“The frustration of the season is there is a nucleus for success,” Bruce Allen said during his press conference after firing Mike Shanahan. “We saw it. We saw it just a year ago. And the nucleus is here, and we have some of the right foundational principles to win. We just have to learn to take advantage of all 60 minutes in a game and close the deal.”

Success, he assured us, was not far away. Not far at all.

“You can look at teams that turn around in one year — I think the greatest example is Philadelphia and Kansas City — [Kansas City] Coach [Andy] Reid did a great job with the Chiefs,” Allen also said in that presser. “He just left Philly and they didn’t perform well, but the new coach came in and led them to the division title. If we find the right person, we will have the stability that we all want in the NFL.”

And so the highest-ranking football man in the Redskins organization thought there was a nucleus for success, that a one-year turnaround was possible, that the flailing instability of the past need not destabilize the future. One year later, the Redskins are again 3-10, are again the subject of a carnival-tent worth of distractions and are again staring hopelessness and despair dead in the face.

Some might say the Redskins need to accept where they actually are in the NFL hierarchy, and then commit to stripping everything down and building from a new foundation. Like ESPN.com’s John Keim, among the longest-tenured Redskins beat writers.

“The more I think about it, the more this place just needs to be rebuilt,” he wrote after the Rams loss.

The Redskins, though, have historically been unwilling to make that plunge. Too often, they think the nucleus, the right foundational principles, are already here. And it was with this in mind that I watched Redskins Senior Vice President Larry Michael preview the Rams game on the team-produced “Redskins Nation” program last week.

“First of all, when you look at these offenses, Shaun Hill, the quarterback for the Rams, 13-year veteran,” Michael said. “Yeah, they have some weapons, but at home, I like Alfred Morris, I like the running game, I like DeSean Jackson. Put the check next to the Redskins offense.”

DeSean Jackson sat out the game because of injury. Morris gained six yards on eight carries.

“Defensively, the Rams have four number one picks on their defensive line,” Michael said. “That’s a good defense. They really are good. They’re led by Gregg Williams, obviously he’s going to dial up some blitzes for the Rams against the Redskins. And as much as it pains me, put the check next to the Rams.”

“The Skins’ special teams, I think, have really buttoned it up,” Michael said. “We don’t have the big return yet. Forty-five yards, the longest return by Andre Roberts. I think he’s going to break one. Kai Forbath has been steady. Zuerlein, their kicker, is pretty darn good, but Tress Way is the best punter in the league. Check next to the Redskins special teams.”

The Redskins gave up a 78-yard punt return for a score. They gave up a fake extra point for a two-point conversion. They averaged 1.5 yards on punt returns. They ran a failed fake punt that led to a Rams touchdown.

“And in terms of intangibles, the Redskins are hungrier than the St. Louis Rams,” Michael said. “I believe they’re hungrier than the Rams. The Rams coming off a 52-0 victory at home over Oakland. They’re hitting the road, outside, it’s going to be a little chilly, though no precipitation is expected. Intangibles go the Redskins’ way: 35-21 Redskins beat the Rams to win their fourth of the year.”

Look, I picked the Redskins to beat the Rams, too. Picking NFL games is not a science. Often, figuring out popular opinion and going the other way is the best bet.

But a senior vice president of the team went on a team-produced television program and said the Redskins had the edge in intangibles. The same Redskins who have twice benched their franchise quarterback, and were starting a journeyman third-stringer. The same Redskins playing in front of a part-empty stadium in which people had bags on their heads. The same Redskins who entered having won three of their past 20 games, the franchise’s worst 20-game stretch since 1964. The same Redskins who annually endure as many pregame leaks as a typical FedEx Field urinal, accompanied by a strikingly similar odor. The same Redskins whose coach and GM entered the game 1 for 6 on challenges, whose defensive coordinator would be verbally flayed by a former defensive captain and who have now reached double-digit losses for the fifth time in six seasons.

That Redskins team had the edge IN INTANGIBLES?

Well, sure they did. I just hope unwavering, this-time-it-won’t-explode optimism is one of the foundational principles of success.