PRO FOOTBALL : Three Who Could Have Challenged 49ers Fell by Wayside

Because winning three consecutive Super Bowls is so improbable, it still seems unlikely that the San Francisco 49ers will win all their games this month.

Last weekend, however, they moved three steps closer when three teams that could conceivably have outscored them fell in the first round of the playoffs.

Potentially the most dangerous of the three was the Philadelphia Eagles, a flawed team in many respects, but one led by a big-play quarterback, Randall Cunningham.

The Eagles might well have become a big loser at Candlestick Park Jan. 20--but they might have won, too. They are the team best equipped to outscore San Francisco’s Joe Montana in a big-play shootout, and now they’re gone.

So are the Kansas City Chiefs. Their quarterback, Steve DeBerg, wouldn’t have worried the 49ers much but the Chiefs, remember, are responsible for half the Raiders’ losses this season. They’re so strong in most positions that they could have won a close game from the 49ers.

What’s more, had Houston’s run-and-shoot Oilers sneaked into the Super Bowl with a backup quarterback, Cody Carlson, they could have troubled the 49ers with either Carlson or Warren Moon.

The Oilers gunned down the Buffalo Bills not long ago when Buffalo still had Jim Kelly.

It’s best for the 49ers to have Houston where it is. Out. Along with Kansas City and Philadelphia.

The Chicago Bears eliminated the New Orleans Saints Sunday, 16-6, in a game that demonstrated, among other things, how hard it must be to find first-class pro quarterbacks.

Would Chicago Coach Mike Ditka be torturing himself with Mike Tomczak if his scouts could get him Boomer Esiason or Jim Everett?

Would New Orleans Coach Jim Mora be lining up Steve Walsh and John Fourcade if he didn’t have to?

The Saints surveyed the quarterback field closely for more than a year before deciding to deal three months ago for Walsh, for whom they delivered three draft choices to Dallas, a one, a two and a three.

“Now you tell me it’s a bad deal,” the Saints say. “Why didn’t you tell me last summer?”

Why did the Saints and Bears both pass up Esiason, a second-round choice by Cincinnati? And Dan Marino, too?

Obviously, the truth is that quarterbacks are harder to evaluate than other people.

Raider owner Al Davis, who may be the best talent scout in the country, has never been able to evaluate an Everett or Marino or Cunningham accurately before the draft.

Thus it should come as no surprise that the Bears and Saints can’t do it, either. And so at Soldier Field, erratic passing led to a tedious day.

In the NFC’s other first-round match, the Washington Redskins eliminated the Eagles at Philadelphia Saturday, 20-6, with a clever defensive scheme that took Cunningham out of the game.

Then the Philadelphia coach took him out of the game. As long as Buddy Ryan lives, he will be remembered for that.

But in strategic terms, Cunningham, if he had played all day and all night, never had a realistic chance.

He was beaten:

--By his own leaders. Their game plan wasn’t designed to capitalize on Cunningham’s unusual talents. Although the Eagles have improved their offensive planning this season, what they need most is a pass offense more like the 49ers’ or the Rams’ or Cincinnati’s or Houston’s.

--By the Washington defense. On most plays, the Redskins rushed Cunningham with five players, including a linebacker or defensive back--who all stayed in lanes, thus holding him in the pocket.

There is a way to beat that or any defense, but Cunningham’s coaches never found it.

The Redskins, in short, were smarter than the Eagles. And this time they made sure they were tougher. That was an unbeatable combination.

Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs fooled Philadelphia with some new formations that made the most of a physically limited but energetic quarterback, Mark Rypien, and a never-say-die running back, Earnest Byner.

Gibbs’ was the best coaching performance of the first round.

The Miami Dolphins rallied to eliminate Kansas City Saturday, 17-16, when the Chiefs seemed to run out of gas in the final minutes of a hot South Florida day.

For three quarters, Kansas City’s great secondary dominated Marino and his receivers, Mark Clayton and Mark Duper.

But Kansas City’s conservative coaches, after a 10-3 half, played for field goals in the third quarter, advancing only to 13-3 and then 16-3. And that gave Marino his chance as surely as it would have in the mid-1980s, the last time he had a great team around him.

In the classic moment of the NFL’s long weekend, Miami scored the winning touchdown on a play that matched Marino, the peerless passer, against the peerless cornerback, Albert Lewis of Kansas City.

Marino and Lewis were both ready for the receiver, Clayton, who has lost a step, before he got to the corner. So Marino had to pause, very briefly, then reload.

Watching Marino, Lewis lost Clayton for an instant--and in that instant, Marino fired. He throws so hard that Lewis, going for an interception, missed.

“I missed by an inch,” he said.

It looked closer than that.

Later, the Chiefs could have regained the lead and won the game, probably, with two runs instead of two incomplete passes setting up a shorter field goal attempt for Nick Lowery, whose 52-yard kick was barely short.

It was a strange ending to a big season for Kansas City’s run-minded coach, Marty Schottenheimer.

In the AFC’s other first-round match, the Cincinnati Bengals routed Houston Sunday, 41-14, in what, for the following reasons, became a Bengal practice game as early as the first quarter:

--Houston’s backup quarterback, Cody Carlson, a Baylor product from San Antonio who has spent most of his life in the South, couldn’t hold onto a wet ball. That’s a problem for many passers playing in a cold rain for the first time. Carlson lost it on three plays, twice while of throwing.

--Because Carlson lacks big-game experience, many of his throws were deflected. Of his first seven passes, two were dropped, two deflected, two caught and one intercepted, and by then Esiason had a 17-0 lead.

--The game was basically a defeat for the Houston defensive team, which couldn’t keep Esiason off the field. The Oilers play a strange, passive defense--the NFL’s strangest--with their linebackers far off the scrimmage line. It’s a bend-don’t-break defense--which seems as wrong for the Houston run-and-shoot offense as San Diego’s was when the Chargers had Dan Fouts at quarterback in a fast-striking offense.

In no respect, though, was Houston’s collapse a defeat for the run-and-shoot offense. It isn’t the formation’s fault that an inexperienced passer can’t hold a slippery ball--or that his defense can’t get the ball back.

Nor did the game prove that run-and-shoot plays are ineffective on an off track. The Cincinnati offense was also based on passes.

There isn’t a sounder offense than the run-and-shoot for players who have fallen behind in the second half. Passing teams obviously have a better chance to come back than running teams or play-action teams.

But only if their defenses can restrain the other teams’ passers. Defense cost Houston this one.