THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 9, 1996 TAG: 9609090114
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 69 lines
If Redskins coach Norv Turner had his way, the newest line item on his team's expenditure list would be 52,711 footballs.
``I'd like to give everyone who watched this game from the stands a game ball,'' Turner said after the crowd at RFK Stadium performed at a fever pitch in Washington's 10-3 victory over the Chicago Bears Sunday.
As it was, he settled for distributing 15 or 20 game balls - one to each defensive player who ``stepped onto the field today.''
But a crowd that has treated the home team with so much hostility that diehard fans have written letters to the city's newspapers pleading that it stop, clearly was a factor in Washington's first victory of the season Sunday.
Early in the game, the crowd made so much noise on third-and-12 from the Washington 29 that Bears coach Dave Wannstedt played it safe and ran Robert Green up the middle. He got nine and the Bears settled for a field goal.
On what may have been the game's most important play, a third-and-six from the Washington 19 on Chicago's first series of the third quarter, crowd noise forced Bears quarterback Erik Kramer to call a timeout because his players couldn't hear him trying to change the call at the line of scrimmage.
After the timeout, Kramer completed a dump pass to Michael Timpson, who fumbled when hit hard by safety Stanley Richard.
``The crowd created a lot of problems for them,'' Richard said. ``It worked to our advantage.''
After the Redskins held the Bears on their final series, Darrell Green came off the field waving his arms and shaking his fists in the air. The crowd was delirious.
``I was just thinking, `This is the way it's supposed to be,' '' Green said. ``We're playing well, the crowd's going nuts, everybody's having a good time, we're winning. I can't remember the last time the crowd was that noisy.
It was no brotherly
love for the Turners
There wasn't a whole lot of it on display between Redskins coach Norv Turner and Bears assistant coach Ron Turner.
``Once the game started, it was just another game,'' Ron Turner said of the first NFL meeting between him and his older brother. ``I didn't get too involved in talking about the hype; we were more involved in getting our teams prepared for the game.''
The younger Turner brother had intimated to a Washington radio station that he and Norv had a bet that the loser had to buy the other dinner. Pressed on the subject, Ron denied any such deal.
``I didn't even talk to him all week,'' he said. ``There was no bet.''
Norv Turner's reaction to matching wits with his brother was cryptic: ``I'm so tired of hearing about a sibling rivalry,'' he said.
You don't say . . .
``You don't want to put all the burden on one play, but that one play does stick out in my mind (as why Chicago lost).'' - Bears linebacker Bryan Cox, on Michael Timpson's fumble at the Washington 16 that Darrell Green recovered. Three plays later, Washington scored the game's only touchdown.
Skins' injury report
Green dislocated the pinky on his right hand on the first series of the game, but returned to play the rest of the way. Guard Tre' Johnson and tight end Jamie Asher have mildly sprained knees. Strong safety Darryl Pounds has a bruised thigh. All are expected to play this Sunday.
Skins' next game
New York Giants, Sept. 15, 4 p.m. at Giants Stadium. The Giants are now 0-2 this season after losing to the Dallas Cowboys 27-0 Sunday at Texas Stadium. Washington outgained the Giants by a wide margin in both meetings last season, but lost both games.
- JIM DUCIBELLA by CNB