Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 17, 1994 TAG: 9410190031
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
How tough was it to describe what 50,019 RFK Stadium spectators saw Sunday?
It almost left Buddy Ryan speechless. The answers from the irascible Arizona coach were short and almost sweet as the Cardinals erased a two-touchdown deficit and beat Washington 19-16 in overtime.
``I think the teams learned a lot,'' Ryan expounded.
What they learned was that offensively, they are probably only good enough to beat themselves. And in an NFL game that was uglier than the Hogettes, that's what the Redskins did.
If the game was finally won by a 29-yard field goal from an auditioning, replacement place-kicker Washington nearly signed to succeed the slumping Chip Lohmiller, it was lost on the arm of Heath Shuler.
Shuler, the Redskins' rookie quarterback, threw five interceptions, one short of the club record shared by Jay Schroeder - who watched from the Arizona sideline - and Sammy Baugh. The last Arizona pickoff set up Todd Peterson's game-winning boot.
``No doubts [about Peterson, who replaced injured Greg Davis], but I was wishing I had the old one,'' Ryan said when asked about trying to win the game with a new kicker.
This is what passes for confidence after a day of Cruddy Ball.
Ryan said his assistant coaches were screaming at him through his headset to go for a two-point conversion to try and win the game in regulation, but he wanted OT. He wanted to play defense, which is what he knows best.
When your team is 1-4 and on the road, you don't get greedy. After all, it had been so long since Washington lost at home in OT, it was George Blanda who kicked the 'Skins for Oakland in 1975.
Ryan also knew the Redskins were worst in the NFL in turnover margin, and Shuler had been awful. He knew the Cards could stuff the Redskins' running game.
And it wasn't just that Shuler was 11-for-32. It's that the former Tennessee quarterback seemed to be getting more loft on his passes than Reggie Roby did on his booming punts.
Back in his Southeastern Conference days, even Kentucky should have picked off Shuler's airballs. Redskins coach Norv Turner stuck with Shuler, however, and the Redskins - now 1-6 matching last year's start toward a 4-12 finish - ended up on the wrong end of Buddy Ball.
Shuler, who suffered an ankle sprain early in the second quarter, ruined Washington's slim hopes to win in regulation when he was picked by James Williams.
No one can say that Norv doesn't have nerve. He sent Shuler out for overtime. Washington couldn't run, and couldn't block. Lohmiller's 51-yard field goal try barely went airborne. Desmond Howard dropped a sure completion.
And only when ex-Redskin safety Terry Hoage grabbed Shuler's last pass of a long afternoon, was it likely that these divisional foes wouldn't play the first NFL tie since Cleveland-Kansas City in 1989.
``I'm not sure Heath threw one where the other guy made a good play,'' Turner said of the interceptions. ``They were bad throws, bad decisions.
``Coming in, he had been progressing each game, and he's shown a lot of progress on the practice field. It didn't show up today.''
It's obvious that this week, Turner must decide whether the Redskins need to win or whether he wants to continue developing Shuler, who hasn't shown he is ready to start in the NFL for a team that doesn't have enough other talent to compensate for the quarterback's learning curve.
``I have to make sure the other guys in there [the locker room] have a chance to win,'' the Redskins' coach said. ``I have to give them a chance to have success.''
Arizona offered one of those opportunities. The Cardinals came to Washington with the league's worst offense. Ryan's soap-opera quarterback trio had thrown a league-high 13 interceptions.
The Redskins managed to hold an opponent to fewer than 20 points for the first time this season, but it wasn't enough to keep them from being the first Washington club to start 0-4 at home since 1961, the first year at new D.C. Stadium, since renamed RFK.
Shuler said his biggest problem is he cannot hold onto the NFL football, which apparently are slicker than those bikini-wax greens at Augusta National. He said the NFL ``shellacks'' its game balls, which makes them more difficult to pass than practice balls.
If that is more than an excuse, it's perhaps something the Redskins should have researched before Shuler was drafted. Are his hands big enough to carry the team?
Meanwhile, it's the Redskins who are getting waxed. They've lost 11 straight to NFC East foes and have won only six of their past 27 games.
``It's not like we beat a good football team,'' Ryan said. ``But we needed the win badly.''
That's how the Cardinals got it.
Keywords:
FOOTBALL
by CNB