SUPER BOWL XXII : WASHINGTON vs. DENVER BRONCOS : THE GENIUS FACTOR : Defensive Wizards Collier, Petitbon Are So Different and Yet So Similar, Too

What is that bit about the absent-minded professor?

Of course. Last season, on a frigid sideline in Kansas City, Joe Collier, the Denver Broncos’ defensive coordinator was so focused on stopping the Chiefs, he forgot where he was standing.

It was directly in front of a sideline heater.

About halfway through a disturbing Kansas City drive, a club official meekly tapped Collier on the shoulder.

“Joe, Joe,” he said.

“ What? “ Collier responded.

“Your pants are on fire.”

And what is that bit about necessity being the mother of invention?

A couple of years ago, Richie Petitbon, the Washington Redskins’ defensive genius, was trying to figure out how to stop the Cincinnati Bengals as they drove for a last-minute, game-tying field goal. He was scratching the sideline dirt when he got a call from Larry Peccatiello, his defensive coordinator, in the press box.

“Call that special ‘dog’ defense,” Peccatiello said.

“Wait a minute,” Petitbon said. “We don’t have it in the play book. We’ve never practiced it. The guys don’t know it.”

Petitbon paused.

“Yeah. What a great idea.”

He called the team to the sidelines and explained the formation, telling them how to line up. Seconds later, the Redskins’ defense saved the game with a sack that pushed the Bengals out of field goal range.

Denver’s Joe Collier and Washington’s Richie Petitbon. One guy you tell by his hat, the other by his belt, but both by their noggins, and by what they offer that the head coach does not.

While Denver’s Dan Reeves “Aw-shucks” his way around La Jolla, and Joe Gibbs charms his way through Mission Bay, these are the guys who are still watching films around midnight, the guys who aren’t afraid to stick play cards down the front of their pants and turn their caps backward on their heads.

They are the same, yet their personalities and philosophies are vastly different, and it is somewhere in that difference that Super Bowls are usually decided.

Behind the personable Reeves is the quiet Collier, 55, who has been in Denver for 19 years with hardly a peep. The orange cap that is his sideline trademark is only worn because he worries about blending so quietly into the scenery. He feels that without the cap, his players on the field won’t be able to find him.

Behind the quiet Gibbs is the personable Petitbon, 49, who once played defensive back quite well for the Chicago Bears, but hasn’t played in the National Football League for 16 years--as an ample girth indicates.

“Shoot, man, I played so long ago, we didn’t have face masks,” said Petitbon, a New Orleans native who rarely utters a sentence without using the word man.

No matter, he has a new sport now, which pretty much goes along with his defensive philosophy--horse racing.

“I don’t own any horses, man, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t paid enough to own a few,” he said.

Unafraid of failure, always just another $2 from breaking even, Petitbon helped the Redskins get to the Super Bowl by taking an average defense--ranked 18th in the 28-team NFL--and master-minding defensive gems against the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings. In those two games, the defense allowed just 27 total points, with an average of 269.5 yards.

When the going got tough, this tough guy got weird, and unusual formations and substitutions allowed the Bears and Vikings to convert on just 25% of their third-down plays.

“He’s a blast to play for,” said Redskin middle linebacker Neal Olkewicz. “Making stuff up on the sidelines, changing things all around at halftime.

“He is not afraid to gamble, but more important, he is not afraid to adjust when he’s wrong.”

Against the Bears, he played a five-man front with defensive ends Dexter Manley and Charles Mann, on the same side. Then he dropped defensive end Markus Koch back as a linebacker.

Against the Vikings, he unveiled a 5-1-5 formation, which makes sense only in that it adds to 11.

“If you don’t take chances, you’re never going to win,” Petitbon said. “And the stuff we try in football, it has been a lot more successful than the stuff I try at the race track.”

For Collier this season, taking a chance has just meant suiting up a squad.

From last year’s Super Bowl squad, four defensive starters have retired--Tom Jackson, Rubin Carter, Steve Foley and Louis Wright. Another, Mike Harden, will miss Sunday’s game with an injury. Still another, Jim Ryan, had to switch positions, from left to right outside linebacker. And Collier was left with a squad that gave up at least 20 pounds a man to the average offensive line.

“A lot of it has been like starting over,” Collier said. “We’ve had to have more meetings, more practice time, more run-throughs of drills that our veterans in the past would not have needed. It’s been a teaching year. It’s been back to basics.”

Compared with Bronco defenses in the past, their basics were against the wall. They ranked just ninth in the NFL in total defense. They ranked 20th against the run.

In two playoff wins, they have alowed 400 yards a game and their opponents, Houston and Cleveland, outgained them, 801 yards to 728. And this is a team with John Elway.

You don’t want to say it has been a long season, but during the strike, Collier lived at the motel across from the Bronco training facilities, and then stayed there one night a week afterward. Despite arriving at work early and sometimes not leaving at all, Collier was reportedly 0 for lunch.

“You walk into a meeting sometimes and you can tell, the man has been up ,” Ryan said. “Then you look at the game plan and you can tell, he has covered everything. Nothing is left to chance.”

Admitted Collier: “The heat has been on all year. But there is nothing we haven’t been through here before. We pretty much have known what to expect.”

And his players have come to expect Collier to know. As bad as things have been by Bronco tradition standards, they understand it could have been lots worse. And they are in the Super Bowl.

“A lot of time this year it’s been nice to see him on the sidelines, so cool and understanding,” Ryan said. “He’s not a guy who is going to yell and scream and chew you out. He’ll calmly let you know what you have done wrong, and how to correct it. We respond to that, and we respect that.”

Great minds think alike. Particularly when they are so different.

On Sunday?

Collier: “We’ll give up a little yardage to prevent the big yardage. The longer they have the ball, chances are, they’ll make a mistake.”

Petitbon: “Passive defense is not for us. Passive is not a word we use around here. We’re going to use everything we got. We’re going to use 12 players if they let us, man.”