Woody:TD pass by receiver lifts Skins

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TD pass by receiver lifts Skins

Gardner's late toss nips Seattle and ends Washington's slide

BY PAUL WOODY

TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Sunday, November 9, 2003

LANDOVER, Md. - For weeks, the Washington Redskins have been searching for an emergency quarterback. Now, it appears their search might be over.

Rod Gardner, come on down.

Yesterday, Gardner, a Redskins wide receiver, took a long lateral from starting quarterback Patrick Ramsey then threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to running back Trung Canidate. The play came with just under two minutes left in the game and gave the Redskins a 27-20 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

"It was the perfect play," Gardner said. "All I had to do was make a pretty throw."

It was a perfect play on a day when the Redskins made so many big plays that Steve Spurrier had a difficult time picking out just one as the game's most significant.

"I tell you what, there were a lot of big plays in this game," said Spurrier, the Redskins' head coach. "But the biggest may have been when Laveranues Coles stripped the defensive back who had intercepted, and Randy Thomas fell on it to give us the ball back on the 20-yard line. Otherwise, we're down 21-3, in dire straits and looking like we're going nowhere."

That sequence of events went this way: Ramsey, under pressure for one of the few times yesterday, made an ill-ad- vised pass into the flat for Coles. But Seattle safety Damien Robinson stepped in front of Coles at the Redskins' 28 and made the interception.

Robinson took off for the end zone and reached the 2-yard line when Coles caught him and punched the ball from Robinson's hands. Thomas, the Redskins' right guard, fell on the ball in the end zone. That gave the Redskins a touchback and put them on their 20-yard line with a fresh set of downs.

The Redskins turned that bit of good fortune into an 80-yard touchdown drive, and they were back in the game.

The Redskins stayed in the game, tying it at 17-17 at the end of the first half. They didn't let things get away from them in the second half because they protected the ball, protected Ramsey and had few untimely penalties.

The Seahawks did their part to help, rarely blitzing Ramsey.

In the past four games, all Redskins losses, Ramsey had been under heavy pressure from blitzing linebackers and defensive backs. The Seahawks had no sacks yesterday.

"We hit him a couple of times and got to him a little bit, but not like [other] teams have done," said Seattle coach Mike Holmgren. "I think teams are just willing to sell out on defense in the blitz package, and we were unwilling to do that.

"If we had taken care just taken care of business on offense a little bit better, I don't question the strategy."

Spurrier's strategy has faced plenty of questions in recent weeks. In order to halt the criticism and give his team a chance to win a game, Spurrier made the bold step of relinquishing the play-calling duties. He gave that job to offensive coordinator Hue Jackson. The result was a balanced attack - 32 rushing attempts and 32 passing attempts - and a happy, healthy Ramsey.

Spurrier did not abdicate decision-making responsibility entirely. When the Redskins faced a fourth-and-inches on their 25-yard line, with 6:13 left in a game tied at 20-20, Spurrier left the offense on the field and told Jackson to call the play.

Jackson sent running back Rock Cartwright off tackle for 2 yards, and the Redskins' game-winning drive remained alive.

"We only needed a little bit, and it just seemed like, gosh, we needed to keep the ball," Spurrier said. "It just seemed like we needed to keep the defense off the field at that time, and try to get something going offensively.

"When you've lost four in a row, you don't have to play too conservative or too careful. You've got to try to make something happen to win the game. Gosh, about all the players said, 'Let's go for it.'"

Redskins offensive tackle Jon Jansen said, "We didn't want to come off the field. We needed 6 inches. We would have been disappointed if he didn't have confidence in us to get that."

Contact Paul Woody at (804) 649-6444 or pwoody@timesdispatch.com