Pro Football / Bob Oates : Miami’s Testaverde Passed and Ran His Way to Top of the Class

If ever a college player earned recognition from the pros in September as a top draft choice, Vinny Testaverde did Saturday.

His scrambling and passing--he threw for four touchdowns--for Miami against top-ranked Oklahoma made Testaverde the favorite for this season’s two principal prizes: the Heisman Trophy and top pick in the National Football League draft.

Dick Steinberg, personnel chief of the New England Patriots, said: “It’s been awhile since we’ve had a guy who can throw long passes with Testaverde’s touch and also run the way he does.”

The New England scout doesn’t see a real rival to the Miami passer for either top pick or the Heisman. “Vinny has the two things, football sense and ability,” he said.

The pros like to draft Miami players.

“The thing that makes them different is, they’re physical and tough for a passing team,” Steinberg said.

As a pro prospect, Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth was handicapped by his team’s defensive design Saturday.

The Sooners lined up in ground defenses, basically, against Miami’s great passing game.

Bosworth, who has the speed to rush any passer, college or pro, was used instead as a running-play linebacker. He rarely blitzed.

Oklahoma’s problem was like the Big Ten’s longtime problems in the Rose Bowl. Sooner defensive teams don’t see enough pro-type passers to learn how to cope with them.

Of the teams Pat Haden has watched this year, the Atlanta Falcons are the most impressive.

“I think the Falcons are the emerging team in the NFL,” said Haden, the CBS broadcaster who formerly quarterbacked the Rams and USC. “Their coach, Dan Henning, has built the club the right way, getting offensive linemen and defensive linemen first. They have three No. 1 choices in the defensive line.”

Falcon quarterback David Archer’s temperament also appeals to Haden.

“Archer was calm before the game and cool in the pocket,” he said.

A year ago, Archer’s weakness was lack of strength. He remedied that in the off-season by running sprints and hills. “Arm strength comes from leg strength,” the Atlanta quarterback said.

Herschel Walker scored his easy touchdown for Dallas Monday night--he was all by himself in the end zone when he caught Danny White’s eight-yard pass--on a new Cowboy play.

Just before the snap, Walker changed places with Dallas wide receiver Tony Hill, who lined up in Walker’s position in the backfield.

That plainly confused the St. Louis Cardinals.

Said Dallas backfield coach Al Lavan: “The cornerback assigned to Hill saw him in the backfield and told himself, ‘That’s my man.’ The linebacker assigned to our halfback (usually Walker) also saw Hill in the backfield that time and told himself, ‘That’s my man.’ Nobody covered Walker.”

Their speed is making the difference this year for the 3-1 Cowboys, who will be in Denver Sunday to play the 4-0 Broncos in the NFL’s game of the week.

Mike Sherrard, the rookie from UCLA who scored on a 39-yard pass play Monday night, has given the Cowboys even more outside receiving speed than they had with Tony Hill.

And at halfback, Tony Dorsett, as swift as he is, has become merely second swiftest to Walker.

Accordingly, Coach Tom Landry and his assistants, Paul Hackett, Jim Myers and Lavan, have been devising new game plans this year. On almost every play, their goal is to isolate one of their fast players against one opposing player.

“The Sherrard touchdown (against St. Louis) was a good example of what you can do with speed,” Lavan said. “Sherrard was single-covered because St. Louis had called a strong-safety blitz. Danny White saw it, but knew he’d have time to go deep to Sherrard. He knew the blitzer would be picked up because Timmy Newsome was there. It’s a sack if Newsome doesn’t get him.”

Earlier this month, in the Monday night opener, Walker’s touchdown that beat the New York Giants on a 10-yard draw play was also based on Herschel’s speed.

“The Giants are a great defensive team,” Lavan said. “But they were so sure we’d pass down there that they went to a three-man front. We surprised them with the call and Herschel’s speed.”

Speed kills.

The Broncos and Cowboys are saying that the blockers will determine the outcome of their game Sunday. Both clubs can be explosive--but only if John Elway and Danny White can be protected.

The feeling in Dallas is that the Cowboys will protect White better than Denver will guard Elway, for Landry has quietly put together one of his best offensive lines in 20 years. He has added 293-pound Crawford Ker to Tom Rafferty, Glen Titensor and the others.

“The difference is that they haven’t been injured this year,” Landry said.

“Timing is the key to successful offensive football, and you can’t get the timing down right unless you’re playing with an offensive line that’s healthy and ready every week.”

Denver Coach Dan Reeves will go into the Dallas game with the best coaching record in the AFC since 1984. He hasn’t won the Super Bowl yet, but his regular-season mark is 28-8 for the games of 1984-85-86.

Only one NFL coach has recently had a better record than that. At Chicago, Mike Ditka is 29-7.

At San Francisco, Bill Walsh’s 28-8 ties Reeves.

In his five seasons at Denver, Reeves has coached two playoff teams and narrowly missed with two other clubs that finished 11-5 and 10-6. He had his only losing year in the strike-shortened 1982 season.

Reeves is a Landry protege who is often mentioned as the next Dallas coach. In a recent Dallas poll, Reeves, Ditka and offensive coordinator Paul Hackett finished 1-2-3 in the fans’ voting.

But Reeves says he’s staying in Denver.

“This is the best coaching job in the country--under this owner (Pat Bowlen),” he said. “Pat gives me complete control of the football program. If we don’t win, it’s my fault, and I like it just that way.”

The importance of durability has been accented for years in the reverse case of Freeman McNeil.

Lack of durability is McNeil’s weakness. One of the NFL’s great ballcarriers, the Jet halfback has been injured about one-third of the time since he left UCLA in 1981 for New York.

Kelvin Bryant has a similar problem. Bryant, the Washington Redskins’ back who hurt a knee in the Raider game last month, will be out for about six weeks altogether.

This is the third consecutive season that an injury has benched Bryant, counting his last two years in the USFL.

At the start of the season, Washington Coach Joe Gibbs said: “Herschel is faster, but Kelvin was the USFL’s most talented back.”

Many other coaches agreed with him--at the time. They’re wondering now if Bryant is another McNeil.