NFL Takes a Big Step Forward

The NFL, which is sometimes accused of discriminatory tactics, is calling attention to today’s matchup of Super Bowl contenders in Green Bay.

Both coaches and a total of eight high-ranking leaders representing both sides are African American NFL veterans.

They are:

Green Bay: Ray Rhodes, coach; Sherman Lewis, offensive coordinator; Emmitt Thomas, defensive coordinator, and Reggie McKenzie, director of pro personnel.

Minnesota: Dennis Green, coach; Ray Sherman, offensive coordinator; Alex Wood, quarterback coach, and Frank Gilliam, vice president of player personnel.

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Instant flaw: Here and there in the league, some of the coaching staffs are talking about what they call a serious flaw in the new instant-replay officiating rule.

The problem, they say, is that the same people who make the calls on the field are charged with reviewing the challenges.

In previous replay incarnations, there were separate staffs, the officials on the field and the judges on the appeals courts at the upstairs monitors.

It’s too hard to get a reversal now, some coaches are saying, because at every game, the referee and the chief justice are one and the same.

So far, no coach has complained for attribution.

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Watching Moss: As Minnesota receiver Randy Moss climbed into the air to grab and hold a 29-yard pass with one hand last Sunday--his extended right hand--he was stiff-arming Oakland cornerback Charles Woodson with his left hand in the NFL play of the week

The completed pass never touched Moss’ left hand.

That apparently intimidated the Raiders, who, seemingly unnerved by the most magical receiver since the heyday of Jerry Rice or possibly Don Hutson, dropped one pass after another throughout Minnesota’s 10-6 first half.

By the second half, however, Oakland’s defensive team, cleverly coached by Willie Shaw, had intimidated the Super Bowl-contending Vikings.

And with Minnesota’s players entangled in Raider pass rushers and run stoppers, Oakland arose offensively as quarterback Rich Gannon directed a 22-17 upset with a two-touchdown rally in the game of the week.

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Eight tools now: By consensus agreement, the Vikings lead the NFL in offensive tools, three of them tight ends who appear to be seven-footers weighing 300 pounds, Andrew Glover, Carlester Crumpler, and rookie Jim Kleinsasser.

Each caught at least one pass Sunday when quarterback Randall Cunningham wasn’t throwing to acclaimed wide receivers Moss, Cris Carter and Jake Reed, or handing off to 1,000-yard rusher Robert Smith.

Thus, as usual, there were times in the first half when the Vikings looked unbeatable on their home court in Minneapolis.

But each time, Oakland’s defensive coach Shaw suddenly derailed them with a new kind of blitzer or a surprise tackler or well-placed interceptor.

Shaw was the star of the biggest day the Raiders have had since they won the Super Bowl for Los Angeles back in 1984.

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Winning call: To get the winning touchdown, Oakland’s second-year coach, Jon Gruden, 36, made the call of the game, a quarterback draw play by Gannon on third and goal at the Minnesota five-yard line.

That was in the third quarter, when the Raiders scored twice as Gannon marched 80 and 64 yards on passes to receivers Tim Brown and James Jett and runs by rejuvenated Tyrone Wheatley and sprinter Napoleon Kaufman.

In the first half, neither Brown nor Jett fought hard enough for the ball. After Shaw’s defense showed them they had a chance, they joined the party.

At long last, Gruden, a West Coast offense exponent, could be the coach they need up there.

And Gannon could be the quarterback.

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Advisory error: The Raiders lost a timeout they couldn’t afford and an instant-replay challenge they shouldn’t have made in the third quarter when Raider safety Anthony Newman was the first to get to a fumbled ball, although he had run out of bounds.

Gruden challenged, but the error was made by his advisors, Oakland’s assistant coaches upstairs.

Viewing TV replays, they should have noted that after Newman stepped on the sideline, he couldn’t legally become the first to touch a fumble.

Or maybe they didn’t know the rule.

In any case, in instant-replay situations, more alertness than that is required.

It’s a lousy rule--you shouldn’t have to lose a timeout--but it is the rule.

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Not same team: Even when they win, the San Francisco 49ers don’t look like champions.

Even when they get a typically courageous performance by their best player, quarterback Steve Young.

And even when, with Charlie Garner, they regain much of what they had with injured running back Garrison Hearst.

The irony of the week is that the 49ers required a big play by one Lance Schulters, a member of their weakest department, the secondary, to beat New Orleans with a fourth-quarter interception, 28-21.

No NFL team can win big and often today without excellence at two positions, quarterback and running back. But that isn’t enough if you’re well short of excellence at defensive back and in the offensive line--as the 49ers seem to be.

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Power parade: A principal reason Jacksonville’s Jaguars remain the consensus Super Bowl favorite is that they’re twice as powerful at running back as any opponent and at least as sound at quarterback as any.

They’re the only team with two outstanding ball carriers, James Stewart, who gained 124 yards Sunday, and the starter at Stewart’s position, Fred Taylor, who was benched for the day because of a minor injury.

As the Jaguars sought to take an outmanned opponent in stride in a road game, quarterback Mark Brunell was held to 214 yards passing by the Carolina Panthers, who missed overtime by missing a two-point conversion.

Stewart saved Brunell in the fourth quarter with a 44-yard touchdown run and the Jaguars won, 22-20.

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A new punch: There remains a league-wide tendency to doubt that the Washington Redskins are for real, even after their surprise 1999 start--a 50-21 win over the New York Giants this week after they had led the Dallas Cowboys by three touchdowns last week before stumbling, 41-35.

Even so, the Redskins are clearly better at quarterback this year with Brad Johnson, who has made Stephen Davis clearly better at running back.

While the Giants were worrying about Johnson’s passes Sunday, they allowed Davis to escape for 126 yards.

And when they focused on Davis, there were 20 completions in 28 shots by Johnson, leading to the Redskins’ second consecutive five-touchdown game.

They punched Dallas around that way on opening day.

Next for the 1-1 Redskins are the 0-2 New York Jets, who are busy demonstrating what can happen to a good team when it loses its quarterback.

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Short subjects:

* After coming close on the inadequate Candlestick Point playing field, New Orleans Coach Mike Ditka said what others are saying about the 49ers: “They don’t put any fear into us now. We don’t quake when they walk past.”

* An instant-replay reversal, leading to a correct ruling that 49er receiver Jerry Rice made the catch, paid off for a player who practices holding passes that way--with his hands underneath the ball on the ground--every day of his life.

* Another problem with instant replay is that the judges are limited in the kinds of plays they can review. They should have the authority to review, and to reverse, anything. Why not?

* Twice inside of a third-quarter minute Sunday, the officials failed to see Minnesota cornerback Ramos McDonald fouling Raider receiver James Jett, who was tripped first and then interfered with on a pass. One or the other call and probably both would have been reviewed and reversed if the NFL could review and reverse anything.

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Find Bob Oates’ football column on http//www.latimes.com/oates.