Pro Football : Vikings and Browns Prove the Better Teams Don’t Always Win

The teams with the most recent Super Bowl experience won both conference championships Sunday in the next to last round of the National Football League playoffs.

But it is doubtful if the better team was ahead at the end either time in two entirely different kinds of games.

--In something of a defensive battle at Washington, the Redskins won a 17-10 struggle from the more talented Minnesota Vikings, who were driving at the end and came within one last-minute dropped pass of overtime.

--In a shootout at Denver, the Broncos won a 38-33 thriller from a better all-around opponent, the Cleveland Browns, who were driving at the end with Bernie Kosar and who came within a last-minute fumble of overtime.

At Washington, the Vikings’ best back, Darrin Nelson, couldn’t quite hold quarterback Wade Wilson’s final pass at the goal line.

At Denver, the Browns’ most inspirational player, fullback Earnest Byner, was carrying the ball with one hand when it was stripped away at the two-yard line on the play that made Denver quarterback John Elway a winner and put the Broncos in the Super Bowl for the second straight year.

So the NFL title game at San Diego Jan. 31 will match two of the NFL’s most powerful passers, Elway and Washington’s Doug Williams, whose two big touchdown passes accomplished two things for the Redskins Sunday.

They beat Minnesota and guaranteed that Williams will become the first black quarterback to lead a team into Super Bowl.

It was the Redskins’ exceptional pass rush that finally stopped Wilson, who was the quarterback when the Vikings upset both the New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers in the last two weeks.

Harry Hulmes, assistant general manager of the New York Giants, said afterward:

“The Vikings had the best personnel in either stadium. But they were held to 10 points and taken out of the game by the rush of (Redskin defensive linemen) Charles Mann, Dexter Manley and Dave Butz.”

Unimaginative Minnesota play calling also helped beat the Vikings, who as usual were strikingly ineffective on the goal line and in other short-yardage situations.

They’ve lost more than once this season using the same tired plays on the goal line.

By contrast, the smarter Redskins were ready with a new three-tight-end formation--in which none of the tight ends was on the scrimmage line--that buffaloed Minnesota in short yardage.

Still, the biggest difference between these teams was in the play of the defenses.

George Allen, who formerly coached the Rams and Redskins, said:

“The Redskins weren’t going to win this one unless they doubled Anthony Carter properly and unless they kept Wilson from scrambling. They got both things done.”

At quarterback, Williams has been a backup for the Redskins most of the season, but he emerged Sunday as a leader who can win them another Super Bowl, their second of the 1980s.

Williams proved unflappable when one of the NFL’s best receivers, Gary Clark, dropped three of his passes in the first half--two for touchdowns on the plays that should have boosted Washington into a lead of 21-0, or at least 21-7.

This brought on a Redskin sag in the third quarter, when some may have thought Williams was playing uncertainly.

He wasn’t. After the Clark drops, Williams was simply trying to keep the boat afloat until Clark could recover his poise, which he did in the fourth quarter after Minnesota had pulled even at 10-10.

In that dark hour for the Redskins, Williams, on third and 10, rolled left and threw another long pass to Clark--who finally held one, gaining 43 yards.

Then at the Minnesota seven-yard line, again on third down, Williams made a difficult read--discerning a zone defense--and threw the winning touchdown bullet past a picket line of Vikings to Clark in the end zone.

Wilson’s first touchdown pass had also been a thing of beauty. That time, ending a 98-yard Washington drive that evoked memories of Elway’s 98-yard drive in Cleveland last winter, Williams completed a 42-yard bomb down the middle to halfback Kelvin Bryant.

There isn’t a harder pass to complete than a long one over center to a receiver who is speeding directly away from the quarterback.

Elway and Kosar may have looked better than Williams Sunday--but if so, that was because Elway and Kosar were throwing into weaker defenses.

Williams beat a good defense.

In the matchup at Mile High Stadium, Elway, playing a rather ordinary game for him, beat Kosar only because the Cleveland defense proved worse than Denver’s.

Here’s what happened on the Elway drive that won the game--Denver’s 5-play, 75-yard touchdown march in the fourth quarter after Kosar had pulled the Browns into a 31-31 tie with three scoring passes:

--On first down, the Browns left Denver receiver Ricky Nattiel in the middle of a gaping hole, and, after holding Elway’s pass, the little rookie receiver easily ran it to midfield.

--Then, on third and seven, the Browns again left Nattiel in the middle of a massive hole. He ran this one to the Cleveland 20, where Denver won the game on a screen pass to running back Sammy Winder.

Cleveland defensive breakdowns made both Nattiel plays--and, for that matter, the Browns should have stopped Winder short of a touchdown.

In the AFC this season, however, defense hasn’t been the strong suit of any contender.

Elway will find it more difficult to puncture the Redskin defense in the Super Bowl.

“I think Elway will win it,” George Allen said. “It’s true that the Browns beat themselves today, but Elway could have if they hadn’t.”

In New York, the Giants’ Hulmes said: “The team with the best defense wins the Super Bowl, and that will be the Redskins.”

The Byner fumble in the last 65 seconds marred the Denver game and kept Cleveland from getting into overtime.

“That fumble was an epic tragedy,” said the general manager of the Buffalo Bills, Bill Polian.

“Byner is the player the Browns love the most. He’s the hardest-working player on their team, and in games he always tries harder than anybody.

“To tell you the truth, I feel badly that either team had to lose this one.

“A high-scoring game came down to two plays--Elway’s screen pass to Winder for Denver and the bounce of the ball.

The Browns had played themselves into a hole in the first quarter, winning the coin toss and choosing to start in the noisy, sunny end of Mile High, where the crowd even panicked Kosar.

The early pass he threw for an interception down there promoted Denver into a lead it kept until the fourth quarter.

Then after Elway’s last scoring drive, Kosar was on the way to another matching touchdown when Byner lost the handle.

Close, high-scoring football games should never end that way.

“Byner was trying,” the Bills’ Polian said. “He’s always trying.”