Notes on a Scorecard - Nov. 13, 1989

All hail the piano movers in blue and gold who made it possible for Jim Everett to complete 18 consecutive passes and keep his uniform clean Sunday in Anaheim. . . .

From left to right, they are Irv Pankey, Tom Newberry, Doug Smith, Tony Slaton, Jackie Slater and Damone Johnson, and they kept the famed New York Giant pass rushers from sacking Everett even once. . . .

Most responsible for making the Ram backfield off limits to Lawrence Taylor was Pankey, the veteran tackle who also has been asked to block Bruce Smith, Richard Dent and Chris Doleman in recent weeks. . . .

“I expected to do it,” Pankey said after stopping Taylor. “I don’t want to sound cocky, but today was my day to keep him from making a sack.” . . .

John Madden, well aware of how difficult it is to repeat in the NFL, thinks the San Francisco 49ers will make it back-to-back Super Bowl championships. “Maybe it’s the coaches who can’t repeat,” Madden said before working the Ram-Giant game for CBS. “The 49ers don’t have that problem this year with George Seifert.” . . .

Madden on Raider Coach Art Shell: “When he was a tackle, he thought like a quarterback.” . . .

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been shut out three times this season, the rest of the league once. . . .

USC has opened as a 17-point favorite over UCLA for their game Saturday at the Coliseum. At the start of the season, the Las Vegas Hilton future book posted USC as a 2 1/2-point favorite. . . .

The Gatorade shower the players gave Coach Larry Smith on the sidelines Saturday in Tucson was strictly fun and games, but their celebrations after virtually every sack and batted-down pass are not in the Trojan tradition. . . .

It didn’t take Smith long to equal the win total of his predecessor, Ted Tollner. Smith is 26-8 in two games shy of three seasons at USC. Tollner was 26-20-1 during his four years. . . . A USC-Michigan rematch would be only the third in the history of the Rose Bowl. The Trojans and Ohio State met three consecutive times from 1973-75. . . .

ABC had a million and one reasons for not showing the probable Rose Bowl decider between Michigan and Illinois on the West Coast. But inexcusable was the network’s failure to give USC-Arizona viewers frequent updates from Champaign. At one point, color commentator Dick Vermeil wondered out loud what the score was and got no answer. Then no taped footage was shown during the postgame scoreboard show although we got plenty of Colorado-Oklahoma State. This is one time ABC can’t be accused of hyping an upcoming show--the Rose Bowl game. . . .

Don’t ask me who’s going to win the Heisman Trophy or the American League MVP award. . . .

Anthony Thompson’s NCAA rushing record of 377 yards shouldn’t be scoffed at just because it was set against Wisconsin. Some of Barry Sanders’ biggest days were against the Kansas States and Tulsas of this world. . . .

A sure way for Notre Dame to have held down the score against SMU would have been to let the clock run during the entire second half. It’s legal if both teams agree. It happened once at an Irish-Pittsburgh game in South Bend. . . .

As North Carolina State demonstrated Saturday against Duke, teams that throw 73 passes usually don’t win. . . .

If UCLA (3-7) isn’t the most disappointing team in the nation, then LSU (2-7) is. . . . Never thought I’d say this, but the Clippers need Benoit Benjamin. If Don Casey can get him to play as hard as his teammates, the Clippers will surprise a few people. . . .

All four centers who played in the Laker-Golden State game Thursday were born outside the United States--Mychal Thompson (Jamaica), Vlade Divac (Yugoslavia), Uwe Blab (West Germany) and Manute Bol (Sudan). . . .

Roberto Duran’s trainer, Carlos Hubbard, is an orthodox Jew. So Duran isn’t training on Saturday, the day of the Sabbath, for his Dec. 7 bout against Sugar Ray Leonard. . . .

It will be strange not to see Al Stankie in Paul Gonzales’ corner at the Forum tonight. And so much for that proposed TV movie, “The Kid and the Cop.” . . .

The Dodgers could do worse than signing free-agent center fielder Robin Yount. The only knock on him is his age (34). . . .

Shug McGaughey should add this to his endless list of excuses for Easy Goer’s defeat in the Breeders’ Cup Classic: Sunday Silence has a better trainer. . . .