PRO FOOTBALL : Backups Are Coming to the Forefront

What backup quarterback is playing the NFL’s best football in this year of the backup?

There are three lively candidates.

Steve Beuerlein, Steve Bono and Jeff Kemp have been winning game after game as replacements for, respectively, Troy Aikman at Dallas, Joe Montana and Steve Young at San Francisco, and Randall Cunningham and Jim McMahon at Philadelphia.

And they aren’t alone.

Twelve NFL backups, in all, played with much of the poise and skill of veteran quarterbacks Sunday, and seven of them were on winning teams. Two others lost to backups.

The winners, besides Beuerlein, Bono and Kemp, were Minnesota’s Rich Gannon, Kansas City’s Mark Vlasic, New England’s Hugh Millen and Detroit’s Erik Kramer.

The replacements who lost to replacements were Phil Simms and Steve Walsh.

Simms lost to Kemp, who has thrown one big scoring pass in each of the last two weeks, upsetting the Houston Oilers and New York Giants.

Walsh, the only good thing about the fading New Orleans Saints, lost to Beuerlein.

The others bowing as backups Sunday--after all exceeded expectations at times earlier this year--were Stan Gelbaugh of Phoenix, Neil O’Donnell of Pittsburgh and Mike Tomczak of Green Bay.

Beuerlein vs. Joyner: With only two weeks remaining before the playoffs begin with the wild-card first round on Dec. 28-29, it will be backup against backup in a pair of clutch games this weekend:

--Although Steve DeBerg could play some for Kansas City (9-5) at San Francisco (8-6) Saturday afternoon, Vlasic has performed more impressively for the Chiefs this month, and will probably oppose Bono much of the time as the 49ers resume their late-season playoff drive.

--Although Aikman could play some for Dallas (9-5) at Philadelphia (9-5) Sunday, the probable pitchers, in a cold-weather matchup of two of the NFL’s hottest teams, are Beuerlein and Kemp.

The Eagles, playing with a Super Bowl flair, are on a six-game winning streak. The Cowboys, the only team to conquer the Washington Redskins (13-1), this season, have won three straight with Beuerlein, who came in and made the decisive plays against Washington--and then improved against Pittsburgh and New Orleans.

Beuerlein doesn’t, however, figure to dent Philadelphia’s defense, whose front four, the NFL’s fastest, has opened the holes that linebacker Seth Joyner has run through so effectively. He will probably run all the way to the Pro Bowl.

The Anaheim strangers: This is the year that Georgia Frontiere of the Rams (3-11) became the latest NFL owner to discover that firing a bunch of assistant coaches does not assure success in pro football.

John Robinson, in his ninth season at Anaheim, has seven new assistants this year, and, although there’s no reason to doubt any of them as pro football people, they are different from last year’s people.

And in the NFL, that makes a difference. Every time.

Robinson was comfortable with and accustomed to working with last year’s staff. This year, for him as well as the new group, it was like starting over.

Among the NFL’s 28 coaches, Robinson still rates in the most competent half-dozen. But in his circumstances this season, few of the others could have proved it, either.

Toughest division: In the AFC’s most competitive division, the Raiders (9-5), who will be at New Orleans (9-5) next Monday night, are again one of three Western teams in the playoffs, joining Denver (10-4) and Kansas City (9-5).

And Seattle (6-8) could possibly make it four. The AFC West, what’s more, is the NFL’s most successful Monday night division, with the Raiders (.806) first, and two others, Seattle and Kansas City, in the top five.

Seven AFC teams are, strangely, the top seven Monday night winners--Miami, Kansas City, Cleveland and even Indianapolis among them.

Apparently, AFC players thrive on the exposure--the Raiders particularly.

Moon vs. Pinkett: The Houston Oilers (10-4), with Warren Moon at quarterback, reached two milestones this week. They won their first division title since 1967, and they became the first run-and-shoot team to make the NFL playoffs in successive years.

Even so, this has been a month of controversy in Houston. Critics charge that the Oilers didn’t run the ball well enough to avoid a two-game slump, which, after their 9-2 start, jeopardized their position in the playoffs.

When fans began blaming Houston ballcarrier Allen Pinkett, he turned it around and blamed his lack of production on the club’s lack of interest in rushing.

“If you don’t run, there is always a lack of a running game,” Pinkett said.

Moon has a different idea.

“We don’t have to run it that many times a game,” he said. “We just have to be effective when we do run.”

Who wants to settle the argument? How about the inventor of the run-and-shoot, Mouse Davis?

“You have to keep running and passing--even when one of them isn’t working--to make the run-and-shoot go,” Davis said.

The Oilers this year, in Pinkett’s view, have often abandoned their running offense prematurely and overused Moon’s arm, leading to some close games and losing games that could have been won.

Even an Oiler wide receiver, Ernest Givins, is pushing for fewer Oiler passes and more runs, conceding that the club’s fate in the playoffs depends on a better mix.

“It’s so much easier to throw the football when the running game is working,” Givins said. “We need a balanced attack.”

Tell it to Moon.

A Tuesday comment: After the New York Giants won the Super Bowl last winter, 20-19, they liked to say they did it with a ball-control ground attack that kept the Buffalo Bills’ more explosive offense off the field.

Neither the New York players nor their coach, Bill Parcells, ever noted--unless reminded--that the Giants actually won the game in the fourth quarter, when their kicker made a field goal and Buffalo’s kicker missed.

Nor did they like to talk about how they got to the Super Bowl in the first place--by beating San Francisco on five field goals without making a touchdown. Score of the NFC title game: New York 15, San Francisco 13.

Giant kicker Matt Bahr, however, is like all kickers. He hits some and misses some. And in the Meadowlands Sunday, he missed two in the fourth quarter to take the 1990 champions out of the 1991 playoffs as Philadelphia won, 19-14.

“No excuses,” Bahr said after missing from 42 and 32 yards.

And so the Giants under Ray Handley, their first-year coach, are right where they were under Parcells in 1987--the last time they tried to play football after winning a Super Bowl game.

The Giants are at .500 now. Excluding strike games, they finished .500 in 1987.

That, indeed, is about what happens to most defending Super Bowl champions.

And so nobody yet knows for sure whether Handley is an NFL coach. There are those in New York who are trying to make the 1991 season a referendum on Handley, but they are people with short memories.

Could Parcells have done a whit better?

In 1987, he didn’t.

Quote Department:

Buford Jordan, New Orleans running back, on losing four straight in the fourth quarter: “It’s tougher than being blown out.”

Lindy Infante, Green Bay coach, on losing five games by an average of three points apiece: “The difference between a really good season and anything less is how many close games you win.”

Steve Bono on winning four straight as the 49er quarterback: “Sitting around in the summer with Montana and Young ahead of you, it’s hard to picture a situation like this.”

Gary Clark, Redskin receiver, who has led his team in yards and touchdowns for seven years: “We all want to be the best receiver on the team, but we know that Art Monk is.”

Mark Rypien, Redskin quarterback: “It’s going to be a kick for me to be the guy who throws the pass to Art Monk ( next year ) when he breaks Steve Largent’s record.”