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Brad Johnson survives toughest test
Week 4 Awards | Factoid
... Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag. EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- "We're way out here in the sticks, aren't we?" Washington quarterback Brad Johnson asked me Saturday night at the club's Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., hotel. "What?" I said. "You're only two or three miles from Giants Stadium." "Well," replied the country boy from North Carolina, shrugging, "the road is probably good for us right now anyway." Perfect, in fact, for a club that hadn't yet lived up to its billing. But if the Redskins had been scheduled to play the Giants at FedEx Field, it wouldn't have mattered, really, to Johnson. I've been covering this game for 16 years, and I don't think I've been around a guy who is so unaffected by the pressure or the zany environment such as the one Washington inhabits these days. Whatever happens, he shrugs it off. Like Sunday night after the Redskins' 16-6 victory, after his 14-of-20, 289-yard, two-touchdown, no-pick performance, when I met him at his locker. He was stuffing three Gatorades and two cans of Coke into his travel bag. He smiled, but just slightly. "I guess that'll keep everybody quiet for a day or two," he said. Johnson hadn't played very well in the season's first three weeks. Specifically, he hadn't played well in the clutch, throwing the game away in Detroit Sept. 10 with three late interceptions. That's not like Johnson. But let's remember he had two receivers -- Irving Fryar and Andre Reed -- older than his passing-game coordinator, Terry Robiskie, playing prominent roles. He'd lost his number one guy, Michael Westbrook, to a knee injury in Week 1. His new primary receiver, Albert Connell, would be a No. 3 on a team with a good receiving corps. Now he'd have to rely on Reed --who is on his last NFL legs -- and youngster James Thrash to make plays.
The environment among the wideouts changed after last year, when Johnson threw for 4,005 yards, and this spring, when the hype machine was turned up full-blast around Washington. "Everybody wanted to be a big star," Robiskie told me. "Nobody wanted to do the dirty work. Nobody wanted to catch the 10-yard out anymore. Last year, we were so relaxed at everything. We'd make the big plays every game. Bang-bang-bang. No surprise. We got to expect it. So this year everyone came in saying: 'I'm going to show you I'm Superman.' We just have to play football. That's all." Johnson rediscovered his form Sunday night. He's a smart player, and he knew from what he saw early that the Giants intended to double Fryar and Connell, or at least shade a safety toward them each time they went long. And so early in the second quarter, with Thrash in the game, there went Fryar and Connell, getting the attention of the Giants' secondary, and here came Thrash on a deep post, with only the slow Dave Thomas on him. Like shooting fish in a barrel. The 46-yard bomb to Thrash -- Washington's first pass play of more than 30 yards this season -- directly preceded a 23-yard touchdown strike to Fryar. And though this one ended 16-6, it could have, should have, been much more decisive. The Redskins are a better team than the Giants, even if the division standings don't show it right now. "Oh, this was huge," Robiskie said later. "Huge. Like a 70-year-old man dying of thirst in the desert getting a drink of water. We needed it bad." After the game, as the media horde convened on Deion Sanders three lockers away, Johnson put on his jacket and ducked out. He stopped to talk in the tunnel for a few minutes. He said the big plays hadn't been there in the first three games and they were there in this game. He said he tried to take what the Giants defense gave him. And he said: "I could have played better. I missed a few." And then he walked to the team bus, alone. Ignored by the crowd in the Giants Stadium tunnel, just the way he likes it. Week 4 AwardsOFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair. These are the moments that get you remembered. Tennessee trailed 20-16 with less than two minutes left in Pittsburgh. Four plays. Sixty-four yards. That's how long it took, and how far McNair -- who hadn't started because of a badly bruised sternum but came in when Neil O'Donnell suffered a bloody cut lip -- went to get the Titans a big, big win. "Steve's a hero," Titans tailback Eddie George said. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Miami defensive end Trace Armstrong. At 35, Armstrong harassed Drew Bledsoe into the Dolphins' lone two sacks in a 10-3 Miami win. Incredibly, this man has an AFC-best 6.5 sacks after just four games. More incredibly, the Fish defense allowed just one touchdown in the month of September. Heck of a defense. Heck of a player. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: New York Jets wideout Laveranues Coles. In addition to catching his first NFL pass, Coles made a standout first-quarter tackle in punt coverage. Then in the second quarter, trying to down a punt, he dove headlong into the end zone and came within inches of pinning the Bucs at their 2. Replays showed that Coles was just over the goal line before making contact with the ball on that play, but he was also in on two other special-team tackles in a tight, tight game. GOAT OF THE WEEK: Tampa Bay fullback Mike Alstott. He is paid good money to run out the clock in big games, but he lost the game to the Jets by fumbling inside the two-minute warning. This is not the Mike Alstott of legend. This is the Mike Alstott of Keyshawn Johnson's worst nightmare. COACH OF THE WEEK: New York Jets coach Al Groh. I don't know how he did it. Keeping his team away from the Keyshawn fluff all week, pulling all the right strings down the stretch of Sunday's stunner in Tampa, keeping Vinny Testaverde focused, pulling Vinny, re-inserting Vinny, letting Dan Henning call that crazy Curtis Martin option pass to Wayne Chrebet ... In general, the guy who looks as if he's wound tighter than a dozen Bill Belichick has done one heck of a job in getting his team off to a 4-0 start. Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only MeThe Rams outscored the Bengals, the NFL's Triple A franchise, by 153 points in September. The 10 Things I Think I Think1. I think, once and for all, Keyshawn Johnson has to realize that, yes, he would have been traded if Bill Parcells had to make the call on his future all by himself. Think of it. Aging team. Team built for 1999. Team loses quarterback in first game. Team in huge cap trouble. Team very short on prospects for the future. Team can buy four for the price of one. Team definitely could have signed Johnson long-term, but team chose to deal for two more first-round picks, not sign Keyshawn and have a chance to sign some other veterans down the road. If Parcells told Groh and owner Woody Johnson, "We've just got to sign this guy, whatever it takes," you know he'd still be a Jet today. 2. I think I don't understand what "Raw Is War" is. And I want to know this about professional wrestling: Why do people like it? Why do you like choreographed fakery with strange-looking people? I need to understand. Is it escapism? 3. I think it was refreshing to hear Phil Simms say this early on in the Jets-Bucs game, when the Jets' aerial attack surprised him (especially considering what the Jets had told him they'd be doing in the passing game): "They lied to us." 4. I think the best non-Jets-Bucs game I saw all weekend was Montclair High 2, Pompton Lakes High 1. Field hockey. Well, Pompton Lakes is the defending Group II New Jersey state champion, a classy and gutty and spirited group of kids for whom our Montclair girls had the utmost respect (and maybe a little fear) entering the fray. But MHS entered the game 4-0, ranked 14th in the state, and looking forward to the challenge. Tough game. A Pompton player broke her right ankle in a collision with our tri-captain, Perri Hillsberg, in the first half. Pompton Lakes had the better of the play through the first half and the first 15 minutes of the second, peppering our gritty goalie, Kaitlyn Robinson, with most of their 20 shots on goal in the first 45 minutes. But Kaitlyn stoned 'em, and the game was scoreless until left inner Allison Farley shoved home a rebound with just under two minutes left. Montclair euphoria. Pompton Lakes agony. Hoarse kids. Hoarser parents. Montclair steels itself to play defensively in the final minute, but Pompton Lakes won't die easy. They score on a breakaway with 15 seconds left. Pompton Lakes euphoria. Montclair agony. Overtime. Overtime in New Jersey is 10 minutes, no sudden death, with the sides reduced from 11 girls to seven to increase scoring chances. See-saw period. I unfortunately run out of video tape in the first minute, which would get me into hot water at home later. With 4:40 to go, the King kid, tri-captain Laura, winds up in the goal area for a shot, but she's immediately mugged, and the goalie accidentally slashes her in the head with her stick. Laura's fine. Happy, actually, because the ref signals a penalty stroke. Weird play. The ball is set on the penalty line and the coach picks one player to take the stroke. It can be anyone. Our coach, Mary Pat Mercuro, wisely chooses reliable, quiet and humble Natalie Serock. Natalie puts her stick behind the ball. The goalie gets ready. There is a three-second pause that seems like 30. Finally, she sweeps her stick forward, putting the ball to the left side of the cage. The goalie lunges and deflects the ball -- right into the side of the cage. Natalie gets buried by her mates. And I say to someone, after jumping around like an idiot: "There is nothing like high school sports." 5. I think Dick Enberg has had better Sundays than his effort in the Pats-Dolphins game. Enberg called Lamar Smith "Jamal Smith." He said it was a very hot "first weekend of August." He said a shovel pass went to "Thurman Munson" instead of Thurman Thomas. All in the first half, I might add. 6a. I think, speaking of TV announcers, FOX's Tim Green was dead-on when he talked about the wraps Dallas had on Troy Aikman early in the game as San Francisco galloped to a big early lead: "They babied Aikman a little bit at the beginning of the game. They have to open it up." 6b. I think I have rarely seen such bush-league behavior as I saw in that game, with the crap 49ers receiver Terrell Owens pulled by twice defiantly laying the ball down in the center of the star at midfield. YOU'RE 2-14 IN YOUR LAST 16 GAMES, PAL. YOU'RE IN NO POSITION TO BE DOING ANYTHING DEFIANTLY, EXCEPT HANDING YOUR PAYCHECK BACK TO THE 49ER COMPTROLLER EVERY WEEK! And what in the world are the officials doing letting Owens run half the length of the field the first time, holding up the game and not flagging him for taunting? This league fines guys for five-second endzone dances, then lets some idiot run 60 yards, delay the game, and taunt a stadium without getting an unsportsmanlike-conduct flag. That's logic for you. That single act of Owens' defiance -- and Jeff Triplette's crew letting him get away with it -- led to all the pushing and shoving and taunting and, I believe, to absolutely tarnishing the 49ers' first win in nine months. "You gotta have some dignity when you're playing this game," Green said on TV. Amen, brother. Suggestion to NFL cop Gene Washington: Come down hard on the loons who made this the Thug Game of 2000. 7. I think we've been waiting for a long time for a song as good as U2's Beautiful Day. The new album's due in October, and I know the King household can't wait. 8a. I think there is nothing wrong with Brad Johnson's arm. He bought himself a month of Sundays with his Pro Bowl night at the Meadowlands. 8b. I think I saw the 2000 brilliance of Tiki Barber when, in the first quarter, he deked Champ Bailey out of his shoes on his way to an eight-yard gain. Understand that no one dekes Champ Bailey out of his shoes. 8c. I think there is something wrong with Deion Sanders' big-playness. It's vanished. Perfect example: Giants punt to Sanders, alone with an eight-yard cushion, at the Redskins' 30 in the second quarter. Instead of taking the 15-yard return, or more, that the Giants are giving him, Sanders exaggerates a couple of classic Deion moves, giving the cover guys a chance to catch him. He's smothered for a four-yard gain. Terrible return. 8d. I think that Kerry Collins' national TV coming-out party could have gone a little better. With 13 minutes left in the game, I looked up at the stat monitor in the press box and saw Washington leading the net passing-yardage race in this game, 259-17. 9. I think Tony Gonzalez is the best tight end in football. Catching 10 at Mile High will do that to a reputation. 10. I think the most amazing thing about the Rams is how coaches stayed up all offseason trying to figure a way to stop them, and now they're staying up all week trying to do the same, asking their video crews to cut up and dissect their tape all different ways to find flaws when there are none. To average 40 points a game for a month is ridiculous, especially with the overanalysis that goes on in this league. My hat's off to you, Mike Martz. Click here to send a question to Peter
King's NFL Mailbag.
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