Top-Level Talent Keys Contenders in Super Chase

There ought to be a prize for the NFL’s most improved player, and this year it should go to Green Bay’s running back, Dorsey Levens.

Drafted fifth by general manager Ron Wolf in 1994, Levens and passer Brett Favre give Green Bay the 1-2, pass-run threat that every Super Bowl finalist except San Francisco has--and needs.

Favre without Levens wouldn’t be what you’re seeing this year.

So that’s one more reason the Packers stand out so far in a season memorable for many other good football teams, from Pittsburgh and San Francisco to Denver, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, and New England.

The Packers are expected to win today and in the Super Bowl on Jan. 25 because they clearly lead the NFL in, among other things, high-quality backs, linemen and receivers. Among them are:

Top level (3): Favre, Levens, and safety LeRoy Butler.

Pro Bowl level (offense) (5): Wide receivers Antonio Freeman and Robert Brooks, tight end Mark Chmura, center Frank Withers and rookie tackle Ross Verba.

Pro Bowl level (defense) (3): Nose tackle Gilbert Brown, tackle Santana Dotson and end Reggie White.

Special-team coverage (1): Halfback Travis Jervey.

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The San Francisco coach, rookie Steve Mariucci, has made what seems to be a sound claim to NFL coach of the year by winning with a cast of players who rank fourth among the four teams still alive today. Minus receiver Jerry Rice and with halfback Garrison Hearst hurting, the best Mariucci has are:

Top level (1): Quarterback Steve Young.

Pro Bowl level (offense) (1): Guard Kevin Gogan.

Pro Bowl level (defense) (5): Tackles Dana Stubblefield and Bryant Young, end Chris Doleman, linebacker Ken Norton Jr. and safety Merton Hanks.

Although the 49ers play with excellence as a team, many rival coaches downgrade them individually.

They say Steve Young is one hit away from oblivion, Gogan is the best of some ordinary blockers, Stubblefield overachieved this season, Bryant Young is playing with the most crippling of all wounds, an ankle injury; Doleman and Norton tend to be inconsistent, and Hanks, like most safeties, makes the big mistake.

The 49ers, who are always reloading, employ at least six other future and former Pro Bowl players--young receivers Terrell Owens and J.J. Stokes, older tight end Brent Jones, and aging defensive stars Kevin Greene, Rod Woodson and Tim McDonald--on a club that got to the conference final again for the usual reason: Since 1981, their coaches and front office people have out-performed their peers on the teams that in 1997 provided them with another “weak schedule”--so called. That’s 17 years of being pushed around by the 49ers. Is the Ram front office, for one, ever going to tire of that?

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The wild-card Denver team, stepping up as the nation’s sentimental favorite to win the Super Bowl this time after so much adversity there, has the NFL’s best balanced talent:

Top level (2): Quarterback John Elway and running back Terrell Davis.

Pro Bowl level (offense) (6): Tight end Shannon Sharpe, wide receiver Rod Smith, center Tom Nalen, tackles Gary Zimmerman and Tony Jones and blocking back Howard Griffith.

Pro Bowl level (defense) (3): End Neil Smith, linebacker John Mobley and safety Steve Atwater.

Special-team returns (1): Cornerback Darrien Gordon.

Davis is this year’s Emmitt Smith in two senses: He is the NFL’s only threat to gain some yards against any defense. And he is abbreviating his career with the hits he takes while running so often.

Like Smith, he lacks sprinter speed. And in a year or two when the hits have nicked what speed he has, Davis will become, like Smith, just another halfback.

But on an Elway team--this year--Davis gives Denver just what it needs to get to the Super Bowl and, with luck, win it.

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The unique Pittsburgh team can also, with luck, get there and win with its variety of talent:

Top level (3): Quarterback Kordell Stewart, running back Jerome Bettis and defensive back Carnell Lake.

Pro Bowl level (offense) (5): Wide receiver Yancey Thigpen and four offensive linemen: Center Dermontti Dawson, guard Will Wolford and tackles John Jackson and Justin Strzelczyk.

Pro Bowl level (defense) (2): Linebacker Levon Kirkland and nose tackle Joel Steed.

The Steelers would be a runaway favorite this morning, particularly in a Three Rivers freeze, with better offensive deployment. This is a team lacking offensive imagination. In their basic formation, the Steelers should be running or faking Bettis one way while Stewart rolls out the other way doing the run-pass option.

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How to win: Three of today’s four teams--all but Pittsburgh--prefer Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense, which is based on first-down passing. In last week’s critical first half, for example, Denver, on its first 12 first-down plays in Kansas City, called three runs and nine passes. That approach has won the last five Super Bowls.

The 49ers this season have been in and out of the West Coast, often running on first down to preserve Steve Young for the playoffs. Today, however, their only chance is to play Walsh football all the way. Any 49er running back who runs often on first down--particularly in the first 20 minutes when the Green Bay defense is fresh and ambitious--will, at the risk of his life, gain next to nothing. And if Young has to pass frequently on third and long, he can expect, at the risk of his life, to accomplish little.

The Green Bay people as a rule play the West Coast just right with the right players. It’s a way that wins.