Yesterday, wideout Rod Gardner was still convinced that he caught a pass early in the second quarter that was ruled incomplete. The Redskins had the ball on third and 10 from the 50-yard line. Brunell's hard pass bounced off Gardner's chest as the wideout fell, and he grabbed the ball near the ground. Gardner tried to get Gibbs's attention on the sideline by yelling, but the Redskins sent out their punting unit.
"They got away with that one," Gardner said, his voice still tinged with disappointment. "It was on replay. Plus, people who saw it on TV said it was a catch."
Joe Gibbs did not challenge a spot following a Mark Brunell scramble that left his club with fourth and inches at the Tampa Bay 3-yard line. The Redskins are the only team to have a referee on staff to help review replay challenges during games.
(John McDonnell - The Washington Post)
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Hill chuckled when told about Gardner's response. "That one was very easy," Hill said. "Coach Gibbs saw that [yesterday]. The whole ball was laying on the ground."
Hill sits behind Redskins quarterback coach Jack Burns in a booth containing six Redskins assistants. They all wear headsets allowing them to communicate with Gibbs, but Hill generally sends his messages through Burns to reduce the number of voices.
One constraint in the setup is that the coaches in the booth must count on the network televising the game, seeing only one or two replays before the opportunity to issue a challenge. Replay officials see many more angles and can slow down the play or stop the frames before ruling on a challenge.
"We're at the mercy of television," Hill said. "Whatever television shows is what we have to go by. We might see it once."
Rick "Doc" Walker, who played tight end with the Redskins from 1980 to 1985, isn't surprised by Hill's hiring. He recalls that during Gibbs's first season as a head coach, the Redskins were the NFL's only team that had referees regularly working practices.
"I've always seen him do those types of things," Walker said yesterday. "He didn't reinvent the wheel. But he sure greases it up."
The NFL has reduced its play clock from 45 seconds to 40 seconds since Gibbs retired in 1993. Gibbs's offensive wizardry (his 1983 team set an NFL scoring record that lasted until the Minnesota Vikings broke it in 1998) partly came from quirky formations and movement before the snap. Thus, Gibbs considered the loss of five seconds significant enough to alter his pre-snap schemes. Gibbs faced a challenge getting the appropriate personnel on the field in time, and used the preseason games to adjust.
"That's a huge deal," he said. "I've always been in favor of more time between plays."
Gardner said: "Back in the day it was easier to do all that shifting and motion. In practice we were going 100 miles per hour trying to get it done."
One change that pleases Gibbs is the invention of the helmet radio allowing coaches to communicate with their quarterbacks. In Gibbs's first tenure, hand signals were used to send in plays, which could result in confusion, and was subject to opponents trying to steal signs. Despite Gibbs's penchant for secrecy, he is one of the few coaches who doesn't use a clipboard to cover his mouth when speaking into his microphone to talk to his quarterback.
"If they are going to read my lips then they can read my lips," Gibbs said, laughing heartily. "Most of the time I will probably be saying: 'You idiot. Hit the open guy.' So if they read some of that it will confuse them."
