Donovan McNabb said that had it not been for his mistakes, the Redskins would've defeated Chicago in a blowout. (Photo: Associated Press)

Donovan McNabb was “distraught” over his poor execution and costly errors in his team’s nail-biter 17-14 victory over the Chicago Bears on Sunday, and said that the Redskins should’ve blown their hosts out.

Making his weekly appearance on ESPN 980’s Sports Fix with Kevin Sheehan and Thom Lovero, McNabb admitted that he could have played smarter and should have  capitalized on the opportunities that the Redskins had on offense.

“I’m distraught. I’m upset because I know we can play better,” said McNabb, who completed 17 of 32 passes for 200 yards for a touchdown and two interceptions, was sacked twice, hit six times and fumbled twice (although both fumbles were recovered by Washington).

“I think people get caught up in the statistical things, but I take different plays out,” McNabb continued. “I take plays like the interception. Could I have held the ball and taken the sack or gotten the ball out quicker? Then I go to a batted ball that was knocked down when I was throwing to Cooley on a screen play that probably would’ve gone for 30, 40 yards. Then I take like the Armstrong play, and think maybe I could’ve put more air under it to give him more time to react. It’s plays like that that I’m upset about. We won, but offensively, as individual players, we take it personal that we weren’t able to do the things we set out to do. We could’ve easily put 28, 30 points on the board.”

McNabb’s most costly error was an interception that was returned 54 yards for a touchdown and resulted in Chicago taking a 7-0 lead. McNabb took the snap and failed to recognize Bears cornerback D.J. Moore coming on a blitz from the left side. Moore got to McNabb and the quarterback tried to slip the defender and throw the ball to tight end Chris Cooley on the end. Defensive end Israel Idonije also was bearing down on McNabb and deflected his pass. Moore plucked the ball out of the air and was off to the races.

Analyzing the play, McNabb told Sheehan and Lovero, “The best thing of handling that, is recognizing the blitz and getting him the ball quicker. In the game situation, I [felt] like I could shrug him off and get the ball to Cooley. But probably I should’ve just took the sack. I was tussling with him a little, [Idonije] was able to get his hand on the ball, [Moore] comes up with it. If I take the sack, we’re not even talking about that play.”

The Redskins offense again struggled to put together a complete game. Although Ryan Torain rushed for 125 yards, Washington had only one touchdown on offense and a field goal to show for. McNabb insists that the team continues to make improvements in learning the new offense.

“No, no. I don’t feel like we’re running in place. What we’re doing is showing progression in different spots in each game. If we can put it all together, we explode,” McNabb said. “For this offense, we’ve shown so many positive things, that if we can just put it together consistently in these next eight, nine weeks it’s going to be very important that we put it together instead of relying on our defense.”