ANALYSIS : Bills Seem to Be Alone at Top of NFL Class

Visions of the Buffalo Bills.

Thurman Thomas flashes through a miniscule hole, cuts back and is gone. Bruce Smith overpowers a 290-pound tackle and swallows a quarterback in his huge arms. Andre Reed slants sharply off the line, catches a perfect pass from Jim Kelly and splits two defenders to the end zone.

Call 1991 the season of the Bills, who last January came within a few feet of becoming the first AFC team in eight years to win the NFL title. A team of muscular defense and flashy, no-huddle offense.

In other words, vim, vigor and dash -- the NFL’s wave of the ‘90s.

Or is it?

As the season begins, the back-to-the-past power formula that the New York Giants used to edge Buffalo for the title last year remains in vogue -- at least among the NFL’s best. The Chiefs, Raiders, Giants, Redskins and Bears favor defense and running and the Eagles and 49ers, while flashier, have defenses that rank among the best.

Add the Bills to that list.

“If we have one goal coming into this season, it’s to do a better job of ball control,” says Buffalo coach Marv Levy. “The one problem with a no-huddle offense is that if you go three downs and out, your defense may only be off the field for 45 seconds.”

Levy knows from experience.

His team lost the Super Bowl because it’s offense was kept on the sidelines for more than two-thirds of the game by New York’s clock-eating three-and-a-half-yards-and-a-turf-burn running game. The Bills averaged a point a minute, but only had the ball for 19 of them and lost when Scott Norwood’s last-second 47-yard field-goal attempt sailed 6 feet wide right.

That football itself is the focus of this season is unique in itself.

This is the first season in a half-decade when more attention is being paid to the game than to labor, lawsuits, internal league politics or fiscal problems.

“I don’t think everything’s accomplished, but I approach every season with optimism,” says commissioner Paul Tagliabue, starting his second full season. “On the field, hopefully, we have new teams emerging, new situations, a lot of things that you look forward to.”

Still, 1991 starts with the focus on last season’s most interesting team.

The Bills appear to be the single standout in a pack of a dozen contenders; the first consensus pre-season favorite from the AFC in a decade.

If none of its coterie of major stars sustains a long-term injury, Buffalo has the talent to put an end to NFC dominance dating back to 1983, when the Raiders won the title. Since then it’s been the 49ers, the Bears, Giants, Redskins, 49ers, 49ers and Giants.

But the Giants’ Super Bowl victory, in which they had the ball for 40 minutes and 33 seconds, may have set the tone for 1991.

In other words, boring is in -- despite backs like Thomas, Detroit’s Barry Sanders, Dallas’ Emmitt Smith and Cincinnati’s ageless James Brooks; quarterbacks like Montana, Miami’s Dan Marino and Houston’s Warren Moon; the no-huddle in Buffalo and Cincinnati and run-and-shoot offenses in Atlanta, Houston, Detroit and maybe even Seattle.

New York’s success last season was based on a simple theory -- run Ottis Anderson three times for 3 1/2 yards, and that’s a first down. “When the offense looked at the films of the Giants’ game last year, all they saw was 15 minutes,” says Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson. “We never got the ball, so how do you show offensive film?”

Buffalo doesn’t disagree with that approach, although Thomas’ average last year was 4.8 yards a carry, not 3.5.

Still, the Bills ran the ball more than all but eight of the 28 other NFL teams last season. Seven of those eight had winning records and made the playoffs (San Diego was the odd team out). Drop the Chargers, add the Bills and eight of the top nine runningest teams in the NFL had a regular-season record of 89-39.

The Giants are minus Parcells, who quit to go off to television, now the official retirment home for successful NFL coaches. But Ray Handley, his replacement, was the architect of the running game that led the team to a 10-0 start, a 13-3 record and playoff wins over Chicago and San Francisco and finally Buffalo.

The defense remains solid, augmented by a massive young “move the pile” offensive line; the quarterback tandem of Phil Simms and Jeff Hostetler and some lively young backfield legs in Rodney Hampton, Lewis Tillman and Jarrod Bunch to augment Anderson.

The Chiefs may be the most likely challenger to Buffalo in the AFC.

They’re also the Giants West (or at least Midwest). Coach Marty Schotteheimer is Parcells by way of Woody Hayes and their preseason experiment with a no-huddle offense is more a gimmick to keep defenses off-balance than a drastic change in approach.

“Our main aim is to score more touchdowns, however we do it,” says Schottenheimer, whose team was the only one in the NFL last season with more field goals than touchdowns.

Steve DeBerg (four interceptions all season) had a career year at 36 because Christian Okoye at 265 pounds and Barry Word at 240-plus steamrolled through opposing defenses, and Derrick Thomas, “the next Lawrence Taylor” became the next LT by leading the league with 20 sacks, seven in one game.

The Redskins? Art Monk, Gary Clark and Ricky Sanders have been the best receiving trio in the NFL for the past five years. But the offense is still build around the offensive line as Joe Gibbs continues to re-create John Riggins with Earnest Byner and Gerald Riggs.

And the 49ers?

They have the league’s best unsung defense (as opposed to heralded ones in New York, Chicago, Kansas City and Philadelphia), although no apparent running game. Still, they went 14-2 without one last year -- Montana throwing to Rice and John Taylor is usually enough.

Off the field, the most pressing issue is the lack of a labor contract. The league hasn’t had one since the 24-day strike in 1987; the NFL Players Association remains dormant, and the major focus is on several player suits seeking free agency.

Tagliabue, who represented the league in antitrust suits before becoming commissioner, is hopeful a settlement can be reached. He also suggests that free agency, against which the owners fought so hard during the strike, might emerge in some form.

“I think there’s more flexibility now on free agency,” Tagliabue says.

There are five new coaches, led by Handley. He will try to emulate George Seifert, who led the 49ers to their second straight NFL title two years ago after taking over from the retired Bill Walsh.

Rich Kotite, Philadelphia’s former offensive coordinator, takes over the Eagles, replacing Buddy Ryan, who was fired after his third straight first-round playoff loss.

Bill Belichick, the Giants’ defensive coordinator last year, will coach the Browns, 3-13 last year under Bud Carson and Jim Shofner. So far he has beaten the Giants and Redskins in exhibitions, working hard to win to build his team’s confidence.

Dick McPherson, the 61-year-old former Syracuse coach, takes over in New England, where Sam Jankovich, the former athletic director at Miami was brought in as president after the Patriots went 1-15 and went through turmoil caused by the complaints of Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olson of sexual harrassment in the locker room.

And Rich Williamson, who replaced the fired Ray Perkins for the final three games of the season in Tampa Bay, takes over the Bucs for the full year. Williamson is already hearing footsteps -- rumors that Parcells may take over after a year in television.

The Giants, Redskins and Eagles head perhaps the league’s strongest division, the NFC East, and Dallas and Phoenix may be among the league’s most improved teams. The Cowboys under Johnson went from 1-15 in 1989 to 7-9 last season and see themselves as a playoff team this season.

Look for a comeback by the Vikings in the NFC Central, reviving their old rivalry with the Bears. Tampa Bay, Detroit and Green Bay all have seemed to take one step forward, one back.

In the West, the 49ers, a playoff team the past eight years, remain the favorites.

The Saints, another defensive-oriented grind-it-out bunch, made the expanded playoffs at 8-8 last season and the Falcons have talent but need focus. The Rams, who played in the NFC title game two years ago and sunk to 5-11 last year, are restructuring their defense.

The Dolphins, with Marino and his new $25 million, 5-year contract, can keep the Bills from making the AFC East a runaway. The Colts have second-year quarterback Jeff George plus a rejuvenated Eric Dickerson, but the offensive line is leaky; the Jets are rebuilding and the Patriots have little hope of improving much on last year.

The AFC Central looks like a three-way race among the Bengals, Oilers and Steelers, all of whom went 9-7 last year. Cleveland may improve under Belichick, but probably not enough to challenge for the playoffs.

In the West, the Raiders are defending champion, but the Chiefs are the favorite. Denver looks improved after sinking to 5-11 last year; San Diego may be on the upswing and Seattle is almost always around .500.