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Re: Counter Trey
SUPER BOWL XXII: Redskins-Broncos (EXERPTS):
"Joe asked me, 'What do you think, Buges?' " said Bugel after the game. "Breaux and I both said, 'Don't give up on the Counter.' They'd been playing a stunting type of defense, a guessing defense, and they'd guessed right in the first quarter and given us a couple of minuses on that play. Against stunting defenses like the Broncos use you have to pull your guard and the tackle to the opposite side. It's a precision play, and when the timing's a little off, well, it can look ugly. Maybe in the first quarter we were a little overanxious, and the timing wasn't right. But Breaux and I both felt it would come."
Washington started its third drive of the quarter on its own 26. On first down Clark curled inside for a 16-yard reception. "It was a cover-three zone," he said. "They were laying back. There was a big hole. Maybe it was because they'd been burned already. "The next play was Smith's biggie, 58 yards for a touchdown on the Counter over the right side, with Jacoby and McKenzie pulling and tight ends Didier and Don Warren cutting off the pursuit. "It seemed like it was going to be a tight squeeze," said Smith. "I had to take it inside. I don't know, it just popped."
Smith had run for only 126 yards during the regular season but had gained 66 and 72 yards, respectively, in Washington's two previous postseason games. He was a surprise starter, at least to the 73,302 fans in the stands and to the 45 Broncos on the sideline who saw George Rogers introduced with the Redskins' offense. Gibbs said he had decided to start Smith on Saturday night. He thought the Broncos would be pinching inside and he wanted someone speedier than Rogers in the lineup.
"We told Smith he was starting right before the kickoff," said Bugel. "He took it very calmly. We told him we were going to run outside at the beginning and we wanted him in there for five or six plays. We didn't tell him earlier because we didn't want to make him nervous. We didn't want the guy vomiting in the locker room, like we'd have to throw a smoke bomb to get him out on the field."
Smith's 58-yard TD put Washington ahead 21-10, and the Broncos were in shock. On the sideline the Redskins linemen were telling Bugel to keep calling the Counter. "The Broncos were playing a variety of Buddy Ryan's Bear defense, where they line up men over both guards and the center," said Bugel. "So we went to a counterattack. If you hit it right against that defense, you can break something big."
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