Everything Is Elway Down the Freeway : His Broncos Face Redskins in San Diego

To hear people talk, Super Bowl XXII between Washington and Denver could be the most one-sided game in history, what with one quarterback, John Elway, having to face 45 Redskins all by himself.

Has there ever been so much talk about trying to stop one human being before? Napoleon, maybe.

Of course, Elway’s not just Elway anymore. He’s the Duke. He swaggers toward enemy end zones like John Wayne. Women and children duck under tables when he’s in town.

The feeling today at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium is that if there’s going to be a fight, and a guy is going to be surrounded by Redskins, well then the Duke is probably the guy you want in the middle of it.

That’s why Denver is the favorite today, despite the NFC’s dominance over the AFC in the last three Super Bowls.

Three years ago, of course, the very same Elway tried to take a center snap from a guard. But that seems just like one of the Duke’s bad movies now.

Naturally, the fearless, tireless coaching staff of the Washington Redskins has worked its way through a few automatic coffee machines since winning the NFC title two weeks ago.

“Our coaches once spent two hours arguing over whether to call a certain formation horse or pony, “ former Redskin quarterback Joe Theismann said. Just imagine what they did this week with bronco.

OK, though, the Redskins have stopped quarterbacks before. Wade Wilson was a quarterback, right? And a scrambler, too. The Redskins sacked him eight times in the title-game win over the Minnesota Vikings.

Eight times!

“To put Wade Wilson in Elway’s class is ridiculous,” said Richie Petitbon, the coach in charge of the Redskins’ defense. “Elway is in a class by himself.”

Dan Marino?

Elway’s chalkboard monitor at best, Petitbon says.

So this has been a week spent behind closed doors--give or take a few intimate interviews with 3,000 or so reporters--plotting a strategy to stop the man with the golden arm.

There’s the shadow theory, used last year by the New York Giants in their Super Bowl win over the Broncos in Pasadena.

In this one, you take a linebacker, preferably Lawrence Taylor, and have him stalk Elway’s every move from the snap of the ball. If Elway freezes, you freeze. If Elway sneezes, you sneeze.

“It’s a scheme you can use,” Washington Coach Joe Gibbs said, “if you’ve got the right guy chasing him. I’ve seen Lawrence Taylor vs. Elway, yet he did not catch him sometimes. He’s that quick.”

Elway, not Taylor. So who do the Redskins have to fit that role? Neal Olkewicz?

Well, there are other plans.

The Redskin front four isn’t bad. On the outside they have two quick ends in Dexter Manley and Charles Mann. Inside there are 575 pounds or so of tackles in Darryl Grant and Dave Butz, the NFL’s oldest player and best duck decoy carver.

But to catch Elway is Catch-22. If you harass him enough to make him leave the pocket, he may just run for 90 yards and win the game that way.

If you keep him in the pocket and let him throw, well, that’s no good, either. Elway has pretty good zip on the ball, you know.

“He’s never broken any of my fingers, but he’s dislocated a few,” Denver receiver Vance Johnson said. “I played burnout with him my rookie year. Only once. I almost threw my shoulder out. And he can throw a changeup that can scare the hell out of you.”

So the Redskins search for ideas. Perhaps they’ll try to make Elway do what he likes to do least.

Elway says he’d much rather work from the pocket.

“I never go into a game thinking I’m going to scramble,” he said. “But they play man(-to-man) defense, and it opens up the lanes for scrambling.”

Petitbon, for one, is convinced that there is only one sure way to slow Elway.

“The best way to play pass defense is with the quarterback on his can,” Petitbon said. “It’s a very tough angle to throw from.”

The Redskins might have done just anything to unlock the mysteries of Elway this week, or so Denver Coach Dan Reeves suspected.

Wednesday, the Broncos spotted a man filming their practice with a video camera from the roof of his home. Reeves wanted to know if the man answered to Joe.

“It was just a couple of guys that looked like Gibbs’ brothers,” Reeves said. “We just ran a few trick plays to throw them off, but we didn’t change any jerseys.”

They left the jersey-changing to the Redskins, who seemed just as suspicious about spying as the Broncos.

One day during interviews, Redskin tackle Mark May and guard R.C. Thielemann even switched name tags at their respective tables.

This is serious business, the Super Bowl.

And the one man confounded by it all seemed to be Elway, who couldn’t believe the things he was hearing about himself. He tried to convince others that he was not a one-man band, that there were others on the team. Just look at the roster, he said.

“I must have answered that question 10,000 times,” Elway said. “Everyone knows it’s not a one-man team. If you’re not coordinated as a team, you’re not going to be successful. I’ve got great respect for the people I throw to.”

Those would be the Three Amigos--Mark Jackson, Vance Johnson and Ricky Nattiel--who have remarkably milked more publicity from the title than the movie ever did.

In fact, they may have been the only three ever to see the movie.

“I liked it,” Jackson said. “I enjoy weird comedies.”

And contrary to Elway’s statements, Jackson admitted the talented quarterback pretty much is the team.

“Elway’s the MVP of the league, but on our team he’s more than the MVP,” Jackson said. “We’ve built our team around him. We go as Elway goes.”

The difference between Elway and Redskin quarterback Doug Williams is much more than black and white.

Williams is a spoke in the wheel. Elway is the wheel.

“If you just take the way I played a couple of weeks ago, we wouldn’t be here,” Williams said. “I don’t have to play well for us to win. I just can’t beat the Washington Redskins.”

In the 17-10 win over Minnesota, Williams completed just 9 of 26 passes.

“The stats are for the media,” Williams said, “Though the coaches do know about those two TD passes I threw two weeks ago.”

For Williams, though, today means as much as any, and not just because of race or the color of his skin.

“Joe Gibbs and (General Manager) Bobby Beathard did not bring me here to be the first black quarterback in the Super Bowl,” Williams said. “They brought me in to play for the Washington Redskins.”

Super Bowl Notes

Move-over-Amigo Dept.: For the Broncos, rookie Ricky Nattiel will start in place of Vance Johnson at wide receiver. Johnson has been bothered by a leg injury and hasn’t played in almost three weeks. Johnson is expected to play, though. . . . Washington wide receiver Art Monk, who has been on injured reserve since early December with a knee injury, will return for the Redskins. . . . The NFC has won the last three Super Bowls, all relatively easily. Last year, it was the Giants over the Broncos, 39-20. In 1985, Chicago beat New England, 46-10. In 1984, it was San Francisco over Miami, 38-16.