Pro Football / Bob Oates : Flutie Can Take Bears a Long Way in Playoffs

This is the season to be iffy, and here’s one you can take to the bank.

If the Chicago Bears’ defense can hold their next two opponents to about 17 points each, Doug Flutie, their sawed-off shotgun, will take them to another Super Bowl and win it.

You could have made that 21 or even 24 points if his coach, Mike Ditka, had given Flutie more playing time this fall.

His lack of National Football League experience is the main thing working against the Bears’ new quarterback now.

After Sunday’s game at Dallas, where Flutie’s passes downed the Cowboys, 24-10, in his first NFL start--a 30-minute performance--he was the country’s most talked-about pro.

Flutie’s four strengths:

--He is possibly the fastest-thinking quarterback in the game.

--He adjusts faster than most passers to defensive pressure.

--He carries a cannon for a passing arm.

--And he’s more mobile than Fran Tarkenton. He also slides around well in the pocket and sets up quicker than most quarterbacks.

Flutie is an NFL rookie who is less experienced in this league than the Rams’ Jim Everett. Thus he couldn’t carry any team to the championship today. He is still mixing in too many mistakes with his usual big plays.

But if his defense can control a game, Flutie can pull it out.

Those who think that Ditka’s team is going to lose in the playoffs--to, say, the New York Giants--are really alleging that the Bears’ defense isn’t as good as it looks. Offensively, the Bears have a quarterback now who can make Jim McMahon expendable.

Add Flutie: Is everyone in agreement on this guy? By no means. In fact, what you have here is a distinctly minority view.

Summing up for the majority is linebacker Jeff Rohrer of the Dallas Cowboys, a knowledgeable Yale man who met Flutie Sunday. Said Rohrer: “He’s all right, but I don’t think he’s a Super Bowl quarterback. He’s no McMahon.”

In the media, the principal rap on Flutie is his height, which is under 5-10. Two experts on that:

--Coach Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers: “(Flutie’s) height doesn’t hurt his passing--you pass between defensive players, not over them--but it does cut down on his ability to see the defense and his receivers. Second, a little man can be knocked down easier than a big man. But a great competitor with a great arm can overcome all that, and (Flutie) is a great competitor with a great arm.”

--Pat Haden, the 5-10 1/2 former Ram quarterback: “A quarterback’s height isn’t the big issue it sometimes seems in the press. The real issue is ability. There are a lot of tall quarterbacks who aren’t playing well in the NFL today. (Lack of) height isn’t a serious impairment to a passer. (Flutie) has a much stronger arm than I had. He can play in the NFL. His problem this year is just that he hasn’t played enough.”

Last add Flutie: How do you defense him? How did the Cowboys attack the little Bear Sunday and how did he beat them?

“We tried to contain Flutie,” said Dallas’ defensive coordinator, Hall of Famer Ernie Stautner. “That is, we tried to keep him from getting outside (the pocket).

“But if you use both (defensive) ends to keep him from rolling out, you don’t get to him as fast as you would if you were rushing a pocket passer. That’s one problem.

“Another problem is that when you use your ends to contain a scrambler like this man, you take a chance on opening up a lane that he can throw through. Most passers throw down lanes.

“So the key to defensing Flutie is a couple of quick defensive tackles who can rush the passer without getting out of their lanes. When a defensive tackle drifts one way or the other--after the end is already charging from the outside--he opens up a passing lane that Flutie will use to kill you.

“(The Dallas) defensive linemen weren’t quick enough for Flutie yesterday, and that hurt us. But the Giants are, and so are the 49ers. That’s why I’m not picking the Bears to win the Super Bowl.

“But I’ll say this: Don’t sell Flutie short, and that isn’t a pun. There isn’t a better playmaker in the league. His vision is so good--he sees so much of the field despite his size--that he’ll make the play if it’s there. That’s kind of scary for the defense.”

Hit of the Week: When Bear safety Dave Duerson stood up Cowboy running back Herschel Walker on the goal line Sunday, it said something about the Chicago defense, and something about Walker.

Carrying the ball five times, Walker gained three yards against the Bears.

But he caught four passes to make it 75 receptions for 1986--a one-season Dallas record.

Walker went out the way he came in--as one of the game’s finest receivers.

Considering the emotional nature of the 49ers’ defensive contribution Friday night, Ram quarterback Jim Everett’s performance was a lot better than it seemed to some.

In the decisive first half at San Francisco, Everett was on the field for six series, with these results:

--He led the Rams to a quick touchdown the only time he had reasonably good field position.

--Dropped passes by tight end Darren Long and wide receivers Henry Ellard and Kevin House terminated two other series.

--The 49ers only defensed him three of the six times.

In the fourth quarter, Everett threw a great pass down the middle to tight end David Hill, then followed with a deep-out bullet to wide receiver Michael Young for a touchdown.

Everett was rattled some in the fourth quarter, but at that time and in that place, most veteran quarterbacks would have lost it, too.

He remains a freshman phenomenon.

Injuries hurt most teams this year, but they may have hurt the 49ers the most. For too much of the season, Coach Bill Walsh was minus his top two quarterbacks. Yet at the end of the schedule, he won another division title, his fourth in the last six years.

As a coaching artist, on the all-time charts, Walsh doubtless belongs with Don Shula, Vince Lombardi and perhaps Paul Brown, having won, among other things, two Super Bowl titles with his 1981 and 1984 teams, then coming back to challenge for two more with crippled lineups.

This against tougher competition than any coach before Walsh’s time ever knew.

Strangely, the success he’s recently had has obscured what may have been Walsh’s finest achievement, turning around a hopeless loser in just two seasons.

Inheriting a club that finished 2-14 in 1978 under its fifth coach in five years, Walsh needed only 1979 and ’80 to rebuild, after which he won the Super Bowl in his third season in the league.

Some of the teams that had a down year in 1979, when Walsh finished 2-14 as an NFL rookie, were Buffalo, 7-9; Green Bay, 5-11; New Orleans, 8-8, and Atlanta, 6-10.

And without exception, during the years that the 49ers have emerged, they’re all still down.

Their problem is that they’re in a coaching business.

The Indianapolis Colts, winning their last three games under Coach Ron Meyer, played their way out of a chance to draft Miami quarterback Vinny Testaverde for next year.

But those who think that that was unusual don’t understand the game of football, Meyer was saying after upsetting the Raiders here Sunday.

“Everybody plays to win every time out in this league,” said Meyer, the NFL’s coach of the month for December. “Every game they can. The draft is something that happens a long time after the season.”

A 1-15 is much better than an 0-16, in Meyer’s opinion. And a 2-14 is immensely preferable to 1-15, proving that you can beat two teams, and might have beaten a few more with a little luck.

Even Tom Flores, the Raider coach, went all out for an 8-8 season, though his team didn’t.

NFL players and coaches don’t think about draft choices. They don’t think about great prospects like Testaverde.

Even the Tampa Bay Buccaneers weren’t thinking about Testaverde this month. They won him by default.

Setting a record, the Buccaneers have now qualified for the top college player in the land for a fifth time in the last decade.

They were in position to get Lee Roy Selmon in 1976, Tony Dorsett in ‘77, Earl Campbell in ’78 and Bo Jackson in ‘85, but got only Selmon. Rights to Dorsett and Campbell were traded off. Jackson took baseball.

Testaverde will take Tampa. That will help. Some.