Lions Must Have a Capital Effort : NFC: Detroit has overcome 45-0 loss in opener to become the NFL’s hottest team, but Redskins rarely lose at home.
WASHINGTON — Can the Detroit Lions make it close when they meet the Washington Redskins today?
The Redskins seldom lose at home, and this season they shut out three teams in RFK Stadium.
What’s more, the game wouldn’t have been scheduled here if the Redskins didn’t have a better record.
The Lions are a terror at home, but they are 0-15 in Washington, where they lost in the season opener, 45-0.
So can they make it close this time?
Perhaps not, but they are getting a boost from the weather, which has been blessing Washington lately with autumn-like days--unlike last weekend, when the Redskins destroyed Jerry Glanville’s Atlanta team in a cold, driving rain.
“Sunny and seasonable†is forecast for today, with temperatures in the 40s at 1 p.m. (PST) when the Lions and Redskins get together in the NFC championship game.
The milder weather has made Detroit Coach Wayne Fontes ecstatic.
“We’re excited about it,†Fontes said after bringing his run-and-shoot team to Washington. “We have a great chance to win this thing, the way we see it.â€
The winner will emerge to represent the conference in the Super Bowl Jan. 26 against today’s Buffalo-Denver winner.
Everyone keeps telling Fontes that the run-and-shoot works better on a good day than in stormy weather. And although he disputes this--pointing out that the Lions won twice this winter on freezing fields, in Green Bay and Buffalo--most good coaches, Fontes among them, prefer mild, calm weather.
In other conditions--on a muddy field, say--the question isn’t, which is the better football team? It’s, who are the better mudders?
In Washington, Coach Joe Gibbs has another team that expands its offensive potential on a nice day. The Posse receivers--Art Monk, Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders--are as concerned about high winds and off tracks as are Detroit’s four wide receivers.
And the Posse is half of the Redskin offense.
Still, among most football people, the weather talk these days is all about the effect of a lousy day on the run-and-shoot.
“That’s because they don’t understand it,†Fontes said. “I’ll put it this way. If we lose, it won’t be the weather that beat us.â€
To a man, Fontes’ players agree that the Lions are on course to a major upset.
“They say we’re 13 1/2-point underdogs,†Lion linebacker Chris Spielman said. “But we’ve been big underdogs before. The thing they don’t realize is that we’re capable of beating this team or any team.â€
Erik Kramer, the young Detroit quarterback who threw three touchdown passes last week in eliminating the Dallas Cowboys, shares a rather prevalent opinion that the Falcons’ run-and-shoot bunch could have won in Washington last week if Glanville hadn’t lost his running backs to injury.
“Look at that (Redskin-Falcon) game closely, you’ll see that Atlanta had some opportunities to win,†Kramer said.
He says that the Lions won’t be in Atlanta’s straitjacket because, with Barry Sanders, they have the NFL’s finest running back.
That reminds Sanders that if the game comes down to player vs. player, he’ll take the Lions.
“In talent, we match up very well with (the Redskins),†he said, putting his finger on the one aspect of the game that gives Detroit fans the most hope.
For it has been said that Fontes has more talent on his side than Gibbs has in Washington.
What Gibbs has, though, is a team, and that was more than enough to get Washington the championship of the NFC East this season with a 14-2 record.
The Lions won the championship of the NFC Central with a 12-4 record. They and the Redskins were the two biggest winners in their conference.
They are here for the title game because they seem to be the NFC’s two best-balanced teams, proving it in several ways:
--Although Sanders earned his share of honors this season, the Redskins have a stronger running game with Earnest Byner and rookie Ricky Ervins.
--These are one-back teams with very different but equally well designed ground attacks.
--The quarterbacks, Kramer of Detroit and Mark Rypien of Washington, were uncommonly successful last week, when Rypien led the rout over Atlanta and Kramer surprised the Dallas Cowboys--and the rest of the league--with one of the most successful passing attacks of recent postseasons.
--Their philosophy is also similar. The Lions and Redskins both want to run the ball, but if they can’t run it, they will pass it, at the drop of a helmet.
--The Washington offensive line is more famous than Detroit’s, but hardly more effective. The Lions have been protecting Kramer at least as well as the Washington “Hogs†serve Rypien, whose 1991 sack total was strikingly down after he made a decision to throw every pass away away unless his receiver was open.
--Finally, both teams seem to have Super Bowl defenses.
If the game is decided on pass rushing, it will probably go against Kramer, who wasn’t touched by the Cowboys last week, but who will face a considerably different defense this time.
There are many ways to rush a passer, and if the Cowboys used none of them, the Redskins are ready to use them all.
The one respect in which the Redskins have a clear edge is in physical condition. Their players are all sound.
The Lions, by comparison, have experienced an extraordinary run of injuries this season, losing, along the way, no fewer than five starters--their best defensive player among them: nose tackle Jerry Ball.
Fontes also was minus four other starters for extended periods last week when he became one of the few coaches to get his team into a conference championship game without the help of nine starters.
Some of them will play today.
Fontes has kept the Lions going with good depth and with player emotion. They have won their last seven games--the NFL’s longest current winning streak--and the players on the teams they have beaten, without exception, have mentioned the emotional fervor with which the Detroit club attacked.
It all goes back to the day last November against the Rams when offensive lineman Mike Utley was paralyzed after colliding with another player.
His teammates have set out to win for Utley. And in a sport that is considered to be one-third coaching, one-third athletes and one-third emotion, the Lions, in December and January, have been unbeatable.
Their problem is that for a decade or more, the NFL championship has been won invariably by the leading contender with the fewest major injuries. That last season was the New York Giants, who had to replace only quarterback Phil Simms, and replaced him with a winner, Jeff Hostetler.
This winter the Redskins are the NFL’s most injury-free team.
Put it all together, and the odds are stacked heavily against the Lions, who simply refuse to believe it.
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
