Redskins Take a Big Step Up

The first public utterance from Redskin Coach Norv Turner after scoring 50 points against the New York Giants ended with, “We had a tough loss last Sunday. It was a long week.”

It’s not possible to capture the significance of the Redskins’ 50-21 victory at Giants Stadium without relating it to the excruciating 41-35 loss to the Dallas Cowboys one week before.

Instead of cowering from the start as they frequently have these past few years, players such as Marco Coleman, Larry Centers and Darrell Green rallied the Redskins from Sunday’s debacle through Sunday’s lopsided mugging of the Giants that in some ways was as shocking as the come-from-ahead loss to the Cowboys. More than any ability related to football, the Redskins had to demonstrate mental toughness before more winnable games slipped away.

“There’s a lot of working with the psyche in this business,” Green said. “There was a lot of, ‘Man, they said y’all are wimps,’ and, ‘Man, they said y’all embarrassed yourselves and might not win a game all season.’ I don’t need any added incentive to get ready for a game, but that’s the nature of the business.”

Coleman and Centers “have been providing new leadership,” Green added, “There’s no negative history here with them. Losing to the Cowboys last week didn’t mean diddly to them, in terms of what happened here before. They don’t carry the baggage. We didn’t come into this week as yesterday’s Washington Redskins.”

It took until Week 8 before the team won a game last year. It took until Week 6 for the team to score 86 points; they have 85 after two weeks this season. The Redskins were so dominant Sunday they got all three quarterbacks some work. Brad Johnson was nearly flawless, Stephen Davis was responsible for more than his share of New York’s 19 missed tackles and the offensive line was perfect.

“I wasn’t worried about our guys being flat,” Turner said. “I was more concerned with them being uptight. You can try too hard.”

Left tackle Andy Heck, an 11-year NFL veteran, said, “I’ve never experienced a loss like we had last week. As determined as we were to bounce back and as hard as we prepared to play well, only a game would be an indicator of whether we put last week behind us.”

YOUNGSTERS HAVE GROWING PAINS

Rookie quarterbacks are in season in the NFL, if Sunday is any indication.

* Cleveland quarterback Tim Couch, named the starter after Ty Detmer led the Browns to only 40 yards in offense last week, matched that total with his feet alone as he ran five times for 40 yards. The No. 1 overall draft pick had a rough time in his first NFL start, getting sacked seven times and completing 12 of 24 passes for only 134 yards. The Browns (0-2), routed by Pittsburgh, 43-0, in their opener last week, gained a total of only 173 yards against Tennessee in a 26-9 loss.

* Cincinnati’s Akili Smith took over for an injured Jeff Blake after an injury and was 10 for 17 for 100 yards with one interception and two sacks. Coach Bruce Coslet said it was too early to tell how long Blake will be sidelined, but if Blake is out for several weeks, the Bengals will be looking for another quarterback to back up Smith and Scott Covington, another rookie.

“If he’s out for four or five weeks, yes,” Coslet said. “If it’s minor, sometimes you don’t have to. We’ll hope for the best.”

* Philadelphia’s Donovan McNabb got a big ovation when he made his unexpected NFL debut. Then he was sacked six times and would have been sacked many more times if not for his speed. He completed four of 11 passes for 26 yards. The protection was so bad that Coach Andy Reid admitted worrying about the safety of his $53.7-million rookie. “I would be worried about anybody back there,” Reid said.

FASHIONABLE RUN TO PLAYOFFS

The Tennessee Titans improved their record to 2-0 with a 26-9 victory over Cleveland and are seeking to improve upon a streak unprecedented in NFL history: The last four teams to redesign their uniforms, the 1996 Eagles, the 1997 Broncos and Buccaneers and the 1998 Jets, made the playoffs in the first year of their new look.

And the Titans also have a new name and stadium going for them. But they aren’t the only team to change their uniforms. A review of the new look in the NFL:

* Tennessee-- A color scheme of Titan blue (a fancy way of saying dark blue), navy and red, with an accent of silver. Titan blue stretches across the shoulders, evoking the image of battle armor. The two-tone shoulders are reminiscent of the jerseys worn during the early days of the NFL.

* Baltimore--For you Raven fans out there (both of you), the team has a new helmet logo, a profiled head of a raven, with the letter “B.”

Also this season, the Chiefs and Patriots are wearing special patches commemorating the 40th season of the American Football League, and the Dallas Cowboys will wear patches commemorating their 40th season, or is that 40th conviction? It’s hard to tell with them.

WHERE’S BARRY GOING

As soon as word got out that Barry Sanders would like back in the NFL as long as he doesn’t have to play for Detroit, speculation began about where he might go if he could. (He can’t, say the Lions.)

Here’s the speculation, based on the assumption Sanders wants to go to a team that has a chance of getting to the playoffs and advancing.

1. San Francisco. This is the first fantasy stop for any star who declares himself available. Fantasize Sanders with Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens and friends, and close your eyes when you think about the team’s offensive line. In the mediocre NFC, Sanders might even make the 49ers a Super Bowl team again.

P.S.: The 49ers already are $24 million over the salary cap.

2. New England. Nice fit, good prospects. No cap room. They already had to cut Willie Clay. Would they cut Willie McGinest to sign Sanders?

3. New York Giants. The Giants had one of the top five defenses in the league--until Sunday. They still have one of the bottom five offenses. Sanders’ presence would open it up for Giant receivers so that even Kent Graham could find them. (Sorry Kent, even if you did have a good exhibition season.)

P.S.: Signing Sanders is not the Giants’ style.

4. Buffalo. He’d see eye-to-eye with Doug Flutie.

5. Miami. Why add to the glut of running backs that includes Karim Abdul-Jabbar and rookies Cecil Collins, J.J. Johnson and Rob Konrad? None of them is Sanders, but then Sanders never got the Lions to a Super Bowl either.

6. Oakland. Al Davis loves big stars, especially ones who have had disputes with other teams.

McNAIR WORSE THAN EXPECTED

The ruptured disc in Steve McNair’s back was found to be worse than expected during surgery Sunday, but the Tennessee Titan quarterback is still on target to return for an Oct. 31 game against the St. Louis Rams.

Dr. Robert Watkins operated on McNair in Los Angeles and found that the disc was fragmented larger than they had thought.

“When you get a fragment that big, I’m told it’s like putting [6-foot-7, 320-pound Titan tackle] Jon Runyan in a Beetle bug,” team physician Burton Elrod said.

Watkins, who also has operated on the backs of Troy Aikman and Joe Montana, repaired the disc, and McNair was resting comfortably.

Coach Jeff Fisher tried to reach McNair by telephone after the Titans beat the Cleveland Browns, 26-9, only to get a busy signal. McNair, who had started 34 games in a row, will start his rehabilitation in Los Angeles before returning to Nashville on Thursday.

He injured his back during training camp and wound up missing two weeks of practice and two exhibition games with back spasms and stiffness. McNair started the Titans’ final exhibition and their season opener in which he threw for a career-high 341 yards, but he apparently re-injured his back in practice Friday.

“We thought we’d get Steve by without surgery, but he was in too much pain and we couldn’t treat him conservatively,” Elrod said.

--Compiled by Houston Mitchell

Sharpe Shooter

With six receptions Sunday, Denver tight end Shannon Sharpe moved into second place all-time for catches by a tight end. A look:

* 1. Ozzie Newsome, Cleveland (1978-90)

662 receptions, 7,980 yards.

* 2. Shannon Sharpe, Denver (1990-current)

542 receptions, 6,872 yards.

* 3. Kellen Winslow, San Diego (1979-87)

541 receptions, 6,741 yards.

* 4. Steve Jordan, Minnesota (1982-94)

498 receptions, 6,307 yards.

* 5. Jackie Smith, St. Louis-Dallas (1963-78)

490 receptions, 7,918 yards.