Fire Still Burns for Schottenheimer

Former Redskins Coach Has Success in San Diego

Marty Schottenheimer has the Chargers going in the right direction; they have won four of their past five. (By Denis Poroy -- Associated Press)

SAN DIEGO -- The situation called for a move straight out of the Martyball textbook as the San Diego Chargers' 74-yard, game-opening drive came down to fourth and goal at the Buffalo 1-yard line on Sunday.

What to do? What to do?

Martyball dictates: Take the field goal and take it now.

It turns out there's a new edition of Martyball and this one commanded the Chargers to go for the touchdown. Tailback LaDainian Tomlinson took the handoff from quarterback Drew Brees and vaulted over the defensive line for the first touchdown in a 48-10 victory.

Afterward, Coach Marty Schottenheimer played down the call, one of the Chargers' two successful fourth-down conversions in the game, and the seeming demise of the conservative, grind-it-out style of play that has marked his coaching career.

"That was really an easy decision for me, to be honest with you," Schottenheimer said. "I made the decision before third down. You can do things like that when you have the ball down in [their] end of the field."

Still, the decision came as something of a shock. After all, this was 62-year-old Marty Schottenheimer. "Maybe," quarterback Drew Brees said with a grin, "times are changing."

For Schottenheimer, they certainly are. He and the Chargers (6-4) face the Washington Redskins (5-5) on Sunday at FedEx Field in a crucial game for both teams. Schottenheimer arrives as the coach of the defending AFC West champion, a team that has won four of its last five games.

He is far removed from 2001, the single season he spent in Washington, leading the Redskins to an 8-8 record before being dismissed by owner Daniel Snyder. He will be making his first coaching appearance in Washington since then and is the second coach to have been fired by Snyder to face the Redskins in the last two weeks. Oakland's Norv Turner beat Washington, 16-13, last week.

"He's loosened up a little bit," Brees said of Schottenheimer. "When he came here, he was a great coach, one of the best in the game. Now he's even better. We've learned from him. He's learned from us."

A former NFL linebacker, Schottenheimer is the NFL's winningest active coach with 188 victories that rank eighth on the all-time list. He made his mark as head coach of the Cleveland Browns (1984-1988) and Kansas City Chiefs (1989-1998), where he became known for his authoritative, controlling style, his work ethic and an all-consuming commitment to winning.

" 'Expect to win.' That's up in our locker room in our facility here," said Schottenheimer's 32 year-old son Brian, San Diego's quarterbacks coach. "It was up in Washington, in Kansas City. . . . And that's all about the attitude of the squad. . . . Any time you step out on the field, you need to expect to win. He's always preached that."