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Old coach, new beginning: with an offense that looks familiar and a defense he doesn't touch, Joe Gibbs is back. Soon, the Redskins will be, too

Sporting News, The, Sept 20, 2004 by Paul Attner

It was just one win, of course, and it hardly was the polished masterpiece that Joe Gibbs might have hoped to produce for this, his first game back as Redskins coach. Still, this triumph on the NFL's opening week illustrated both the genius and the stubbornness that contributed so heavily to his previous coaching domination--and that will make him a success again the second time around.

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In this world of the new NFL, Gibbs heard all the questions. At age 63, after a 12-year absence, could he really regain his Hall of Fame touch? Had the game evolved too quickly and gotten too intricate for him to grasp it fast enough? And what would he do with his old playbook to show he could still compete? While all of Washington waited for this day, hoping his astonishing decision to end his retirement would return the magic to this struggling franchise, he fretted because he wasn't sure of the answers, either. Maybe that's why his wife told him Saturday she never had seen him want a win so much. Maybe that's why those around him were stunned by how serious he turned for the last three weeks, how the jokes had tapered off, how he seemed distracted, how the jut of his jaw extended more and more every day.

He wondered, too, wondered if the fundamentals of offensive coaching that had formed the foundation of his coaching would still hold up. He wondered particularly about whether, in this age where teams don't practice consistently in pads, he should back off from a constant dose of physical workouts. And he wondered if he could devise protection schemes that would neutralize all the blitzes and stunts and defensive quickness that have emerged since he walked away from the game after the 1992 season, tired and ill and ready to make NASCAR, not football, the center of the rest of his life.

He wondered from the first day of his first minicamp last April when his defense blitzed all 11 players. And kept blitzing, so much so that it caused the offensive staff to put in a near all-nighter to figure out ways to handle the scheming of coordinator Gregg Williams. "I loved what Gregg was doing," says Gibbs. "I told him, 'Keep doing it. You're going to drive teams crazy just like you have me.'" It was a mark of genius by Gibbs to hire Williams, the former Bills head coach. Williams, who had been the Titans' defensive coordinator before taking the Bills job in 2001, was the best defensive coach available after last season. But he was being recruited heavily by other teams and only a hard-sell visit by Gibbs persuaded him to come to Washington. And Gibbs has been smart enough to give him complete autonomy, the same as he had given Richie Petitbon, his coordinator in his first tenure with the Redskins.

So now we have at least some of the answers to those Gibbs questions. In beating the Bucs, 16-10, before a record crowd of 90,098 within ever-expanding FedEx Field, he mixed in some of the old (the hard, physical, relentlessly stubborn running game) and something new (those newfangled multiple blitzes and disguised coverages that Williams loves). The Bucs were bamboozled by the defensive pressure, surrendering four sacks and two turnovers, and had just enough problems with the Washington rushing attack--Clinton Portis gained 148 yards, including a 64-yard touchdown scamper--to lose the game.

This was such a huge triumph for Gibbs and the coaches who were with him during the first go-round, when they won three Super Bowls. Gibbs told the players before the game: "I don't deserve all the attention; you guys do. You are the game; Joe Gibbs and his staff aren't." But the players knew better. "We all wanted it so bad, especially for him," says left tackle Chris Samuels. "We knew what it meant to him."

Gibbs had told them weeks ago that he didn't come back to rebuild. He came back to win. So he closed much of training camp and, away from all the attention, began remolding a franchise that, in his opinion, had gone soft over the last 11 years, particularly in 2003, when Steve Spurrier's final team surrendered 43 sacks and could barely run. Forget how the rest of the league regards pads; he had players in pads every day, pounding away, conditioning them mentally and physically, creating toughness--and giving them one period during each workout where the offense and defense went at each other full speed for six plays.

"We have a chance if we are physical;' says assistant head coach Joe Bugel, who runs the offensive line that he has nicknamed "Dirtbags." "We can wear people down. Our fundamentals still work in this era. This league has become a push, turn and position blocking league. We believe in block removal. We went at it hard every day. And the players never questioned all the hitting because Joe Gibbs wanted it."

They have a chance, too, this season because of Williams. The Redskins brought in six new defensive starters, improving their quickness--particularly at linebacker--and allowing Williams to install all of his aggressive calls. "They disguise things so well," says Bucs quarterback Brad Johnson, who laced blitzes on an astonishing 70 percent of his plays in the game. Williams talked openly about going after quarterbacks, and Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden says they prepared for various pressures. But it didn't look like it. "This is a talented (defense) that applies legitimate pressure with speed and physical linebackers," Gruden says. "They are going to be a handful for a lot of people."

Old coach, new beginning: with an offense that looks familiar and a defense he doesn't touch, Joe Gibbs is back. Soon, the Redskins will be, too

Sporting News, The, Sept 20, 2004 by Paul Attner

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