Gardner’s Success Rooted in Unwavering Approach

Many of us scoffed at Marty Schottenheimer when after each embarrassing Redskin loss this season he chimed in afterward with basically the same message of faith.

If you keep working hard, good things will happen, Schottenheimer wanted us to believe. It seemed nothing more than lip service for a coach that appeared way in over his head in an organization doomed for failure.

But after Washington earned its first victory, a 17-14 overtime decision against Carolina on Sunday, it’s clear that not every one of his players had tuned him out.

Rookie receiver Rod Gardner, who arrived from Clemson as the school’s all-time leading pass catcher with a reputation for making receptions at key moments, has been maligned for his inability to make even the simplest of catches.

Perhaps not knowing any better, Gardner, instead of sulking, chose to follow Schottenheimer’s lead and stayed late after every practice last week to improve his shortcomings.

It paid off Sunday when Gardner caught six passes for 208 yards, including the game-tying 85-yard touchdown and a 47-yard reception in overtime to set up the winning field goal.

Gardner’s breakout effort was one of many around the NFL as young players from running backs Trung Canidate in St. Louis and Anthony Thomas in Chicago to receivers David Terrell in Chicago and David Patten in New England all had major hands in victories.

Gardner had sought out receiver coach Richard Mann to correct all that had been going wrong for him.

“Any kind of catch you can think of, that’s what I’m working on,” Gardner told the Washington Times leading up to the game. “You can’t ever have enough work. I’ve got a lot of things I’ve got to learn, a lot of things I’ve got to do to improve my game.”

Of course, Schottenheimer never lost faith.

“I think Rod has excellent big-play capability,” Schottenheimer said days before Sunday. “We’re going to work our way through it.”

How did we know he’d say that?

Secret to His Success

New England Coach Bill Belichick has no secret defense. He insists there is nothing fancy about what he does against the Indianapolis Colts, despite what the record books indicate--that Belichick’s teams have been among the most difficult for the Colts to solve.

On Sunday, Belichick did it again, this time with a 38-17 rout of the Colts at Indianapolis.

“I don’t think there’s any chance of stopping them,” Belichick said in preparation for the game. “You just try to slow them down and keep them out of the end zone.”

Sounds simple, but Belichick’s designs have been more successful than most.

Since Jim Mora and Peyton Manning joined Indianapolis in 1998, Belichick’s teams have handed the Colts their two worst defeats: 44-6 when Belichick was the Jets’ defensive coordinator in 1998, and 44-13 three weeks ago.

But will we ever know his real secrets?

Sending Them Packing

Even at the height of their success in the 1990s, the Green Bay Packers had plenty of bad luck when it came to playing the Vikings in Minneapolis.

The Metrodome became known as Holmgren’s House of Horrors, in reference to former Packer coach Mike Holmgren, whose teams were 1-6 there from 1992-98.

The rivalry between the teams fuels motivation and it showed again when 2-3 Minnesota routed 4-1 Green Bay, 35-13.

“I don’t know if it can mean anything more,” Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre said of the rivalry during preparations for the game.

“We’ll always have difficulty, regardless of who is coaching or who is playing. It is a hostile environment for us. This week is no different. If we are not ready to play we’ll be beat.”

Guess it wasn’t simply the any-given-Sunday cliche after all.

Words of Wisdom

Take it from Adam Timmerman, who has been on Super Bowl winners in St. Louis and Green Bay.

No matter how much a team thinks it’s ready to repeat, it isn’t.

That might explain why Baltimore is 3-3 and has lost to Cincinnati and Cleveland. And why St. Louis is the NFL’s only unbeaten team at 6-0 after a disappointing 10-6 season the year after its title.

“After you win a Super Bowl, you still feel that you’re good but you don’t have the energy you had when you were going for it the first time,” Timmerman said after the Rams cruised by the New York Jets, 34-14. “You don’t have the extra push you need when you know teams are gunning for you.”

Timmerman sees a different Ram team this season.

“This team is way ahead of last year’s,” he said. “Last year, that hunger wasn’t there. This year I think we’ve gotten it back. I went through the same thing when I was in Green Bay. It’s just hard to regenerate your hunger when everyone spends the off-season telling you how good you are.”

A New Leaf?

Maybe Ryan Leaf really is maturing.

The former San Diego Charger bad boy had a good start to his Dallas career during the Cowboys’ bye week.

He was humble, worked hard and answered questions from reporters with a politeness rarely shown in San Diego.

“I want to work my way into the lineup whatever way I can,” Leaf said. “When Coach [Dave] Campo believes it’s time for me to help this ballclub, I’m going to be ready.”

Sounds like Leaf has been taking lessons from Crash Davis.

All-Pro Move

The Pro Bowl will be played Feb. 9 at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, a switch made because of the rescheduling of the Super Bowl.

The Pro Bowl originally was set for Feb. 3. Now it will be played on a Saturday for the first time and also on the first full day of competition at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

In keeping with that spirit, only 110 days until the Pro Bowl.

*

Compiled by Jim Barrero