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Times Staff Writer

Denver Coach Mike Shanahan hasn’t won a playoff game since John Elway retired.

Philadelphia has lost three consecutive NFC championship games under Andy Reid. And, in the last decade under Bill Cowher, Pittsburgh has lost three AFC title games on its home turf.

Seattle Coach Mike Holmgren hasn’t won a playoff game since his days in Green Bay, and Mike Tice’s last two teams in Minnesota have finished the regular season with identical 3-7 slides.

Delve deep enough into the history of any NFL coach and you’ll find losses that are disappointing, humiliating, lopsided and inexplicable. But this season’s playoff field has an unusually high number of coaches defined as much by their losses as their victories.

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“All the criticism, if you’re a man it bothers you,” Tice said. “Yeah, it bothers me. [I’d be lying] if I said, ‘Oh, no, that doesn’t bother me. It doesn’t bother me that I’m called Coach Collapse. It doesn’t bother me that we’re making mistakes on offense.’

“But what are we going to do about it? That’s the key, and until we do something about it, it’s going to be there. That’s just reality, whether I like it or not.”

There’s enough reality to go around.

Tony Dungy? His Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl ... the season he became coach of the Indianapolis Colts. Mike Sherman? It was under his watch that Green Bay suffered its first-ever playoff defeat at Lambeau Field. Mike Martz? His Rams helped launch Tom Brady’s career when the New England quarterback directed the game-winning drive in the Super Bowl three years ago.

And then there’s San Diego Coach Marty Schottenheimer, whose Chargers today play host to the New York Jets in a wild-card game. His Cleveland Browns lost championship games by a combined eight points to Denver in 1986 and ‘87, and he was 3-7 in the playoffs as coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.

“My approach to it is that you can’t hide from it,” Schottenheimer said of his 5-11 career record in postseason games. “It is what it is. We have not been nearly as effective in the playoffs as I would like to have been. But again, there’s no redo’s. We lost some close ones, some tough ones.”

In the next month, Schottenheimer and others have a chance to redefine their careers, to wrap their hands around the Lombardi Trophy that has eluded them so long. Yes, Holmgren already has won a Super Bowl, and Shanahan has won two. And great coaches and players have retired without a ring. Buffalo’s Marv Levy, a four-time Super Bowl loser, “choked” all the way to the Hall of Fame, and he’ll soon be joined there by quarterback Dan Marino, who never reached the NFL mountaintop.

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But in at least one city this season, nothing short of reaching the Super Bowl will do. After watching their team fall three consecutive times in the conference title game, Philadelphia fans are fed up with the Eagles’ warning-track power. It’s the Super Bowl, or else.

“The coach understands that, and we understand that as players that the only important thing for this organization is to go to the Super Bowl,” Philadelphia cornerback Sheldon Brown said. “Anything else and this has not been a good season for this team. We understand that.”

The Eagles are the first team in league history to host the conference championship game in consecutive seasons and fail to reach the Super Bowl. Almost as a testament to the pressure he must be feeling, Reid decided to rest his best players for the final two games of the regular season, absorbing the losses that came as a result.

The great debate in Philadelphia now is, did Reid do the right thing, or have his Eagles lost critical momentum heading into the do-or-die stretch of the season? At least Reid had the comfort of knowing his team plays in a watered-down conference in which two 8-8 teams -- St. Louis and Minnesota -- made the playoffs.

Shanahan doesn’t have that luxury. His Broncos play at Indianapolis on Sunday and face MVP quarterback Peyton Manning, who scorched them with five touchdown passes in a wild-card game at the RCA Dome last season.

Denver defensive coordinator Larry Coyer, by all accounts a normally subdued man, sounded a bit chafed this week as reporters questioned him about how the Broncos planned to neutralize Manning, Edgerrin James, Marvin Harrison and the rest of the Colt offense.

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“They are what they are,” Coyer snapped. “They’re very good. And we are what we are. Now we have to go raise hell and see who wins. And we’re going to raise mortal hell, OK? And we’ll find out.”

The Super Bowls weren’t so long ago that Shanahan forgets the feeling. And he knows their value in defining the legacy of a coach and his players.

“I don’t think there’s any question if you talk about greatness, it’s what you do in the playoffs,” the Bronco coach said. “You go through history, how do you separate yourselves if you don’t play big in the big games? It’s just not the quarterback, it’s the supporting cast.

“Players step up in these situations. The great ones do.”

In eight seasons, six of them with Arizona, Denver quarterback Jake Plummer has played in three playoff games. He went 1-2 with three touchdowns and six interceptions.

“You don’t talk about many quarterbacks that have not done anything in the playoffs or the Super Bowl,” Plummer told reporters. “Obviously, the playoffs are where it is made, that’s where you have to perform and play well.”

Shanahan was asked this week whether it’s tougher than ever to be an NFL coach.

“No, I don’t think it’s tough at all,” he said.

Then he paused.

“As long as you win.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Playoff Pain

Of the eight head coaches in this weekend’s NFL wild-card games, only Mike Shanahan (Denver) and Mike Holmgren (Seattle) have winning records in the playoffs. Shanahan, who won two Super Bowls with Denver, is 7-3, and Holmgren, who led Green Bay to victory in Super Bowl XXXI, is 9-7. Tony Dungy (Indianapolis), Herman Edwards (New York Jets), Mike Martz (St. Louis), Marty Schottenheimer (San Diego) and Mike Sherman (Green Bay) are a combined 14-25. Minnesota’s Mike Tice is coaching his first playoff game on Sunday against Green Bay. Playoff results for Dungy, Edwards, Martz, Schottenheimer and Sherman:

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*--* TONY DUNGY (4-6) TEAM SEASON PLAYOFF FINISH Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1997 Lost in NFC divisional to Green Bay, 21-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1999 Lost in NFC championship to St. Louis, 11-6 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2000 Lost in NFC wild card to Philadelphia, 21-3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2001 Lost in NFC wild card to Philadelphia, 31-9 Indianapolis Colts 2002 Lost in AFC wild card to N.Y. Jets, 41-0 Indianapolis Colts 2003 Lost in AFC championship to New England, 24-14

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*--* HERMAN EDWARDS (1-2) TEAM SEASON PLAYOFF FINISH New York Jets 2001 Lost in AFC wild card to Oakland, 38-24 New York Jets 2002 Lost in AFC divisional to Oakland, 30-10

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*--* MIKE MARTZ (2-3) TEAM SEASON PLAYOFF FINISH St. Louis Rams 2000 Lost in NFC wild card to New Orleans, 31-28 St. Louis Rams 2001 Lost in Super Bowl XXXVI to New England, 20-17 St. Louis Rams 2003 Lost in NFC divisional to Carolina, 29-23 (overtime)

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*--* MARTY SCHOTTENHEIMER (5-11) TEAM SEASON PLAYOFF FINISH Cleveland Browns 1985 Lost in AFC divisional to Miami, 24-21 Cleveland Browns 1986 Lost in AFC championship to Denver, 23-20 (overtime) Cleveland Browns 1987 Lost in AFC championship to Denver, 38-33 Cleveland Browns 1988 Lost in AFC wild card to Houston Oilers, 24-23 Kansas City Chiefs 1990 Lost in AFC wild card to Miami, 17-16 Kansas City Chiefs 1991 Lost in AFC divisional to Buffalo, 37-14 Kansas City Chiefs 1992 Lost in AFC wild card to San Diego, 17-0 Kansas City Chiefs 1993 Lost in AFC championship to Buffalo, 30-13 Kansas City Chiefs 1994 Lost in AFC wild card to Miami, 27-17 Kansas City Chiefs 1995 Lost in AFC divisional to Indianapolis, 10-7 Kansas City Chiefs 1997 Lost in AFC divisional to Denver, 14-10

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*--* MIKE SHERMAN (2-3) TEAM SEASON PLAYOFF FINISH Green Bay Packers 2001 Lost in NFC divisional to St. Louis, 45-17 Green Bay Packers 2002 Lost in NFC wild card to Atlanta, 27-7 Green Bay Packers 2003 Lost in NFC divisional to Philadelphia, 20-17 (overtime)

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Source: Los Angeles Times

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