DATE: Monday, September 29, 1997            TAG: 9709290154

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson

DATELINE: LANDOVER, MD.                     LENGTH:   70 lines

COVER GUYS STICK IT TO THE JAGUARS

As you ponder this morning whether the Washington Redskins defense can possibly be as good as it looked Sunday, consider this: their opponents have run 245 plays against them in four games. Not one has gained as many as 25 yards.

No fluke crossing patterns for 40 where the safety falls down. No cornerbacks toasted to a crisp along the sideline. Even more encouraging for coach Norv Turner, whose early teams made tackling appear a mysterious and lost art, no linebackers boinging off ballcarriers or being dragged around like ragamuffins.

Just tough, solid defense.

As you ponder, I ponder this: Where, exactly, has this come from?

Somehow, while the Redskins were muddling through nondescript victories over Carolina and Arizona and an ugly 14-13 loss in Pittsburgh, their defense sneaked up to the No. 3 overall ranking in the NFL - even with refusenik tackle Sean Gilbert going soft somewhere in western Pennsylvania and a no-name, if not downright questionable, front four.

Unbeaten Jacksonville, though, was to be the Redskins' first real test, what with the Jaguars averaging nearly 400 yards and 33 points through three games.

Receiver Jimmy Smith, out of the Jerry Rice mold, had already caught 24 passes and three touchdowns. His compadre, Keenan McCardell, had 16 catches, and each had busted plays for more than 40 yards.

So what happens? After a quick 9-0 deficit, the Redskins win handily 24-12. Jacksonville's juiced attack, airing it out for 286 yards per game, barely cracks the 200-yard mark in total offense.

It converts 3 of 13 third-down plays, scores no touchdowns and gets inside the Washington 20 twice. Quarterback Mark Brunell is sacked three times and tosses two interceptions created by great plays in a suddenly suffocating secondary.

And the Jags' big-play men, Smith and McCardell, meet the Redskins' Cover Guys, cornerbacks Darrell Green and Cris Dishman.

Brunell is provided decent protection all day, his receivers have time to shimmy and shake, but Smith and McCardell emerge with 89 piddling yards on eight catches. Meanwhile the Cover Guys smile into the postgame TV lights and praise each other, proud of themselves, their fellow defenders and, at this point, anything in burgundy and gold.

``I'm excited for us, and I'm excited for the team,'' said Green, the 37-year-old in his 15th season with Washington. ``I'm not going to say too much. We're going to take it slow. I just want to win. I haven't won big in a long time.''

If it happens, the Cover Guys will be right in the middle of it. Because on a reconstructed defense that was third-worst in the league last season, these corners are proving the keystones of prosperity.

The strength of each is man-to-man coverage, and they are so good at it that free safety Stanley Richard, in his words, ``can sit back and relax.'' That is, with Green and Dishman, a free agent in from the Oilers, blanketing the outside, Richard and strong safety Jesse Campbell can roam the middle delivering blows with peace of mind.

Richard snared his first interception of the season in the second quarter after Green beautifully broke up a pass intended for Smith. Richard's 23-yard return set up Washington's go-ahead touchdown.

Then early in the fourth, Dishman reached around McCardell to bat away a pass that floated into the beefy hands of 307-pound tackle Marc Boutte, who did the dancing bear for 10 yards to the Jacksonville 17. That begat the touchdown that made it 24-12 and sent the rain-soaked souls in Jack Kent Cooke Stadium away happy.

``They give us great flexibility to do what matches up well with the other nine guys,'' said new defensive coordinator Mike Nolan of his Cover Guys. ``It all has to do with versatility.''

And results that, surprising or not, have been tough to top.

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