Redskins Rally, and Rally, and Rally : Elway, Broncos Are No Match for Williams

Maybe now, when history talks about Doug Williams now, the only color that will come up is green.

The Washington Redskin quarterback led his team to tons of it yesterday, as in yards and touchdowns and $27,000 cash, and the Redskins stunned the favored Denver Broncos, 42-10, in Super Bowl XXII at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The first black quarterback to start a Super Bowl game became quite possibly the best of all. He set a Super Bowl record with 340 passing yards on 18 completions in 29 attempts. He tied a record with four touchdown passes.

When he was announced as Sport magazine’s most valuable player with two minutes left, what was left of the crowd of 73,302 stood.

He was helped by rookie running back Timmy Smith, who set a new Super Bowl record with 204 yards in 22 carries.

The Redskins, the sixth NFC team to win the Super Bowl in seven years, spotted the Broncos 10 points in the first period and then scored a Super Bowl-record 35 points in the second period to cinch it.

In that quarter, they scored on an 80-yard pass from Williams to Ricky Sanders, a 27-yard pass from Williams to Gary Clark, a 58-yard run by Smith, a 50-yard pass from Williams to Sanders, and finally, with a minute left in the half, on an 8-yard pass from Williams to Clint Didier.

Give the Redskins credit for this much mercy--they gave Elway the first shot. And Elway, naturally, took it.

On the Broncos’ first offensive play of the game, less than two minutes into the game, Elway threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Nattiel.

No team in Super Bowl history has ever scored a touchdown that soon.

Twenty-eight minutes later, by halftime, there was another Bronco record. No Super Bowl team had had their brains beaten in that soon. And when it was over, the Redskins had throttled the Broncos, 42-10.

The Redskins followed the startling touchdown by pummeling Elway and the Broncos into a corner, leaving him and the record books dizzy, scoring a Super Bowl-record 35 points in the second period. And not just 35 points, but 35 points in a stretch of 18 plays.

And those 35 points were produced largely by Williams after Williams had limped off the field with a wrenched knee. Late in the first period, Williams slipped going back to pass, and crumpled to the ground. His left foot had caught in the turf and his left knee had buckled under him. After the whistle he jumped up to rejoin the huddle, and then fell again. He finally struggled off the field and was replaced by Jay Schroeder.

That lasted just two plays. On the next series, at the start of the second quarter, with his team trailing 10-0, Williams returned. On the first play of that series, he threw a pass from his 20-yard line that Ricky Sanders caught at midfield. Needing only to outrun Bronco cornerback Mark Haynes, Sanders did just that, scoring 53 seconds into the period, and the rout was on.

But back to Elway for a minute. After the Broncos had taken the Redskins’ first punt on their 44-yard line, Elway stepped back on the first snap and threw the ball to Ricky Nattiel. Down at the Redskins’ seven-yard line, Nattiel was two steps ahead of beaten Redskin cornerback Barry Wilburn. He caught the pass and scored running away.

With just 1 minute 57 seconds elapsed, it was the earliest touchdown in Super Bowl history.

The Broncos scored again on their next drive, going 61 yards in 7 plays to Rich Karlis’ 24-yard field goal kick. That drive included a 32-yard pass from Elway to Mark Jackson wide open over the middle, and a 23-yard pass to Elway, from running back Steve Sewell after a pitchout.

At the time, Elway was 3 for 4 for 94 yards. The Redskins had brought out their offense twice, and had gained a total of 22 yards.

Bring on Williams’ injury, Williams’ recovery, and a second period the likes of which few football games, period, have ever had:

--After Sanders’ touchdown, Denver rans three plays and punted and the Redskins took it back to score again. The Broncos drove 64 yards in 5 plays, hitting on a 27-yard touchdown pass from Williams to Gary Clark.

One play in the drive was a 19-yard run up the middle by Timmy Smith, who darted through a hole created by the Redskins’ ‘Hog’ offensive linemen that an entire barnyard could have run through. The touchdown pass was to a wide-open Clark, who caught it several yards away from Denver defender Steve Wilson and dived into the end zone, making it 14-10, Redskins.

--After Clark’s touchdown, Denver ran seven plays, Karlis missed a 43-yard field goal attempt, and the Redskins got it back and scored again. This time they went 74 yards in 2 plays, meaning, one long play in there somewhere.

And how. Timmy Smith turned a simple off-tackle play into a 58-yard touchdown run. His hole on the right side was not there, so Smith turned outside and needed only to out-fight Lilly at the 15-yard line before scoring his first pro touchdown. That made it 21-10, Redskins.

--Three Bronco plays and a punt later, the Redskins scored again. This time, on the third play of the possession, Williams just stepped back and threw it 55 yards, to where Sanders was five yards ahead of Denver safety Tony Lilly, finishing a 50-yard touchdown pass. It had now become 28-10, Redskins.

--Denver got off just three plays again, this time ending the drive on an interception of Elway’s pass by Barry Wilburn. And even though the Redskins started at their 21-yard line with just 2:14 left in the half, they scored again.

This drive was the most unusual, since the Redskins could have just sat, but Smith broke open a 43-yard run to move Washington to the Denver 35. Once there, Williams completed three passes, two to Sanders, the final worth eight yards and a touchdown to Clint Didier. It was then 35-10.

In the half, Williams had already tied a Super Bowl record with four touchdown passes and had completed 13 of 21 passes for 306 yards. Smith had already rushed for 131 yards. and Sanders had already caught 177 yards’ worth of passes.

Denver? Elway had completed just 9 of 23 for 185 yards. And among the Three Amigos, there were just three catches, and none by Vance Johnson. The running backs had gained a total of 78 yards.

The only category in which Denver led was dropped passes. Three of Elway’s throws were muffed, and Denver defensive back Mike Haynes dropped one sure interception.

The first half got off to a appropriately brash start, even before Elway’s first touchdown pass.

On the opening kickoff, Sanders returned the ball 16 yards before being gang-tackled out of bounds. As in, a whole gang of people were tackled. Line judge Jack Fette went down, several photographers went down and one was injured badly enough to require a stretcher.

For all practical purposes, the game ended with 1:10 left in the third period, when Washington defensive end Dexter Manley broke through, picked up a scrambling Elway and threw him over his shoulders to the ground for a seven-yard loss.

The Redskins made it official at the start of the fourth quarter, when Smith’s 32-yard run put them in position to score on Smith’s four-yard run up the middle, through a hole that could have given him 40 yards.

That made it 42-10, and gave the Redskins the record for most Super Bowl touchdowns with six.