PRO FOOTBALL : Raider, Ram Quarterbacks Play Well; Bills, Bengals Play Better

For the Raiders, as well as the Rams, these are welcome-to-parity days.

Their quarterbacks, Jay Schroeder and Jim Everett, played football about as well as it can be played Sunday in Buffalo and Anaheim.

But they were outplayed only by their opponents, Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills and Boomer Esiason of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Raider and Ram fans were saying Sunday night that their defenses collapsed.

But that is what the other teams’ fans had been saying when Schroeder and Everett were marching through the Buffalo and Cincinnati defenses.

It has been that kind of year--one in which the NFL has played a record number of good, close games, with more than 20 evenly matched clubs.

Even the San Francisco 49ers, at 4-0, are three plays away from 1-3--three strange plays that barely beat New Orleans, 13-12; Atlanta, 19-13; and Houston, 24-21.

One of the conspicuously improving NFL quarterbacks is Schroeder, who didn’t throw an off-target pass Sunday until the latter moments of the fourth quarter.

And even Schroeder should have lost in Seattle last month when an instant-replay malfunction saved the Raiders, 17-13.

In a rematch, the Seahawks will be in the Coliseum Sunday when the Rams are in Chicago. No routs are expected.

For Joe Montana, the 49ers’ come-from-behind, fourth-quarter victory in Houston Sunday was his second in four games this season and 25th in 10 years.

The man is still doing it the way he did it at Notre Dame long, long ago.

He isn’t even aging. At 34, he looks and acts 24.

“I feel 24,” the San Francisco quarterback said. “I remember how it was when I was 24, and the only thing that’s really changed is that it takes me longer to heal now.

“After a Sunday game, it used to be Tuesday before I felt whole again. Then it was Wednesday. Now it’s Thursday--and some weeks, Friday is starting to creep up.

“A lot depends on how often I’m hit.”

He was only sacked twice in Houston Sunday.

“You don’t take a beating every week,” he said. “I’m good for years. Retirement? I don’t see it anywhere down the road.”

It is clear now that Minnesota Viking Coach Jerry Burns and his offensive assistant, Bob Schnelker, made a turning-point mistake last year when they accepted the trade that General Manager Mike Lynn completed to get running back Herschel Walker.

Obviously, neither Burns nor Schnelker was aware of Walker’s particular strengths and weaknesses.

As astonishing as it seems, they didn’t know that Walker simply wouldn’t fit in the Vikings’ offense, which is based on trap blocking.

They know now.

“You can’t change people. Runners, they have a style,” Burns said. “Herschel, he’s never been a guy to run that inside-trapping game.”

If Burns had only told Lynn that last year, the Vikings would have avoided the costliest trade they have ever made.

Minnesota and Pittsburgh are two of the NFL’s more determined trap-blocking teams, and former Steeler Franco Harris, a Hall of Famer, is an example of a successful runner in that system.

Walker is about Harris’ size, but as football players they’re wholly different. Always overrated as a running back, Walker could help any team that blended in his peculiar assets: extraordinary straight-ahead speed, great strength, uncommon pass-receiving abilities and an aptitude for leadership.

But all that is wasted in Minnesota. The surprise is that an NFL coach hadn’t thoroughly evaluated a prominent player before a big trade.

With Jack Trudeau at quarterback, the underdog Indianapolis Colts beat another good team Sunday when they came from behind to surprise the Kansas City Chiefs, 23-19, a week after they had come from behind to surprise the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-23.

“One thing about this club is that no one has quit, no one has given up when we’ve been behind,” said Trudeau, who is 2-0 in relief of injured rookie Jeff George, who started 0-3.

Their opponents didn’t quit, either. The Chiefs didn’t give up after Trudeau had rallied Indianapolis in the fourth quarter. They just aren’t built for come-from-behind football.

As a play-action team with an erratic quarterback, Steve DeBerg, the Chiefs are only at their best in two circumstances: when they’re ahead or when they they’re in favorable field position.

In some respects, the Chiefs are a Super Bowl club. No NFL defense is stronger. Nobody’s special teams are more helpful. No NFL back is more powerful than Christian Okoye, and there are no noticeable holes in Kansas City’s offensive line or receiver corps.

But their play-action pass offense is based on faking a ground play before DeBerg throws the ball. They distrust dropback passing, and when they’re in a catch-up mode--when it’s must-throw time for the Chiefs--their opponents simply ignore the runner and rush the passer.

That’s what beat them this time. And that’s the problem they’ll have to solve to make a winner of DeBerg, who for 15 years has played NFL football as unevenly as he played Sunday.

In the first of a series of critical games in the NFC East this month, the Washington Redskins (3-1) will throw a young quarterback, Stan Humphries, against the New York Giants (4-0) and their veteran quarterback, Phil Simms, at Washington Sunday.

But the Redskins are professing confidence in Humphries, who, in his first start since replacing injured Mark Rypien this month, completed 20 of 25 passes for 257 yards as Washington beat Phoenix, 38-10.

“What makes or breaks quarterbacks in this league is not hitting the things that are there,” Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs said. “You’ll find a lot of guys that can do that.

“It’s hitting things when the plays aren’t there. (Against Phoenix) Stan did a good job of creating things when the play didn’t go as he expected.”

All the same, Gibbs is cautioning Redskin fans to be aware that Humphries isn’t Simms, and that the Cardinals aren’t the Giants.

“The (Giant) defense is so good that it doesn’t have to gamble,” he said. “They say, ‘Go ahead and see if you can do something.’ ”

That would seem to be a big order for Humphries, who is only in his second season in the NFL after a college career at a Division I-AA school, Northeast Louisiana, where he began as an understudy to Pittsburgh quarterback Bubby Brister.

The Giants, battered in their last two games, have been enjoying the NFC East’s 14-day layoff.

“I guess if we had to pick a (bye) week, this would have been it,” Giant Coach Bill Parcells said. “It will give (linebacker) Lawrence Taylor more time to get up speed and (tight end) Mark Bavaro more time to get ready.”

Preseason title contenders, the Redskins are scheduled against the Giants and Eagles four times in the next five weeks.

It would have been tough with Rypien. Is it impossible with Humphries?

“We haven’t done very well against the Giants with one week to prepare,” said Gibbs, who is 0-4 in the last four Giant-Redskin games and 3-9 in the last 12. “Maybe the extra week will help.”

Quote Department:

Mike Ditka, Chicago coach, on how the Bears lost to the Raiders a week ago: “Their line held us. And we missed 13 tackles.”

Warren Moon, Houston quarterback, on former Coach Jerry Glanville, now of Atlanta: “Jerry wasn’t a bad football coach. He just tried to do too much. He liked the attention that comes with the position.”

Glanville on Mike Holovak, Houston general manager: “Mike ran the draft, and it was my job to keep him awake.”

Mark van Eeghen, former Raider fullback, now a Cranston, R.I., insurance man, on his opposition to legalized betting on football: “It sends the wrong message to kids. They have minds like sponges, and are easily shaped.”