Pro Football / Bob Oates : Super Bowl Looks More Like a Freeway Collision as Giants, Jets Fade

The thought of a Giant-Jet subway Super Bowl this winter, though earnestly promoted in New York, seems to be losing momentum.

A Raider-Ram freeway Super Bowl is now more likely.

It takes two things to get there--excellence on defense and at quarterback--and, defensively, both Southland clubs meet the test.

In young Jim Everett the Rams may not have the quarterback yet, but they think they have. And believing is often enough.

On the Raider team, Jim Plunkett, as always when he’s well, is as effective as any quarterback in the league.

The Super Bowl favorites, Denver and Chicago, have been fading lately. The Raiders and Rams are rising.

The Raider bench is making the difference in the AFC, where the Jets and Broncos haven’t been as successful at replacing injured starters.

A veteran pro football observer, Dave Boss of the league’s creative division here, said: “The Raiders’ interchangeable parts have been really impressive. This is a club that could even replace Howie Long, Mike Haynes and Marcus Allen when it had to.”

By contrast, the Jets couldn’t replace Joe Klecko, Mark Gastineau and Marty Lyons Monday night, when they lost at Miami, 45-3.

In a league blasted by injuries, the Raiders are winning with their depth.

Hank Stram, after 30 years as a college and NFL coach and 10 years as a TV commentator, has found that leadership invariably means three things in the production of football winners.

“Coaching is talent assessment, talent accumulation, and making them win,” said Stram, who has reviewed his career in a new book, “They’re Playing My Game,” (Morrow, $14.95). “Each (of the three aspects) has the same importance.”

Asked how a chief persuades the Indians to win football games, the man who coached a Super Bowl champion in 1970 quoted the most imposing new athlete in America, Mike Tyson, the 20-year-old heavyweight who took out Trevor Berbick in two rounds Saturday night.

“You’ve got to sell (football players) on (Tyson’s) attitude toward competition,” Stram said. “As Tyson said: ‘I will not permit myself to lose, to be knocked down, to leave the ring until I am killed.’ ”

Stram, who ranked only a few games behind Al Davis as football’s winningest leader when he left Kansas City in 1974, said he has been involved with three kinds of athletes in his long career. “I’ve known those who can make something happen, those who wait for something to happen, and those who ask, ‘What the hell happened?’ he said. “You only win with the first kind.”

Open letter to Mike Ditka, coach of the Chicago Bears:

Dear Mike:

You can win your division with either Mike Tomczak or Steve Fuller at quarterback--but not the Super Bowl.

With Jim McMahon hurt and gone for the year, some of us think your only Super Bowl chance now is to modify your offense, accent your quarterback rollout plays, and start giving Doug Flutie a lot of playing experience--immediately--this week. Because Flutie is four inches shorter than McMahon, he doesn’t figure to make it as a pocket passer. But as a rollout passer, he stands as tall as Joe Montana or John Elway.

I saw McMahon Tuesday at Dr. Frank Jobe’s office in Inglewood, where both of us made appointments for rotator cuff surgery, mine in January, his Dec. 12. Too much tennis and football, respectively. Jobe said McMahon tore his rotator cuff earlier this year--not when Charles Martin of the Packers slammed him around Sunday--although, obviously the slam didn’t help.

Best, Bob.

Here’s what can be said at this moment about Ram quarterback Everett:

--His touchdown-throwing first NFL appearance 10 days ago was essentially meaningless. He was throwing into a New England defense that had had no way to prepare for him and didn’t know how to catch him.

--His second appearance Sunday, when he was basically grounded by Coach John Robinson after a couple of early interceptions, was also without meaning. Everett has never had a pro training camp.

--The questions about him are still the same that are asked about any promising new passer: Can he do it after he’s been hit by NFL linemen and linebackers? Can he read good NFL defenses?

The answers won’t be available tomorrow, or the next day.

More on quarterbacks:

--The kind of beating quarterbacks take was demonstrated in San Francisco again Sunday when Joe Montana was smashed by a large, fast Atlanta Falcon named Dennis Harrison, who knocked him out of the game.

The hush that fell over Candlestick Park lifted only when Montana returned a play later.

“I’m glad he didn’t get hurt,” Harrison said. “It’s nothing he hasn’t taken before, and he’ll be hit again. He can take a hit.”

--Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly demonstrated another way for a quarterback to take a beating. He misread the New England defense in the final minutes Sunday and threw the interception that cost the Bills a chance at a major upset in a game they lost, 22-19.

“That’s part of football,” Kelly said.

Said the new Buffalo coach, Marv Levy: “Kelly’s better than any rookie I’ve seen in recent years, but he still has a lot to learn.”

--Dramatically, Detroit rookie quarterback Chuck Long threw his first NFL pass for a touchdown Sunday, reaching wide receiver Leonard Thompson at 34 paces on fourth down.

But Lion Coach Daryl Rogers wasn’t fooled.

“Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come,” said Rogers, who added that he may or may not call on Long Thursday during the Lions’ annual Thanksgiving Day outing against Green Bay. “We’re not going to play Chuck Long just to play him. We’ll put him in when we can help him.”

--John Elway, who has been Denver’s quarterback now for nearly four years, played a strong game against the New York Giants Sunday but lost it in the first half with the worst mistake a passer can make.

On first down, against one of the NFL’s fine defenses, Elway threw an interception deep in the other team’s territory.

Although Giant lineman George Martin made an alert interception and followed with a 78-yard touchdown run, Elway should never have taken a chance with that pass--on first down.

He was hardly more than an inch off, but passing, like baseball, can be a game of inches.

“We were an inch away all day,” Elway said.

Like Kelly and Long--and Everett--he’s still learning.

Quote Dept: Dallas Coach Tom Landry, on losing to Washington, 41-14: “You don’t get over games like this overnight, but if we have the type of team I hope we have, we’ll be ready Thursday (against Seattle).”

Washington safety Curtis Jordan: “(The Cowboys) have got big problems. They’re not the Dallas they used to be.”

Washington lineman Dexter Manley, on Dallas backups Reggie Collier and Robert Lavette, who got a touchdown with a pass play in the last four minutes: “They were so scared, they were shaking in their boots.”

Denver Coach Dan Reeves, on Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor: “Sometimes he doesn’t rush. He just kind of spies the quarterback, waits for him to get flushed out of the pocket, then chases him down.”