PRO FOOTBALL / BOB OATES : Coaching Class of 1992 Already Has Candidates for Valedictorian

The new coaches are beginning to put some life into the old league. During the first quarter of the NFL’s 16-game season:

--Dennis Green led the Minnesota Vikings to a 3-1 record, resurrecting the Purple People Eaters’ pass rush and recreating Fran Tarkenton. And the club’s new scrambler, Rich Gannon, can out-pass Tarkenton.

--Bill Cowher helped Chuck Noll’s old team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, to a 3-1 start.

--Mike Holmgren, for one day at least, showed the most promise of all Sunday when, after a 0-2 start, he got the Green Bay Packers to 2-2 with a convincing 17-3 conquest of Cowher’s Steelers.

--Sam Wyche, who is new only to Tampa Bay, elevated the Buccaneers to 3-1 with another chapter in the book he is writing there, “How to Amaze the World by Reconstructing Vinny Testaverde.” For five years, quarterback Testaverde had been the NFL’s most conspicuous bust.

Three of the NFL’s nine new coaches this season have lost their quarterbacks. They are the only three under .500: Bobby Ross of the San Diego Chargers and retreads Ted Marchibroda of the Indianapolis Colts and Tom Flores of the Seattle Seahawks, whose new passer, Kelly Stouffer, is beginning to show signs of life after all.

NFC up: The Cowher Power failure in Green Bay on Sunday can be partially attributed to the fact that his is an AFC team.

After the season’s first 10 interconference games, including Pittsburgh-Green Bay, the NFC is ahead, 7-3.

The Buffalo Bills are the only American Conference entry playing with the class of the better National Conference clubs, having proved themselves the day they outscored the San Francisco 49ers, 34-31.

In the interconference series, undefeated Buffalo (4-0) and Miami (3-0) hold the only three AFC victories. The Dolphins beat the Rams. The Bills beat the Rams and the 49ers.

Miami will play at Buffalo in Sunday’s NFL game of the day, when the quarterback of the year so far, Buffalo’s Jim Kelly, expects to outplay Dan Marino.

No matchup: What do coaches mean when they grumble, “Our team doesn’t match up well with theirs?”

Sports fans got one answer Sunday night when the New Orleans Saints lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 16-10, in large part because they match up unfavorably with the 49ers on both sides of the ball:

--Although the New Orleans defense ranks with Philadelphia’s as the league’s finest, a conventionally sound defense can’t really cope with a quarterback who runs with the speed and skill of San Francisco’s Steve Young. At times, because of Young’s running ability, the 49ers can deploy five receivers, including fullback Tom Rathman, leaving Young alone in the backfield.

“There’s no one in (an NFL defense) to cover a fifth receiver,” said Turner TV analyst Pat Haden, a former NFL quarterback.

--The 49er weakness is pass defense, but the New Orleans passing attack isn’t sophisticated enough to take advantage. Although the Saints sent quarterback Bobby Hebert out throwing, it is difficult for running teams to suddenly pass well enough to beat San Francisco.

Coaches’ game: Conservatives who think of football as merely blocking, tackling and turnovers should have been watching Sunday when a coach, Holmgren, made the decisive moves for Green Bay:

--During the second half, ahead by only a touchdown, the Packers ran on third and 14 at the Green Bay 30. Holmgren was balancing the pressure on his inexperienced passer, Brett Favre.

--A moment later, after the Steelers had muffed a punt at their eight-yard line, Holmgren was ready with a well-rehearsed goal-line play. On first down, the Packers loaded up their left side and threw the winning touchdown the other way, where a single Steeler defensive back, Rod Woodson, was playing.

It was the only catch that rookie receiver Robert Brooks made for the Packers all day. Clearly, they had been saving the right pass for the right time.

Holmgren’s third-and-14 call compares favorably with the Raiders’ unfortunate third-down calls against Kansas City last winter. In a close playoff game that the Raiders’ defense was dominating, a rookie passer, Todd Marinovich, was twice asked to throw the ball. Both passes were intercepted, and the game was lost.

Holmgren’s law: when your defense is winning it, don’t let a kid give it away.

The carver: Player of the day was Holmgren’s new quarterback, Favre of Southern Mississippi.

It’s too early to tell if he’s that good, but his two scoring plays, on an afternoon when he completed 14 of 19 passes for 210 yards, were nicely executed.

Favre threw over the Pittsburgh defense to Sterling Sharpe on a 76-yard play that got Green Bay its first touchdown. Later, he threw a short touch pass to Brooks in the end zone. “Brett has everything you want at that position, including aggressiveness,” Holmgren said.

Favre pronounces his name to rhyme with carve. He is the son of a high school football coach in the Mississippi town of Kiln, which is pronounced to rhyme with keel.

New offense: The Chicago Bears, with Mike Ditka, also out-coached their opponents Sunday, Jerry Glanville’s Atlanta Falcons.

To get a 31-7 lead, Ditka completely changed his offense, encouraging the blitzing Falcons to run themselves out of almost every play as Chicago halfback Neal Anderson went the other way on counter plays--for touchdowns on 49- and 14-yard runs.

Quiz: Rod Reid of the Philadelphia Inquirer, a former Washington political writer, says that the following is the answer to a three-part question:

--The ongoing economic depression.

--The upward spiral of deficit spending.

--Dallas Cowboy running back Emmitt Smith.

The question: Can you name three things that Washington can’t stop?

Redskin killer: Smith ran for 140 yards against Washington earlier this month. He is the only back to have four consecutive 100-yard games against the Redskins. But it’s Philadelphia that he will be playing next Monday night, and his average against the Eagles is 58 yards. Will that be enough?