SUPER BOWL XXI : DENVER vs. NEW YORK : Pro Football / Bob Oates : Powerful Giant Defensive Unit Thirsts to Bottle Up Elway

This is a game that the New York Giants will probably win.

Can the Denver Broncos make it close for a while?

Sure--if John Elway comes in with a hot hand.

The Denver quarterback matches up well against the defense he will see in Pasadena Sunday.

Defensively, the strength of the Giants is that they attack, and punish, as a cohesive, disciplined team. They are especially tough on pocket passers.

But to hurt a man, you have to catch him, and Elway’s strength is outside the pocket. He is most dangerous when improvising. Elway can sprint out and throw the ball 70 yards, or drive it 98 yards, or run it in to win.

His sprints and scrambles are bound to inhibit New York’s pass rushers Sunday. Every time he runs away and throws, their frustration level will rise.

In short, discipline isn’t much defense against an undisciplined quarterback with a strong arm.

Elway, however, can be as dangerous to the Broncos as he is to the other side.

He occasionally throws the ball when and where he shouldn’t, or, for instance, spikes it when and where he shouldn’t. He still under-throws the long one.

As a quarterback, as good as he is, Elway is not yet a finished article. With the greatest of ease, he can go 2 for 15 in any first half. Or second half.

Elway’s big play is still the broken play. And you don’t expect to win a Super Bowl game with a broken-play offense.

As a team on a big roll, the Giants figure to win.

The only thing they have to fear is that Elway can get on a big roll, himself, anytime.

Bronco Offense: Denver’s offensive line can be described as seven over-achievers looking for somebody to hit.

Nor do the Broncos employ any All-Americans in their offensive backfield, where the second-stringers, Steve Sewell, Gene Lang and Ken Bell, are about as effective as Sammy Winder and Gerald Willhite.

You look in vain for a Jerry Rice or an Al Toon in Denver pass patterns, although Steve Watson can get open, and Vance Johnson can get deep.

The Broncos’ 6-foot 5-inch, 260-pound tight end, Orson Mobley, has the delicate hands of a great receiver. He also has many of the attributes of the Giants’ Mark Bavaro, but not when he has to throw a block, and besides, he’s a rookie.

The other Denver tight end, Clarence Kay, will usually be asked to block Lawrence Taylor, meaning that he may not be thinking pass.

The Broncos are a superb testimonial to the coaching of Dan Reeves. Their strength is that they have no real weaknesses, but they have no real strengths, either, except at quarterback.

If Reeves were based in the East with the New York Jets’ talent, this would have been the all-Jersey Super Bowl they wanted back there.

Among other important things, Reeves is a veteran of five years in the Super Bowl cooker, three as an assistant and two as a player--all for the Dallas Cowboys. The Giant coach, Bill Parcells, hadn’t spent five minutes in this kind of pressure until the other day.

In Super Bowl XXI, though, Parcells’ defense will attack with more talent than Reeves can bring up. Except at quarterback. There, Reeves has a big, gritty guy who can run like a running back and throw strikes on the run.

The Broncos’ offensive coordinator, Mike Shanahan, said it best this week: “(Elway) has come through with so many big plays for us that we almost expect it of him.”

That’s the Denver game plan.

Giant Defense: For the third straight year, the Super Bowl favorite is a team with a great defense.

--Last year, after a 15-1 regular season, the Chicago Bears shattered the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX, 46-10.

--The year before, after a 15-1 regular season, the San Francisco 49ers shattered the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX, 38-16.

Thus, clearly, the Giants of Super Bowl XXI aren’t yet the defensive team of the century. They are merely the team of the year.

They’re a linebacker team, essentially, with the planet’s best pass rusher, Lawrence Taylor, plus no fewer than six other linebackers who are about as efficient against the run as he is, or maybe better.

These are Andy Headen, who plays behind Taylor; Pepper Johnson, who plays behind inside linebackers Harry Carson and Gary Reasons; Robbie Jones, who plays behind Reasons, and the combative outside linebacker who lines up on the left side, Carl Banks.

In the Giants’ front three, though, their only candidate for the Hall of Fame is right end Leonard Marshall, and in their secondary they don’t have one.

As an 11-man group, the Giants are mean, big and beautifully coached. Parcells has had them a long time. He was their defensive coach before he became their head coach.

What’s more, the Giants are as aggressive as the Bears last year. But they have one problem that the Bears didn’t. They’re up against a running quarterback.

It’s as true today as it has been throughout the T formation era: There’s no practical defense against a quarterback who has the guts to run the ball.

On any defensive team, the front seven and deep four are normally positioned to confront running backs and receivers only. If the quarterback takes off, there’s nobody around to tackle him.

This year, other teams have met Elway in one of two special ways.

Some have assigned a defensive player to shadow him on most plays and, if he takes off, meet him at the line of scrimmage.

Others have tried to contain him with defensive ends rushing from the outside.

But both of these methods detract from the intensity of the rush. And, worse, the second plan opens up lanes in which the ball can be thrown.

Nevertheless, the Giants will have to think of something. What they do, and how well they do it, will have a lot to do with what’s on the scoreboard.

Tomorrow: The Giant offense vs. the Bronco defense.

LINEUPS: Broncos Offense WR Vance Johnson 82 LT Dave Studdard 70 LG Keith Bishop 54 RB Sammy Winder 23 QB John Elway 7 C Billy Bryan 64 RG Mark Cooper 63 RB Gerald Willhite 47 RT Ken Lanier 75 TE Orson Mobley 89 WR Steve Watson 81 Giants Defense RCB Perry Williams 23 RLB Lawrence Taylor 56 RE Leonard Marshall 70 ILB Gary Reasons 55 NT Jim Burt 64 ILB Harry Carson 53 FS Herb Welch 27 LE George Martin 75 LLB Carl Banks 58 SS Kenny Hill 48 LCB Mark Collins 25