PRO FOOTBALL : Cunningham Making Serious Run for Quarterback of the Year

The brace that Philadelphia Eagle quarterback Randall Cunningham wears on his left knee is bulletproof.

“It’s like having two left knees,” Cunningham said the other day. “Nobody wants to tackle a brace. You can hurt yourself doing that.”

In other words, one of the game’s great running quarterbacks is making the best of the knee injury that crippled him last season. And it was Denver that paid in Cunningham’s third start after a yearlong absence.

On eight scrambles, the Philadelphia leader averaged 5.8 yards, totaling 46. As a team, the Broncos rushed for a total of 52.

The year’s best news for the undefeated Eagles (3-0) is that Cunningham has come almost all the way back. The way he’s playing suggests that after a devastating knee injury, a running quarterback can rebuild his football career--easier, perhaps, than a halfback or fullback.

In Chicago, for example, Gale Sayers never came back from knee surgery. In Seattle, Curt Warner never really came back. In Philadelphia, Cunningham said, “I’ve hardly ever felt better.”

He has probably lost the step that Warner lost--but on a running quarterback, it doesn’t show as much.

A remarkable all-around athlete, Cunningham set the Broncos up with scrambles and knocked them out with three long touchdown passes, 30-0.

Bill Parcells, the former New York Giant coach who is suddenly pressing John Madden for best football commentator, said, “I always felt when I was in the NFC East that Cunningham was the most accurate passer in the division.”

On three successive Sundays, Cunningham, who threw for 258 yards against Denver, has averaged 17.6 completions in 24 passes. That’s 74%.

“That’s phenomenal,” Philadelphia Coach Rich Kotite said.

Still, it is Cunningham’s open-field scrambling--in a heavy brace--that sets him apart.

“He does it on his own,” Kotite said. “In our book, we don’t have a running play for the passer (aside from quarterback sneaks).”

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Aikman again: If Cunningham hasn’t been nominated yet for quarterback of the year, one explanation is that he may not even be the best in his division.

In Dallas this month, All-Pro candidate Troy Aikman, who was also injured last season, has resumed as impressively as Cunningham.

“It was one of those games where you keep feeling you’re doing almost everything right,” the former UCLA Bruin said after the Cowboys (3-0) had beaten the Phoenix Cardinals, 31-20.

Aikman began the day by leading the Cowboys on three blow-them-out touchdown drives measuring 93, 80 and 90 yards, after which, for the second week in a row, the Dallas defense was outplayed. The Cardinals led in net yards (438-413), total plays (62-59) and first downs (24-21).

In their next start, the Cowboys and Eagles will play at Philadelphia Oct. 5 in a matchup of two top-rated teams and two highly rated quarterbacks who aren’t much alike:

--Aikman’s accuracy is most pronounced on the short- to medium-range passes that are the lifeblood of most winning teams.

--Cunningham is a superb medium- to long-range passer with a change-up: his scrambling.

The Eagles this season have brought together, on one team, the NFC’s 1990 quarterback of the year and the NFL’s 1991 defense of the year. Even without Jerome Brown, their defense is sound.

But the Cowboys can hammer it two ways--with Aikman and running back Emmitt Smith.

The question: Will former Cowboy Herschel Walker be an Eagle hammer?

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Trading again: The Cowboys have played all three first halves this month with the flair of a team on a 19-game winning streak. Including the Super Bowl.

And over the weekend, they traded for an athlete who should help improve their second halves. He is Thomas Everett, formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the league’s fine defensive backs, although he was overshadowed on the Pittsburgh team by All-Pro Rod Woodson.

In two unexpected moves, the Steelers first declined to meet Everett’s terms, $2 million on a multiyear contract, then packed him off to Cowboy owner Jerry (Trader) Jones.

Said Jones: “We obviously think Everett is worth the ($2 million).”

In four big trades, the Dallas owner has recently brought in four useful young veterans who couldn’t get along with their owners in other towns: linebacker Charles Haley from San Francisco, defensive tackle Tony Casillas from Atlanta, quarterback Steve Beuerlein from the Raiders, and now Everett, a 28-year-old free safety.

All have starting talent.

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Slow reader: Thinking of next year or the year after, the things Todd Marinovich did right as the new Raider quarterback Sunday were more significant than his goofs.

His worst mistake was overconfidence. Instead of reading the field quickly, the former USC Trojan spent too much time with the ball in his hands. He hurt himself waiting for big-play openings.

In the disastrous first quarter, when the Raiders fell out of it, 14-0, Marinovich sought to throw the ball down the field on the game’s two decisive third-down plays, the first an incomplete pass before a failed Raider punt, then a sack-fumble setting up another Cleveland touchdown.

In third-down predicaments early in a close game, a more prudent young passer would have looked for halfback Marcus Allen. Or possibly a tight end.

The way they played against a weak Cleveland team, the Raiders are too weak in too many positions to catch Kansas City or Denver now. They might as well use the season to get Marinovich ready for next year. Or the year after. Physically, he is a quarterback who seems to have what it takes.

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Mora’s view: The game of the week brings the NFC West’s top two teams together in the Superdome Sunday night. Both are 2-1. And the San Francisco 49ers are planning to win it from a New Orleans club that couldn’t score in four running plays at the Atlanta one-yard line last Sunday.

Although the Saints eventually won, 10-7, their defense--which ranks in the NFL’s top three or four--carried the offense again.

Jim Mora, the Saints’ coach, didn’t see it quite that way.

“Basically, what (football) comes down to is a team pulling together and finding a way to win,” he said.

Following that reasoning, it was a 45% passer, Bobby Hebert, who found the way, setting up the winning field goal with one of his nine completions after passing for New Orleans’ only touchdown.

In the first half, however, with first and goal at the Falcon one, Mora had overlooked Hebert on all four calls. On fourth down, he also overlooked his field goal kicker.

“You should be able to run it in from there,” he said.

One of the more conservative coaches, Mora has a thoroughly undistinguished offense along with a defense that ranks second only to Philadelphia’s in NFL points allowed. By one point.

In yards allowed, it ranks 21st, but Mora is worried about that statistic.

“This is a team game, not a stat game,” he said.

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Quote Department:

--Bill Cowher, Pittsburgh coach, on starting 3-0: “Preparation is the most important element in winning football. And we do it very well.”

--Sam Wyche, Tampa Bay coach, on why he wanted to change the Buccaneer logo: “There’s an image problem with a guy who winks at you and has a feather in his hat.”

--Cris Dishman, Houston cornerback, on the tackle he made to force the fumble that set up the field goal that beat Kansas City, 23-20: “I saw (wide receiver J.J. Birden) carrying the ball loose. I was just trying to punch it out.”

--Floyd Turner, New Orleans’ best receiver, asked if he wants to return punts again next year after his season ended with last week’s punt return injury: “I don’t think so.”