Pro Football / Bob Oates : An Easy Schedule Will Help Bears Overcome McMahon’s Loss

What other worlds remain for the Chicago Bears to conquer?

Well, this week they’ve drawn the Philadelphia Eagles, who lost to the Washington Redskins, 41-14, last Sunday.

Next week, the Bears, who started the season by beating the Cleveland Browns, 41-31, will play the Green Bay Packers, who opened with a 31-3 loss to the Houston Oilers.

The week after that, the Bears will line up against the Cincinnati Bengals, who were beaten last Sunday by the Kansas City Chiefs, 24-14.

And a week after that, the Bears will be challenged by the reorganizing Minnesota Vikings, who lost to the Detroit Lions, 13-10.

But that’s just for openers. The champions’ schedule this year never does get much tougher. In 1985, the Bears’ 1986 opponents won only 41% of the time--the worst showing in the league.

By comparison, Ram opponents won 48%, Raider opponents won 52%, Denver opponents won 55% and Seattle’s opponents won a league-leading 57%.

Hence, the loss of quarterback Jim McMahon for the rest of the month may not seriously affect the Bears. Such a loss would devastate many teams but not one that can look forward to two games with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and one with the Pittsburgh Steelers, among others.

Tampa Bay was crushed by the San Francisco 49ers last Sunday, 31-7, and the fading Steelers couldn’t even score, blowing their opener to the Seattle Seahawks, 30-0.

The extraordinarily easy Bear schedule is perhaps the story of the year in pro football and the key to the Super Bowl race.

How good is Mike Tomczak, McMahon’s backup?

At Soldier Field last Sunday, Tomczak, a second-year pro, threw the decisive pass to Willie Gault in the fourth quarter and kept a high-scoring game alive.

“You saw the kid in a very poised performance,” Bear Coach Mike Ditka said.

The out-manned Browns, who finished 8-8 last year when Chicago went 15-1, started the day with only two weapons that could hurt the Bears--tight end Ozzie Newsome and Bernie Kosar. And before halftime, they were down to one, Newsome having been injured in the second quarter.

The Bears probably will win that way more than once this year. In mismatches, injuries obviously hurt the out-manned teams more. And the Bear season is a long litany of mismatches.

The St. Louis Cardinals executed two good coffin-corner kicks against the Rams last Sunday, but each time the Rams handed the ball to Eric Dickerson, who carried it to much better field position.

Few other running backs can be counted on to do that. And except for touchdowns, few other plays are as important.

Going into the 49er game at Anaheim Sunday, the Rams are still one pass receiver short--Henry Ellard--but they still have the fastest hammer in football.

If Raider quarterback Marc Wilson continues in the groove he found in Denver last Sunday, it might not matter that the Broncos won the first round.

Sunday’s performance was Wilson’s best since a game against Dallas in 1983.

Over the long season, the combination of a good quarterback with the Raider defense probably has more to offer than John Elway combined with the Denver defense--as strong as that Bronco combination is.

Wilson’s touchdown passes to Marcus Allen, Todd Christensen and rookie Rod Barksdale at Mile High Stadium were beautifully aimed, timed and thrown. So were most of his other bombs and middle-distance strikes.

All he has to do is keep that up.

Trick plays were the difference in Denver. The Broncos worked theirs for a touchdown, the Raiders didn’t.

In the second quarter, a 23-yard scoring play, Steve Sewell’s halfback pass to Elway, got the Broncos back into a game they were losing, 19-7.

In the last minute, with the Raiders trailing by what turned out to be the final score, 38-36, they successfully executed a hook-and-ladder pass--with Marcus Allen carrying the lateral.

It was a good play, but the Broncos, unlike the Raiders earlier, had a defense for it.

The Chiefs have given up on halfback Ethan Horton, their No. 1 draft choice a year ago. They said he failed to improve.

The case stands as a classic example of the perils of drafting for need instead of taking the best football player available.

“If you’re short of tackles, or defensive backs, or whatever. you’re always tempted to draft one,” said Gil Brandt, vice president of the Dallas Cowboys. “But if the guy isn’t up there (among the top players in the draft), you usually regret it.”

When they drafted Horton, the Chiefs needed a running back more than anything else, and at the time, in their view, he was the best running back left.

Trouble was, he wasn’t enough football player.

At Pittsburgh this week, when Steeler Coach Chuck Noll was asked how he intended to find some more football players this year, he said: “We’re taking applications.”

Lately, nothing has helped the Steelers much. Their defeat Sunday was their fifth in their last six regular-season games. During that streak, they have allowed 33 points a game.

Were the Steelers just lucky in the 1970s, when they drafted well enough to win four Super Bowl titles? Or are they just unlucky now, when they can’t seem to find winning draftees?

As of today, no one can say. But Dick Steinberg, chief scout of the New England Patriots, points to one edge Noll has lost.

“Chuck was the first coach to go out into the field and work out the better prospects,” Steinberg said. “He flew his own plane to colleges everywhere and put the players he liked through vertical jumps, broad jumps and all the rest. These days, every scouting staff in the league does that. So the Steelers are no longer getting the great prospects that nobody rated as high as Chuck did.”

The Steelers’ one jewel is wide receiver Louis Lipps, considered by many to be the best in the league. But they also have Mark Malone, a passer who can’t even get the ball to Lipps. Lipps, a third-year player, was shut out in Seattle Sunday.

“We have two other quarterbacks,” Noll said. “The thing is, Malone has the experience.”

NFL Notes New York Jet quarterback Ken O’Brien, the NFL’s highest-rated passer a year ago, started at the top again Sunday, throwing for 318 yards and 2 long touchdowns with no interceptions. . . . Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs on his new running back, Kelvin Bryant: “Our biggest challenge is how to use him.” . . . Seattle was in scoring position five times in the opening minutes against Pittsburgh, kicking three field goals and missing two. . . . All of quarterback Warren Moon’s 14 completions went for first downs against Green Bay, and two of them were good for touchdowns. . . . It was a big week for both Western Divisions. Seven of the nine teams won their games, the only losers being the Raiders and New Orleans, who were beaten by division foes, Denver and Atlanta, respectively.