SUPER BOWL XXII : WASHINGTON REDSKINS vs. DENVER BRONCOS : Pro Football : Stop Elway? Redskins Need Williams to Convert Third Downs

As a playoff quarterback this winter, Doug Williams has been most troubling to Washington Redskins opponents on third down.

At 32, Williams is no longer a ballet dancer who can slide around in the pocket to buy time. Nor is he much of a scrambler now. He is at his best when his only real option is dropping back, planting properly in the pocket and firing the ball to one of the Redskins’ many gifted receivers.

Against the Denver Broncos, Williams would appear to be the right quarterback for a game plan accenting time-consuming runs and middle-distance passes, plus an occasional bomb.

“Washington has got to turn John Elway into a spectator if they can,” Bill Polian, general manager of the Buffalo Bills, said the other day. “That means running the football. That’s the key to this game. (Elway) can’t beat you if he’s sitting there while you’re making yards on first and second down.”

And completing passes on third down, which will be Williams’ primary responsibility in Sunday’s outing at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The Redskins will want to mix in enough early down passes to confuse the other side. But at Williams’ age and size--he stands 6 feet 4 inches and weighs 220 pounds--he isn’t really geared for a quick, short-yardage passing attack. He has trouble organizing himself quickly during a fast-developing play. And as a scrambler, he moves slowly, dragging his left leg.

Williams is a downfield power passer, one with a fast release and a big arm. The release is comparable to Dan Marino’s, the power is like Elway’s, and Williams’ compact, circular throwing motion is like Joe Namath’s.

But his low-level release is like Bernie Kosar’s, and that, combined with his hard throwing, could lead to some trouble. There could be some damaging deflections if his fireballs bounce off the fingertips of his receivers or off the hands of Denver’s rushing linemen.

Moreover, the psychology of the game is working against Williams, the Super Bowl’s first black quarterback. In a sports event so prominent, Williams can’t avoid carrying 300 years of black history on his shoulders, and he can’t avoid the madhouse hype of the Super Bowl.

This is the first time that people will have paid $1,500 for a $100 ticket to see Williams play. Elway has been here before. Thus, the psychology of the day favors Elway.

Still, in two high-pressure postseason tests this winter, Williams has shown stability. In adversity, he doesn’t get down on himself. He is a competitor who hangs tough.

And on third down, nobody in the National Football League throws a prettier pass.

The Redskin story:

PASS OFFENSE

The question is whether Williams, his numerous good receivers and their assortment of big blockers will play their game against a Denver defense that learned last season how to behave in the hysteria of a Super Bowl adventure.

As a passing team, the Redskins are nearly as talented as the Broncos. A key difference is that the Broncos have practiced holding onto the ball in this kind of tension.

“Washington’s receivers scare you,” said Harry Hulmes, assistant general manager of the New York Giants. “But Williams throws bullets. The ball will be bouncing off (the Redskins) and around the field if they lose their concentration in this game.”

When concentrating, the Redskins operate effectively in their one-back formation, scattering three or four wide receivers or tight ends in various passing patterns--along with Kelvin Bryant, the halfback who caught the big downfield throw from Williams in the National Football Conference title game.

Bryant is a wide receiver-type whom the Minnesota Vikings tried to cover with a linebacker. They were in that fix because Redskin wide receivers Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders demanded double coverage on outside patterns.

Redskin tight end Clint Didier, 6-5 and 240, is another wide receiver-type requiring double coverage. But few teams can free two defensive players to cover a tight end. And the defensive problem thickens for any opponent whenever Art Monk is physically able to perform for the Redskins, as he will be this week.

Monk, 6-3 and 210, is a tight end-type playing wide receiver. He is one of the few real football players playing that position in this era of scatback receivers.

The Redskins also have Jay Schroeder, a backup quarterback who is capable of winning if they have to bring him in.

Said the Giants’ Hulmes: “It was Schroeder who beat us this year after we’d led the Redskins into the fourth quarter.”

RUNNING OFFENSE

In both playoff games at Denver this month, two good running teams, Houston and Cleveland, strangely chose to open with low-percentage calls--a lateral that Mike Rozier fumbled on the goal line and a pass play that Bernie Kosar misplayed, taking an unnecessary sack. Both times, in the noise and glare of the death end of Mile High Stadium, the Broncos, with the sun on their backs, capitalized and, ultimately, won.

In Super Bowl XXII, don’t wait for the Redskins to make Houston’s mistake, or Cleveland’s. Thinking of Elway, the Redskins’ offense will get off the bus hammering away at Denver, which has the world’s smallest big-time defensive team.

With alternating running backs, they will hammer behind tackles averaging 300 pounds, Joe Jacoby and Mark May, and guards averaging 272, Raleigh McKenzie and R.C. Thielemann.

Steve Ortmayer, San Diego Chargers vice president of football operations, said: “Their blockers will dominate Denver’s defensive line.”

Minnesota Vikings lineman Keith Millard, identifying one of Washington’s least-celebrated players, said: “McKenzie is the best blocker I faced this season.”

At center, after injuries to bigger players, the Washington coaches have had to restore Jeff Bostic, 233. Against most 3-4 defenses today, a 300-pound center is needed to fight the NFL’s 300-pound nose tackles--but Denver is different. The Denver nose tackle, Greg Kragen, is only 245. Bostic is big enough to handle Kragen, if he’s good enough.

As their one running back behind this mob, the Redskins have lately been rotating Mr. Inside, George Rogers, with a new Mr. Outside, rookie Timmy Smith. Bryant plays on passing downs.

Smith’s role will surely be expanded Sunday. Said Polian: “Every team in the league wants a 5-10, 210 slasher, and the Redskins found one this year (at Texas Tech in the fifth round) in Timmy Smith.”

Rogers and Smith are the Redskins’ game plan--with Williams throwing on third down. It would be out of character for Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs to make deliberate plans for a shoot-out with Elway. But it will be essential for him to have a shoot-out game plan ready as an alternative. If it comes to star wars, the Redskins will be in trouble if they have to improvise.

DEFENSE

If the offensive strength of the Redskins is the receivers, their defensive strength is the front four. In football’s 3-4 era, the Redskins have clung to a 4-3 alignment in which their defensive line is the touchstone. And there isn’t a weak link.

They rush the passer with two above-average ends, Charles Mann and Dexter Manley, and they hold the middle with two massive tackles, Dave Butz, 305, and Darryl Grant, 290.

As coached by Richie Petitbon, this is the last real front four playing defense the old-fashioned way, with four big men up front. The Chicago Bears and others with four-man lines do it a different way.

And Butz is probably the best real defensive tackle remaining in a sport that has been overrun by anonymous nose tackles. At 37, Butz is a throwback to the age of Merlin Olsen, Bob Lilly and Joe Greene.

So in one sense, Elway vs. Butz & Co. is a glorious, old-time matchup: super quarterback vs. super front four.

“Football today is still two things, pass and pass rush,” Hall of Fame Coach Sid Gillman said. “You either get him or he gets you. That’s the essence of the game.”

In another sense, however, Elway is too good for any front four “There’s never been a quarterback like him,” Gillman said. “Nobody rushes Elway.”

Thus an irony of this Super Bowl--as a contest between offense and defense--is that Elway may have already taken Mann, Manley and Butz out of the game.

“If Denver had another kind of quarterback, you’d give the Redskins the edge with their great rush,” Polian said. “But to a considerable extent, Elway blunts that.”

In other words, curiously, just by lining up, the most lethal Denver weapon nullifies the deadliest Washington weapon.

What’s left for the Redskins? What can they do?

They can still do plenty, according to Hulmes, who calls their linebackers underrated, and also according to Polian, who said the Washington secondary is the most physical in the league.

In an era of over-specialization, the Redskins, like most teams, have substitutes for every situation, but their starters are more versatile than most. Linebackers Monte Coleman, Mel Kaufman and Neal Olkewicz--plus Rich Milot if he’s ready--”are as small as Denver’s, and more active,” Hulmes said. “They have a lot of the pass-defense skills of a defensive back.”

So on some first and second downs, if they choose, the Redskins can use their versatile defensive starters against the Bronco shotgun. And that would affect the way the Broncos like to do business.

They like to force opponents into the nickel defense--which requires a fifth defensive back--and then counterpunch with running plays instead of Elway’s passes.

The Redskins, using versatile personnel, could also put a spy on Elway. That would be Coleman, normally their weakside linebacker, who might be asked to tail Elway from either side.

Versatility characterizes the Redskins’ secondary, too. There, Petitbon starts Darrell Green and Barry Wilburn, the lopsided cornerbacks who stand 5-8 and 6-3, respectively; Alvin Walton, the strong safety, and Todd Bowles, a 6-2, 203-pound free safety. Wilburn led the NFL in interceptions.

These players will be either famous or infamous after Sunday’s game, depending on whether Elway beats them or they beat up on Denver’s three little amigos.

“The amigos are going to get rapped,” Polian said. “Doesn’t matter if they catch the ball or not, they’re going to get it from a more physical secondary than maybe they’ve seen.”

Petitbon has purposely recruited that kind. As a defensive back in the old days, he was a hitter himself.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Green, the shortest cornerback in the NFL, is the only special-teams ace in this game. Green’s 52-yard punt return for a touchdown against the Bears in Chicago Jan. 9 delivered the Redskins instead of the Bears to San Diego. And Green goes into the Super Bowl as the most valuable player of the playoffs so far, with Anthony Carter second.

Washington’s special teams this season have otherwise been just this side of a disaster area, although a new special teams coach, Paul Lanham, has fixed a few things lately.

The punter Lanham inherited, Steve Cox, is adequate at best, and Ali Haji-Sheikh is a typical NFL kicker--meaning he’s hot and very cold. At the moment he’s very cold. Bronco kicker Rich Karlis, however, has known it colder.

On all nine of their special teams, the Redskins block and tackle well enough. “I’d call them solid but not spectacular, same as Denver,” said Ortmayer, who was the Raiders’ kicking coach before he took over the Chargers’ front office.

Unless they get lucky, Denver’s kicking teams are no better. If you like mistakes, the kicking people may help make this a special Super Bowl.