Bengals Offer Carlson a New Challenge : AFC: The Oilers’ backup quarterback might face a few more surprises today against the Cincinnati defense.

Quarterback Warren Moon is important to the Houston Oilers, but they still managed to make the playoffs by beating the league’s No. 1 defense without him.

And with Moon, who passed for 4,689 yards before injuring the thumb on his throwing hand two weeks ago in Houston’s loss to Cincinnati, still sidelined, it’s up to Cody Carlson to do his Moonwalk one more time.

Now, facing the AFC East champion Bengals (9-7) today in a first-round playoff game at Riverfront Stadium, the Oilers are hoping Carlson can keep buying enough time to get Moon fit for the later rounds.

Last Sunday, playing the Pittsburgh Steelers for a playoff berth, Carlson completed 22 of 29 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Oilers to a 35-14 victory.

“We expected him to play well, but he made things look so easy,” Houston Coach Jack Pardee said. “This was the 16th game of the season, and he hadn’t had much playing time. That could have been a worry.”

Said Bengal defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau: “They didn’t look any different to me against Pittsburgh. Warren Moon couldn’t have done any better. The difference is that Moon has done it week in, week out.”

More important for the Oilers (9-7), Moon’s absence caused them to shift some of their offensive attention to the running game, which is usually nothing more than a rarely used convenience in a typical run-and-shoot game.

Pardee was content to let Moon pass 40 to 50 times a game. With Carlson facing the Steelers, the Oilers tried to carve out a rushing attack to shift some of the responsibility off the young quarterback’s shoulders.

Houston moved guard Bruce Matthews to center, trying to open things in the middle--and it worked well enough for the Oilers to rush for 195 yards and keep Carlson from having to do it all.

With the Cincinnati weather predicted to be rainy and in the low 40s today, Houston’s ability to run the ball against Cincinnati’s 22nd-ranked run defense might be the key to the game.

Much-neglected tailback Lorenzo White suddenly is a mainstay of the Houston offense and has proved he can run in cold-weather situations--he gained 115 yards in 1989 in the snow at Pittsburgh.

Another 195-yard rushing effort on the road--last week’s game was at Pittsburgh--could mean victory.

“They were creating holes against Pittsburgh,” LeBeau said. “They could move the ball either way, in the air or on the ground. If they can do both, you’re in for a long day.”

For their part, the Bengals plan to try to confuse Carlson with different looks and to change their coverages often--something the Steelers, content to sit back and wait for mistakes, didn’t do. Carlson didn’t make the mistakes, and that cost the Steelers.

“Pittsburgh was sitting back in a zone,” Cincinnati Coach Sam Wyche said. “I think that the strategy must have been, ‘They’ve got a young quarterback. He’s going to force the ball in there. We’ll pick him off.’ ”

Wyche closed the Bengals’ practices to reporters last week, which may or may not mean a bunch of newfangled defensive strategies today.

“Cincinnati is great at throwing in a lot of gimmicks,” Carlson said. “We knew what to expect from Pittsburgh, but Cincinnati does a lot of things to try to confuse you. I expect a lot of that.”

The Bengals, meanwhile, want to duplicate the rushing effort they got from tailback James Brooks in their 40-20 victory over Houston two weeks ago. In that game, Brooks rushed for a club-record 201 yards. “Whatever the reason, Brooks just kicked our butts,” defensive end Sean Jones said. “We definitely know there are some things we have to correct.”

Brooks had runs of 45, 56 and 40 yards--the longest carries allowed this year by the Oilers. He scored on the 56-yard play and set up touchdowns on the other two.

“Two of his runs equaled 100 yards,” defensive tackle Doug Smith said. “And on both of those, we (almost) had him stopped for no more than a five-yard gain. Brooks is a great back, and I’m not taking anything away from him, but those are long runs he normally wouldn’t have had against us.”

Said defensive lineman Ezra Johnson: “We have a lot of pride, and we were very embarrassed by what he did. I think it’s safe to say you won’t see that guy running through our defense like that again.”