Notes on a Scorecard - Jan. 24, 1994

Where is the Playoff Bowl when we really need it? . . .

Steve Young and Joe Montana would be matched if the game that used to pair the NFL Western and Eastern Conference title-game losers was still around and involved the NFC and AFC runners-up. . . .

Instead, America will have to settle for Troy Aikman and Jim Kelly in a Super Bowl between the only two teams that belong there, the Dallas Cowboys and the Buffalo Bills. . . .

Hey, some people probably didn’t want to see the Brooklyn Dodgers play the New York Yankees in the World Series for the fifth time in nine years in 1955, either, but the Dodgers finally won the championship. . . .

Besides, the Bills do their best work in the Super Bowl when they have only one week to worry about it. . . .

Jimmy Johnson’s guarantee that the Cowboys would win sure got the 49ers’ dander up. Otherwise, they probably would have lost by 40 points. . . .

The inexperienced San Francisco defensive line, which had a fine day against the New York Giants after a shaky regular season, couldn’t cope with the fierce Dallas blockers. . . .

It was nice to hear some good things about Leon Lett. . . .

So much for Thurman Thomas and Emmitt Smith being tired and banged up. . . .

*

Not even the Chiefs use Marcus Allen enough. It probably would have been a touchdown instead of an interception late in the second quarter if Montana had been throwing to Allen instead of Kimble Anders. . . .

The Raiders didn’t blitz enough against Buffalo. The Chiefs blitzed too much. . . .

Bills’ defensive coordinator Walt Corey and his swizzle stick got plenty of close-ups on the sidelines, but the terrific job by offensive coordinator Tom Bresnahan also should have been recognized. . . .

In four AFC championship games, the Bills have outscored their opponents, 120-33. . . .

How confident were the Bills that they would reach the Super Bowl again? Their media guide has a seating chart of the Georgia Dome. . . .

However, that same guide includes scoring summaries from every Buffalo postseason game in history except the 52-17 loss to Dallas in Super Bowl XXVII. . . .

“It had nothing to with the result of the game,” a club public relations assistant said Sunday. “The page was left out because of a printing error and the mistake wasn’t detected until it was too late.” . . .

I’m glad that we will again be able to hear Pat Summerall and John Madden, the best team ever to announce football. The only difference is that they will be on Channel 11 instead of Channel 2. Big deal. . . .

Now comes the hardest part for UCLA. . . .

Four college basketball teams have won and then lost the No. 1 ranking. . . .

A difficult two-game road trip awaits the Bruins--Thursday against Stanford and Sunday against California. . . .

However, they appear to be up to the challenge. . . .

The Bruins could have been mentally and physically weary after their intense victory over Arizona at Pauley Pavilion Thursday, but they played their best down the stretch against Arizona State two days later. . . .

I don’t care about NBA potential or other extraneous factors. I want Tyus Edney as the point guard on my team. . . .

The smallest Bruin was their biggest star last week, scoring 47 points and getting 14 assists in the two victories. . . .

He picked apart highly regarded Damon Stoudamire Thursday and controlled the decisive final 10 minutes of the game. . . .

Perhaps the highest compliment that can be paid Edney is that he reminds veteran Pauley observers of Mike Warren, one of John Wooden’s all-time favorites. . . .

The UCLA-California game Sunday will be televised at 1 p.m., meaning that you can enjoy the action from the Oakland Coliseum Arena instead of being subjected to hours of Super Bowl pregame hype. . . .

Against the Arizonas, USC showed that it lacks the arsenal to stay with good teams for 40 minutes. . . .

*

Brocco, the horse, got the same raw deal that Notre Dame, the football team, got in the polls. . . .

Brocco beat Dehere easily when they met in the Breeders’ Cup, but, aided by the Eastern bias, Dehere won the Eclipse Award for best 2-year-old male. . . .

“I’ve seen a lot of Heisman Trophy winners who haven’t made it in the NFL,” said Brocco’s trainer, Randy Winick. . . .

“This one was for Jeff,” jockey Pat Day said after riding Tabasco Cat, the horse who ran over assistant trainer Jeff Lukas, to victory in the $200,000 El Camino Real Derby Saturday at Bay Meadows. . . .

The most underworked employees in New York last week were the penalty-box attendants at the NHL All-Star game. . . .

Super Bowl prediction: Dallas 31, Buffalo 17.