AP: Gibbs and Holmgren Playoff Experience

[jimster]

Gibbs and Holmgren Have Plenty of Playoff Experience

http://sports.iwon.com/news/01102006/v8943.html

Jan 10, 9:31 PM (ET) Email this Story

By GREGG BELL

KIRKLAND, Wash. (AP) - The only NFL coaches who have a better postseason record than Joe Gibbs are Vince Lombardi and Bill Belichick.

So the Washington coach will probably be relaxed in the moments just before his 23rd playoff game with the Redskins on Saturday in Seattle, right? He will surely be more at ease than he was before his first postseason kickoff 24 years ago.

Don't count on it.

"I was scared to death then and I am scared to death now," Gibbs said, laughing during a conference call on Tuesday. "I'll be the guy throwing up on the sidelines there when things get underway."

Gibbs nauseous? With a 17-5 playoff record, fewer wins than only Tom Landry (20) and Don Shula (19)? With a career postseason winning percentage of .773 that trails only Belichick (11-1, .917) and Lombardi (9-1, .900)?

That's enough to make Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren sick. With envy. He's 9-8 in the postseason, including 0-3 in Seattle.

Think coaching doesn't matter in the playoffs? Four coaches have won at least three Super Bowls: Belichick, Bill Walsh, Gibbs and Chuck Noll, who won four. Only Gibbs did it with three different quarterbacks: Joe Theismann, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien.

Now, two years after returning to football following a foray into NASCAR team ownership, the 65-year-old Gibbs is trying to go all the way with a fourth passer. Discarded Jacksonville Jaguar Mark Brunell has led the Redskins (11-6) on a six-game winning streak.

That streak will be on the line Saturday against the Seahawks (13-3), the NFC's top seed who won 11 straight after a 20-17 overtime loss at Washington on Oct. 2. Seattle's run ended in its meaningless regular-season finale at Green Bay.

Now winners themselves, the Seahawks still have great admiration for Gibbs.

"He runs the ball and stops the run. Now that's old-school. But it works," Seattle offensive coordinator Gil Haskell said.

Haskell is 62 and began coaching in the NFL in 1983, the year of Gibbs' first Super Bowl victory with Washington.

"I admire him very much. He's so strong-minded," Haskell said. "And his players buy in. That's why they are winning."

Haskell's current boss has been an NFL head coach for 14 years. Holmgren has two Super Bowl appearances, half as many as Gibbs. Holmgren won one, with Green Bay after the 1996 season.

But he seemed uncomfortable being mentioned in the same conversation as Gibbs.

When Holmgren was a backup quarterback at Southern California as a senior in 1969, Gibbs was the Trojans' offensive line coach.

"He's one of the guys I've tried to pattern my coaching after," Holmgren said. "Really, if I could be mentioned in the same sentence as him, that'd be wonderful."

Holmgren almost became Gibbs' quarterbacks coach in Washington in 1989. Walsh had just retired as the 49ers' head coach after winning his third Super Bowl with them. All of Walsh's assistants' contracts had expired. Holmgren, then San Francisco's quarterbacks coach, needed a job.

"I had small kids. I was panicked," Holmgren said.

Gibbs called offering the same position in Washington. But before Holmgren could get on a plane, George Seifert, Walsh's replacement, called Holmgren and said he wanted him to be the team's offensive coordinator. Holmgren stayed by the bay.

Since then, Gibbs and Holmgren have learned common lessons in their 39 combined playoff games as head coaches.

But when asked what wisdom Gibbs will give his Redskins this week, he laughed again and said, "Very little wisdom. You have to remember, I am a physical-education teacher. That is ballroom dancing and handball."

Self-deprecation aside, Gibbs and Holmgren share this: They believe they must emphasize to their players the intensity of a postseason game.

"The one thing I will try to tell my players is, you are going to get the absolute best Seattle's got. You've got to be ready for it," Gibbs said.

Holmgren added: "The fans in the stadium make the game different."

He enjoys one of the NFL's best home-field advantages. Seattle is 22-4 at Qwest Field since the end of the 2002 season, including 8-0 this season.

During a Nov. 27 overtime win over New York, the Giants had an astounding 11 false-start penalties amid the roar of 67,000 people starved for their city's first men's professional sports title since 1979.

Holmgren said a second lesson has been simple: Don't make mistakes, ones you may have gotten away with in the regular season.

"The mistake in the playoffs - the turnover, the missed tackle - because of the fact it is sudden death, those take on much greater meaning than in the regular season," he said.

Holmgren also said he has learned that a few surprises go a long way in the postseason. That might not mean an option pass from NFL leading rusher and Most Valuable Player Shaun Alexander to NFC passing leader Matt Hasselbeck, but it will likely mean something Washington hasn't seen Seattle do.

And vice versa.

Still, Gibbs was playing the woe-is-me angle.

"I don't like the fact we have a tough assignment, we have a short work week, we have to travel and play a super football team," he said. "I would rather play Omaha State or somebody."