Pro Bowl : AFC Picks Up 22-14 Victory in Honolulu

Some football games are decided by which football teams have the ball. Sunday’s game was decided by which team didn’t.

The American Football Conference beat the National Football Conference, 22-14, on Art Still’s 83-yard run with a Neil Lomax fumble that turned what was to be the NFC’s clinching touchdown into a win that avenged last year’s 45-3 shellacking.

It was a fitting end to a game in which the defense produced as many points as the offense and the combined total of 17 sacks--nine by the AFC--broke last year’s Pro Bowl record by six.

The NFC had a third down and three at the AFC 15 and a 14-12 lead with 5 1/2 minutes left when Lomax of St. Louis tried to hand off to the Rams’ Eric Dickerson, who set an NFL mark rushing mark this season with 2,105 yards. But Lomax and Dickerson collided in the backfield, the ball came loose, and Still picked it up and rambled for a touchdown to give the AFC a 19-14 lead.

“It seems like it took me a couple of days,” smiled the 6-foot-7, 257-pound Kansas City defensive end. “I was just at the right spot at the right time.”

Lomax, who said he felt the ball should have been ruled dead after Still recovered, said the fumble was simply a result of the lack of practice time that plagues any all-star game.

“I thought I took the right path, but I was a little tight and I collided with Eric,” said the quarterback, who relieved San Francisco’s Joe Montana in the second and fourth quarters.

“We only had two or three days to work on our plays. If we had two or three weeks, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Four of the AFC’s nine sacks were registered by the New York Jets’ Mark Gastineau, who also dumped Dickerson in the end zone for a safety to give the AFC a 2-0. Gastineau was named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

“When you play with that much talent, it makes your job easier,” said Gastineau, who normally plays defensive end with a four-man front with the Jets and was lined up in a three-man front for the first time in his career. “I think I like it.”

The win was only the second in the last seven Pro Bowls for the AFC, which cut the NFC’s margin to 9-6 in the 15 games since the National Football League merged with the American Football League.

As so often happens in these games, the defenses were much more cohesive than the two offenses which had little time to practice together.

Only one AFC score--a 33-yard field goal by Seattle’s Norm Johnson--was set up by the offense.

The main highlights of the first half that was scoreless for nearly 26 minutes were the 51-yard average punting of Miami’s Reggie Roby and the Gastineau-led AFC pass rush. The only scores were produced by the AFC defense and special teams.

The first came with 4:10 left in the half after the NFC started at its 20. On first down, the New York Jets’ Joe Klecko sacked Lomax for an 11-yard loss; on second down, the Raiders’ Rod Martin dumped him at the three, and on third down Gastineau swarmed all over Dickerson as he tried to get out of the end zone.

The next time the NFC got the ball, the same thing nearly happened. Lomax was sacked first by Gastineau, then by the Raiders’ Howie Long, barely escaping the end zone on Long’s play. Then Seattle’s Fredd Young, one of two special teams players here for the first time, got a hand on Brian Hansen’s punt and deflected it out of bounds on the NFC 15.

Three plays later, Miami’s Dan Marino tossed to the Raiders’ Marcus Allen, who beat San Francisco’s Carlton Williamson in the flat for a six-yard touchdown.