PRO FOOTBALL: THE PLAYOFFS : Broncos Plan to Counter Oilers’ Talent With a Good Game Plan

Has it already been a week since the Houston Oilers’ glorious playoff victory?

Then it must be time to see if Jerry Glanville’s football team can cash all those checks that Jerry Glanville’s mouth has been writing for them.

Did he say that Mile High Stadium was only a stop on their way to San Diego? That snow in today’s game with the Denver Broncos would favor the Oilers, since they’re the better running team? That he wasn’t worried about the Three Amigos?

The Oiler coach said all that after last week’s wild-card victory over the Seattle Seahawks, perhaps flushed by his sudden ascent from who’s-he? status.

Glanville’s quarterback, Warren Moon, said tolerantly that his coach was just trying to fire everybody up.

Glanville’s opposite number, Denver’s Dan Reeves, sniffed that he was “more concerned about the 45 guys they got on the field than I am what Jerry Glanville has to say.”

The weather man said it wasn’t going to snow. The temperature is expected to climb into the mid-40s today and the track should be dry and fast, which will favor the better passing team, the Broncos.

The oddsmakers, who have made the Oilers the favorite in one game all season--at home, against the Atlanta Falcons, by four points--opened the Oilers as 10 -point underdogs this time.

And Denver fans made plans to line up during the game for tickets for the AFC championship game against the Cleveland Browns. Of course, no one will know until after the game whether the Broncos will even be a participant but what, them worry?

Bronco ticket manager Gail Stuckey did interject a note of caution, warning that no one will be allowed to get in line until halftime.

“We’ve got to get our normal business out of the way first,” he said.

By that, he seemed to mean his ticket business, not the Oilers. In the Bronco ticket office, as elsewhere in town, the Oilers have already been given up as dead over-reachers.

However . . .

In terms of pure talent, this is a mismatch all right, and the Broncos are on the underside of it.

The Oilers have Moon, Mike Rozier, Alonzo Highsmith, Drew Hill, Ernest Givins and those three No. 1 picks in their offensive line.

Were they to play a solid game and just try to punch it out on the ground, how could a Bronco defense that allowed 4.4 yards a rush this season stop them?

“They’ve got two good running backs, two good receivers, an outstanding quarterback” said Bronco linebacker Ricky Hunley.

“They’ve got the best guard combination in the league (in Mike Munchak and Bruce Matthews). They average 280 across the front. They’re big, strong, they blow you off the line. They’ve got a lot of talent.

“But we’ve got a good game plan. You can have great specimens but when you have an organization where everybody is on the same page, where everybody plays the scheme to perfection, a solid group can beat a great group of individuals any day.”

Also, the Oilers have to find some way to deal with the Denver offense and John Elway.

Good luck. Nobody else has since--well, since a loss at Buffalo back on Nov. 8

“The Bills must have had a good scheme that day,” someone said to Bronco offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan.

“Any time you play behind a 40-m.p.h. wind, that’s a hell of a scheme,” Shanahan said.

After that game, the Broncos were 4-3-1 and 2 1/2 games behind the 7-1 San Diego Chargers, with the 7-1 Chicago Bears and a healthy Jim McMahon coming to Mile High Stadium for a Monday night game. That was when Dan Reeves junked his normal offense, since the running game was already DOA, and started playing out of the shotgun.

Was that desperation, or what?

“Well, to be honest with you, it probably was,” Shanahan said. “It wasn’t desperation that we couldn’t move the ball. It was desperation at how strong the Bears were up front.”

When your offensive line averages 264 pounds, as the Broncos’ does, everyone is pretty strong up front. Elway threw for 341 yards that night in a 31-29 victory and Reeves kept the shotgun as his primary set. The Broncos closed the season 6-1, losing only at the Kingdome in Seattle.

This isn’t the Kingdome. This is Mile High Stadium, where the Broncos are kings and the Oilers underdogs, and Jerry Glanville is in ever-increasing demand as a speaker.

AFC Notes

The Broncos are 27-5 at home in John Elway’s four seasons, tying Denver with the Bears for the best home record. Over the same period, the Washington Redskins, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks are all 25-7. . . . The Oilers have played their last six games in domed stadiums. . . . More bad news for Houston: Mike Rozier reinjured a shoulder against the Seahawks and Alonzo Highsmith twisted a knee and took a shot to his back. Both practiced little last week. Meanwhile, the Broncos will get halfback Steve Sewell back. Sewell missed six games with a broken jaw.

Despite the Oilers’ reputation as demon blitzers, the Broncos say Houston really mixes it up, and plays far more zone in the secondary than it claims. The Broncos don’t expect the Oilers to blitz them much, either. Said Mike Shanahan: “People blitz us less. John (Elway) understands protection schemes and he understands when people come, who isn’t accounted for. If you’re a team with a great quarterback and you don’t have speed at the wide receiver position, sure, I’d blitz us too. But we have fast receivers running crossing routes. If we hit Vance (Johnson) four or five yards over the line and he’s got one-on-one coverage, he’ll get 40 yards.”