The Post Sports Live crew analyzes Kirk Cousins's performance in eight career starts and debates whether he has proven he could ever be a top 20 quarterback in the NFL. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)

The Post Sports Live crew analyzes Kirk Cousins's performance in eight career starts and debates whether he has proven he could ever be a top 20 quarterback in the NFL. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)

There is a sentiment that need never be repeated again in Washington, and it’s this: “Dan Snyder just wants to win.” The day the owner quits doubling down on his favorite mistakes is the day you’ll know Washington’s football team is worth your interest again. The day Bruce Allen’s taxi is waiting to take him to the airport, to be replaced by an actual football professional as opposed to someone’s son or brother, is the day you’ll know this team isn’t just another fan swindle.

It’s mid-October, yet Washington’s football fans once more feel like they’re drinking flat beer. The team is in last place in the NFC East, which makes 2014 no different from 2013, 2011 or 2010, and the conversation already has shifted to how many needs will have to be filled in the offseason. Well, let’s count. There’s the offensive line, which plays with all the enthusiasm of gravediggers; the secondary, which can’t stop a seam route or a deep ball; the defensive line, which can’t seem to mount a consistent pass rush; and then there is the matter of finding a quarterback who isn’t so easily breakable either physically or mentally.

Nice job. Way to build.

Why is Washington always facing the same decade-old problems? Why, no matter how much changes, does nothing change? The reason is that Snyder prefers spies, moles, flatterers and glad-handers instead of accomplished managers. No coach or roster can succeed because they become fatalistic paycheckers who have no faith in the basic organization. The cycle of internal dissolution is repetitive and inevitable: The front office and locker room are torn apart by disagreement and dissension because the owner’s suite is always open to the backstabbers and the bad-mouthers.

Think about how many times this past offseason you heard a member of the organization plunge a knife into someone and distance themselves from blame. Allen went out of his way to shuck responsibility for any roster problems, saying that with Mike Shanahan’s firing “the control will be mine,” and vowing to “redefine some of the characteristics that we’re looking for in players.” He also offloaded any responsibility for Robert Griffin III returning too quickly from a knee injury last season, saying it was “almost disrespectful,” and the quarterback was asked “to do the impossible.”

The Post Sports Live crew predicts what will happen when the Redskins take on the Titans at FedEx Field on Sunday. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)

Allen is president of the ballclub. What a stand-up guy.

Then there is the noble Jim Haslett, who whispered in the ear of all who would listen that his unit’s abysmal defensive performance last year was not his fault but a result of interference from above. DeAngelo Hall said, “I’m excited after talking to Haslett . . . of him being able to run his defense without anybody in his ear telling him what to call or what not to call.” Haslett himself said he wanted to “turn loose” his players, and, “You’ll see more of what we want to do . . .” as if he had been shackled and gagged.

Now, the point is not that Shanahan did a job worth defending. He didn’t. The point is what this says about the culture in Ashburn. If these are the sorts of things being said in the open, imagine the daggers plunged behind closed doors. But the real point is that this is what a very nice, well-meaning, seemingly talented, but not very empowered coach named Jay Gruden can expect going forward.

Disloyalty and unraveling, these are the hallmarks of Snyder’s ownership: Vinny Cerrato never missed a chance to cut up Jim Zorn. As the team starts to slide, there is a parade of tattletales and second-guessers who complain into the too-willing ear of the owner, and the head coach leaves not just a failure, but damaged.

Meanwhile, some of the wrong people are retained.

Explain, please, how Haslett could have been rehired from last year’s staff. He hasn’t had a squad ranked in the top half of the league since 2003. Last season his unit was 30th in points allowed and 20th against the pass. This season, his “turned loose” unit has surrendered at least 27 points in its past four games and is giving up an average of 297.9 yards, once again in the bottom third of the NFL. And this is with the addition of Jason Hatcher and Ryan Clark.

We know now where responsibility for Haslett’s performance lies: with Haslett.

1 of 30 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Washington at Arizona for Week 6 View Photos The Redskins’ losing streak continues as they fall 30-20 to the Cardinals. Caption The Redskins’ losing streak continues as they fall 30-20 to the Cardinals. Washington Redskins outside linebacker Brian Orakpo and teammates take the field for a game against the Arizona Cardinals on October 12 in Glendale, Ariz. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

This is why Washington is staggering in the NFC East. The better teams, Dallas and Philadelphia, are playing with a percussive force, the exacting, synchronized rhythm of a drumroll. This is because they believe in what they are doing. Even the drama-prone, emotionally messy Cowboys exhibit more basic loyalty and steadfastness to their people and their plan when things go wrong.

Washington, on the other hand, flies around chaotically, and yet as Gruden puts it “nothing is happening” for all of their seeming action. Except 48 penalties, fifth most in the league, and a raft of interceptions by Kirk Cousins, who tries to play with conviction but apparently can neither close out a game nor overcome a deficit, and is growing more insecure by the game.

The NFL asks men to risk their long-term health for the sake of winning, and that takes a certain amount of faith in the bosses upstairs. Without it, it’s hard to pay the daily bodily dues — to stand in, to play with real zeal instead of superficial. And it’s hard to buy in when you know the coach, no matter how much you like him or hate him, likely will be undermined when things go wrong.

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be,” Tom Landry once said. Exactly what chance does anyone in Washington have of exercising those principles?

For more by Sally Jenkins, visit washingtonpost.com/jenkins.