. . . From early March through late June, Shuler spent six hours a day, four days a week at Redskins Park in Ashburn, Va., putting in practice days only slightly shorter than his in-season practice days. The Washington quarterbacks met each day for 75 minutes to diagram plays, answer what would you do questions from Turner and Cameron, watch tapes of their own plays and look for weaknesses in other team's defenses. They did off field and on field aerobic conditioning; to show his sense of purpose, Shuler won most of the 40 yard sprints with the backs and tight ends. They acted out the morning's Xs and Os on the practice field for 75 minutes, throwing and huddling with the receivers. They lifted weights. They watched practice tape with Cameron. But fans couldn't care less if players live on the practice field in March if they don't perform in November.
. . . One April morning on the Redskins' artificial turf practice field, Shuler throws a pass behind receiver Leslie Shepard. "Don't think!" Turner yells. "Just throw it!"
Easier said than done. In three years at Tennessee, Shuler had to learn about 120 passing plays in which, for the most part receivers wouldn't change their routes no matter what the defensive coverage. In two years with the Redskins, he has had to learn about 400 passing plays, all with new terminology and receiver adjustments. For the St. Louis game on Dec. 17, the Redskins had 144 pass plays in the game plan, and Cameron quizzed the quarterbacks on 1 through 144 before the game.
A typical play for Shuler at Tennessee was:
Twins Right, 65 HBO
Twins Right meant two receivers lined up with specific pattern assignments outside the right tackles; 65 was the blocking assignment for the offensive linemen and TE. And HBO meant halfback option, which gave Shuler the option of throwing the ball to his running back.
"I come to Washington," Shuler says, "and the terminology is completely different. I've come to think that if you've mastered two offensive systems, it's like you're fluent in two languages."
With Washington, a typical play is:
Shift, Twins Right Motion, Scat Right, 525, F Post Swing
Shift means the play starts with a formation disguise, so the defense has to hustle to match up after the shift. Twins Right Motion is the final formation, with a regular pro set except that two wideouts instead of one are split right. Scat Right is the protection scheme for the linemen and backs, telling each of them which defender to block, and 525 signifies in order what each reciver should do. The progression of receivers in the Washington scheme is split end, tight end, and flanker. The 5 means that the split end runs a 5 (a comeback route), which has him sprinting out 18 yards and turning back toward quarterback. Unless, of course, the receiver and quarterback see a defensive coverage that means the split end would be blanketed in the 15-18 yard range, in which case he runs a 7 route (a post pattern).
Confused? We're not done yet.
The TE runs a 2 route, a simple drag across the middle underneath
the coverage. And the flanker also runs a 5. F Post means the fullback
runs a post pattern. Swing means the halfback runs a swing route out of
the backfield.
Now picture this: after a tackle, the play clock starts at 35 seconds. The Washington quarterback looks to the sideline to get the play and pops into the huddle with about 21 tick left. Having deciphered the hand signals from the sidelines, he converts them into words and numbers and calls out the play and the snap count in the huddle - twice, so everyone gets it. With about 13 seconds left, he begins to walk quickly to the line, with players fanning out to their spots. He calls the signals, and if all goes well he'll get the snap with four or five seconds left on the play clock. He must know his progression of recivers and the primary and secondary routes each will run, depending on coverage. He must know the audible, the adjusted play he wil lcall at teh line of scrimmage if the defender shows him a scheme that makes running the original play unwise. He must know who his safety valve is in case the roof caves in and where this receiver is going to be if all hell does break losse. So this is Shuler's job: He must know what he is going to do, and what every offensive player is going to do, on about 400 plays like Shift, Twins Right Motion, Scat Right, 525, F Post Swing.
"With both Heath and Gus," Turner says, "you'd see sometimes that they were trying so hard to stay with the offense and thinking so much about what they should do that they didn't play naturally. Until you've run the offense a lot, it's hard to be spontaneous."
. . . In his rookie year, he (Shuler) threw five interceptions against Arizona in Game 7 and got so physically sick from the stress that for much of the next two months, he hardly slept and rarely felt like eating.
"I went from 230 pounds to 205 in 2 1/2 months," Shuler says. "Forget eating. All I could think of was how I can I get better?" He remembers getting showered with boos so intensely in a '95 game that his linement, especially center John Gesek, felt obliged to try and lift his spirits.
"Block it out!" Gesek yelled. "We're behind you 100 percent!"
. . . Shuler is so driven to succeed that his intensity might actually be contributing to his struggles. One weekend in April, after a week in the Redskins' offseason program, he drove home to his farm outside of Knoxville, Tenn. "I never turned the radio on," he says. "For 7 1/2 hours I made plays out of road signs. I started on I-66 west and I'd think of a play in our playbook that has 66 in it and think of what formation I'd use to make a good play out of it. I'd see mile marker 310 and I'd think, What do I do on third and 10 against Dallas from our 31? Mile markers, exit signs, highway numbers - I used 'em all and I quizzed myself the whole way home." A 400 mile quiz? This guy wants it. He just might want it too much.