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Washington Redskins: Bruce Allen says team culture is 'damn good'

ASHBURN, Va. — On the day that the Washington Redskins fired head coach Jay Gruden , leaving an already dissipating fanbase with little hope and an already hapless franchise with an unclear direction, team president Bruce Allen said that everything is fine. In a rare news conference at Washington's practice facility Monday, Allen said he can feel the passion of Redskins players, who have yet to win a game this season. He said the front office has had "a few great drafts" and "the pieces are here for a winning team." And perhaps most notably, he praised the culture of an organization that has lost 11 of its past 12 games and become known throughout the league for its dysfunction . "You know, the culture is actually damn good," Allen said. "These people care. We have a very young core of players that we have brought in here who are accustomed to winning. If you look at the record of these guys they're accustomed to winning. They want to win. "We've made too many mistakes on game day. But the effort — the effort of the players and the rest of this organization is fantastic." When asked about how that "damn good" culture has translated to wins, Allen offered a puzzling response. "Through winning football games. We have to win. We didn't win any of these games," he said. The purpose of Monday's news conference was ostensibly to discuss the firing of Gruden after five-plus seasons, but it quickly devolved into a referendum on Allen, who joined the organization nearly a decade ago. As coaches, scouts and players have come and gone since late 2009, Allen has remained entrenched as owner Dan Snyder's right-hand man — even though the Redskins have posted an overall record of 59-89-1 during his tenure. And on Monday, Allen sidestepped multiple questions about his personal role in the organization's demise. "We're all involved in this," he said, when asked directly about his level of accountability for Washington's performance over the past decade. "We're all 0-5," he said at another point. Allen has, most recently, drawn fans' ire for refusing to trade Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams, who has been holding out since training camp. Allen said "there's been no dialogue with any other team" about Williams and he is not considering making a trade at this point. As for Gruden, Allen did not offer much reasoning for the coach's dismissal other than to say the decision was made a few hours after Washington's 33-7 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday and was "difficult, but it was necessary." Offensive line coach Bill Callahan, the former Oakland Raiders and University of Nebraska coach, will serve as the Redskins' interim coach as they prepare to face another winless team, the Miami Dolphins, on Sunday. Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad .