ABCDE SPORTS monday, october 11, 2010 PROFOOTBALL


No one’s undefeated Mike Hart runs for a touchdown with just more than four minutes remaining to help Indianapolis hand Kansas City its first loss. D7


NFLWEEK5 Colts 19, Chiefs 9


Ravens 31, Broncos 17 Bucs 24, Bengals 21 Lions 44, Rams 6


Coverage on Pages D7-9


Bears 23, Panthers 6 Giants 34, Texans 10 Raiders 35, Chargers 27 Cards 30, Saints 20 Titans 34, Cowboys 27


Falcons 20, Browns 10 Jaguars 36, Bills 26 Eagles at 49ers, late HOCKEY


Johansson learns on the fly Capitals rookie center Marcus Johansson’s strong start isn’t without growing pains. D3


Redskins 16, Packers 13 (OT) A refusal to pack it in D EZ SU


JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST LaRon Landry (30) intercepts Aaron Rodgers on the second play of Green Bay’s second overtime possession, helping the Redskins emerge victorious in a game they’d trailed since the first quarter.


LANDRY’S INTERCEPTION HELPS CAP RALLY Redskins score 13 in the fourth quarter and overtime


THOMAS BOSWELL


Improvement goes deep


change certainly starts at the top with a newcoach likeMike Shanahan, or a better quarterback like Donovan McNabb or, in the case of the Redskins, with an owner who decides to step back and let others have more control. However, the improvement must


W


spread much further through the team than that. Shanahan’s Super Bowl rings andMcNabb’s accolades in Philadelphia are a catalyst. But new young players must arrive to contribute. And players who were part of the previous losing culture must be redeployed to better advantage, transformed from being part of the problem to keys to a solution.


boswell continued onD11


hen an NFL team gets better, moving from one level of the league up to another, the


MIKE WISE with character T


o understand howMike Shanahan is pulling off this smoke-and-mirror job, you


needed to be in the locker room Sunday afternoon before dusk. That’s where London Fletcher stood in a circle of dried sweat and fresh blood, some still seeping fromKedric Golston’s finger onto his game pants. “Ayear ago, two years ago, that game


would have been overwithwell,well before,” said Fletcher, the veteran middle linebacker and, apologies to DeAngeloHall, leader of the defense. “It justwould have been a snowball.” To understandwhy theRedskins


have nowbeaten three playoff teams froma year ago and turned a painful- looking start againstAaronRodgers and the statistically superiorGreen


wise continued onD12 TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST


Graham Gano made kicks late in regulation and to win in overtime despite a miss in the last seven minutes.


A pickoff to set it all up LaRon Landry reaches behind his body to make a pivotal interception. D14


washingtonpost.com/redskins 6Game Center: Get all the stats. 6First Things First: Tracee Hamilton takes your questions at 9:30 a.m.


Winning Even with somuch going wrong early


Sunday afternoon,with the offense stall- ing and the defense seemingly helpless at times against the Green Bay Packers, the Washington Redskins’ expectations did not change. “Seems we been there, pretty much,


every game this season,” cornerback Carlos Rogers said. “Why today be any different?” The Redskins again pulled out a close


BY JASON REID back and provided the latest of the Redskins’ heart-stopping moments in the first five games before an announced crowd of 87,760 at FedEx Field. Although Ganomissed a 51-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter that would have tied the score at 13-13, he made his next two high-pressure kicks andWashington won another contest in which the out- come was undecided until the final play. “Iwas glad I had the chance to redeem


win, a 16-13 victory in overtime on a 33-yard field goal by place kicker Gra- ham Gano to complete their late rally. The Redskins twice trailed by 10 points. Gano’s third field goal of the game and second after halftime capped the come-


myself on that,” Gano said. “I was just glad to get another opportunity.” Fourth-year strong safety LaRon Lan-


dry, playing the best football of his redskins continued onD13


Clay Matthews dominated Donovan McNabb and the Redskins offense Sunday, with 11/2 sacks, two


tackles for loss and three quarterback hits as Green Bay built a 13-3 lead. But he exited the game because of a hamstring injury with 2:14 left in the third quarter and everything changed for Washington. Here’s how the Redskins fared before and after he left (n before; n after):


3 9 172 13 12 201


POINTS 1ST DOWNS NET YDS PASSING YDS


133 48.0 189 58.3


COMP PCT. Hamels helps Phillies show Reds an early exit in National League playoffs BY ADAM KILGORE


cincinnati — The presumptive Cy Young winner threwa no-hitter for them in Game 1. Their unrelenting lineup, the one that boasts twoformermost valuable players, bailed them out of Game 2. So naturally, for Game 3 of the National


League Division Series, the Philadelphia Phillies handed the ball to Cole Hamels, the 2008World SeriesMVP. These Phillies are not just the favorite


to win the 2010World Series. They are an embarrassment of riches, a fact made solemnly clear as they dispatched the


Cincinnati Reds from the playoffs with a 2-0 victory at Great American Ball Park that completed a first-round sweep. Hamels shut out the Reds in a perfor- mance that recalled his brilliance in fall of 2008, a start, at times, nearly as dominant as Roy Halladay’s historic


playoff debut. With Hamels’s rebound from the per-


sonal horrors of last October complete, the Phillies have the potential to become as dominant a playoff force as has existed in recent memory. They are four wins from becoming the first team to win


l The Giants top the Braves after second baseman Brooks Conrad’s third error of Game 3. D4


three straightNational League pennants since the St.Louis Cardinals from 1942 to 1944. It may not be too soon to wonder if they can match the 1999 Yankees in losing only one game during a World Series run. In Cincinnati, the Phillies supplied a


phillies continued onD4


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