as inept as their lowest point of the past year, but neither did they look entirely comfortable with the new offense. Quarterback Mark Brunell demonstrated that he could still throw with strength and accuracy, but he just didn’t look like he had mastered the offense and he struggled to involve his most effective weapons of last year, Santana Moss and Chris Cooley. Brandon Lloyd, an all-pro when it comes to talking the talk, had a couple critical moments of Taylor Jacobean drops. And Clinton Portis may have oversold his “93.9 percent” status—perpetually looking like he might find his higher gear, but never quite getting entirely loose.