Coaches Rush to Get Linemen

When the new Dallas coach, Bill Parcells, takes the Cowboys into Giants Stadium on Monday night, he will discover that his old New York employers are making the most of a new trend.

The Giants have, in fact, become an NFL leader in the young science of fitting eight defensive linemen into four positions.

Because it’s been tried before, this isn’t, to be sure, a brand new trend, but there’s a difference this year: Nearly all of the 32 pro clubs now list, as a primary strategic goal, the rotation of two defensive lines.

Teams with All-Pros such as New York’s defensive end, Michael Strahan, are even benching them in order to rotate two rested four-man lines as early as the first quarter.

That’s how the Giants got the steam up to sack quarterback Kurt Warner six times in Week 1 and overpower the Rams, 23-13.

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Defensive Stockpiles

Defensive-line work is the most exhausting in football. Defensive linemen are forever chasing after somebody, passers or runners, whereas offensive linemen simply stand and fight.

Thus, through the most recent off-season , most NFL teams stockpiled defensive linemen, using the draft, trades and other means.

Then through an exhibition season that seemed so long to so many, they made it a point to polish two defensive lines.

There was an early payoff for the Giants last Sunday. Of three early sacks, two were achieved by New York’s first four and one by the second four.

There were, of course, other reasons the Giants won. For one thing, their stars, passer Kerry Collins and runner Tiki Barber, often played like Ram stars Warner and Marshall Faulk used to. Faulk played as if he’s over the hill. Still, the thing that made the Giants’ day was their pass rush. Those eight defensive linemen killed the Rams.

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Heat Is Decisive

Bill Walsh originated the eight-man defensive line during the 1980s as coach of the San Francisco 49ers, who built a record five Super Bowl champions with that and other innovations, notably the West Coast offense.

“On our best teams, we rotated in as many as nine defensive linemen,” Walsh said last week from San Francisco, where he is a club consultant.

In 1985, when the 49ers won Super Bowl XIX, smashing Miami, 38-16, the spotlight was on their offense -- and on quarterback Joe Montana, the day’s MVP -- but the key to the easy victory was the assertive play of their changing defensive lines against Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino.

“We had a role for every [defensive lineman],” Walsh said. “They all played, and they kept the heat on Marino.”

Such heat, constantly applied, is the objective today of the NFL’s many defensive coaches who have come to understand, along with Walsh, that passing is more important than running and that the surest way to interrupt a good passer is with a constant rush.

There is no other sure way, Walsh said. Coverage by corners, safeties and linebackers is always hit or miss.

“If your defensive linemen tire in the fourth quarter, you’ve had it,” Walsh said. “You can’t win with a great offense and soft spots in the defense.”

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No Eagle Rush

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the better team Monday night, as 17-0 indicates, but Philadelphia made it too simple for Tampa quarterback Brad Johnson. In effect, the Eagles gave the passer a pass. He was hardly ever hounded.

The way to beat Johnson is to hound him -- to attack him repeatedly, to strike often with a two-man blitz up the middle, among other rushing variations. For, afoot, Johnson is the NFL’s slowest quarterback, more statue than football player.

A great passer, he can be contained in the pocket by mediocre defensive ends, meaning that against an inside rush led by defensive tackles or linebackers, he’s yours -- provided you go after him. The Eagles beat themselves by going after Johnson’s receivers instead of Johnson himself.

Though also comparatively slow, the Tampa receivers are full of talent. As Philadelphia proved again, you can’t cover them every time if you let Johnson yawn, stretch and aim his very accurate passes their way. So that’s one thing.

The other is that the Buccaneer defense demonstrated once more that it can be bridged only by a passer with extraordinary accuracy. And that isn’t Donovan McNabb. When, several years ago, Indianapolis Coach Tony Dungy built this defense, he built it to beat every passer in the league except the one or two who might be too hot to handle, and it’s still that good.

As always, there were lanes through and holes in the Tampa defense Monday night, yet the lanes were so narrow and the holes so small that McNabb, the veteran Eagle quarterback, never had a chance.

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Eagles’ Fake Kick

There was nothing wrong with Philadelphia Coach Andy Reid’s play-calling Monday night. Neither his runners nor his pass-offense personnel could have done much that night against that defense.

More running plays would, in fact, have been counterproductive, playing into Tampa’s hands.

Thus Reid’s call for a fake field-goal attempt in the first quarter was the most brilliant of the game by either coach -- even though the pass failed. This was the only way the Eagles were ever going to score seven points.

The Buccaneers would have overcome a 3-0 deficit, but they don’t have enough offense to count on overcoming a 7-0 deficit against an Eagle defense that would have been aroused to find itself a touchdown ahead.

The blown pass by Koy Detmer, the ball-holder for the fake kick, was an example of the bad luck that can ruin the best of intentions by a competent NFL coach.

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49ers Open Up

On opening Sunday of 2003, the San Francisco 49ers opened up too. Under their new coach, Dennis Erickson, the 49ers played like the Rams used to and, so doing, they whaled the Chicago Bears, 49-7, en route to St. Louis for today’s first Ram-49er game of the year.

Chicago wasn’t that bad on defense, it just wasn’t good enough considering the 49ers’ talent advantage as well as their more liberal offensive philosophy under Erickson, who has replaced a strange young conservative, Steve Mariucci.

Few NFL teams can match San Francisco in the offensive weaponry it has with two great running backs, Garrison Hearst and Kevan Barlow, plus a bunch of receivers, including best-in-league Terrell Owens, and a tough, quick, mobile passer, Jeff Garcia.

But the 49ers had all that last year, when, like Mariucci, Erickson, then at Oregon State, showed that after a long career in college and pro ball, he was still no fan of deep passes. Erickson’s change of mind this season seems to have been prompted by his decision to let his offensive coaches take over.

All but one member of his staff were with the 49ers last year, when Mariucci kept them under a tight leash.

Against Chicago, unrestrained, they had the 49ers playing modern offense, throwing far and near and mixing in runs with passes in a well-integrated onslaught. For Erickson, it was an impressive beginning.

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Wrong Quarterback

The Bears could, if they choose, play the same kind of aggressive Ram-49er football these days.

They have the passer for it, Chris Chandler, though mostly they leave him on the bench, and they’ve hired productive runners and receivers, among them Anthony Thomas and Marty Booker.

What’s missing is the will. Though at times the Bears opened up a bit in San Francisco, their leaders don’t really understand what attack football is.

Those leaders, Dick Jauron and most of his assistants, are the NFL’s most conservative and among the least knowledgeable, underlining all this when they brought in Kordell Stewart at quarterback.

Stewart, a gifted runner and adequate passer from Pittsburgh who could win for some teams, is wrong for the Bears and will remain so until he brushes up his third-and-long ability to throw straight -- against heavy pressure -- after his coaches have wasted first and second down running into 8-3 defenses.

The two Chicago quarterbacks, Stewart and Chandler, are alike in one unhappy respect.

They’ve thrown away much of their lives playing for conservatives, Chandler under Dan Reeves at Atlanta and Stewart for Pittsburgh before Bill Cowher saw the light and embraced attack passing.

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Cowher’s Big Change

Today’s top game is Pittsburgh at Kansas City, matching AFC teams that might have more Super Bowl capability this season than any of the 14 others.

The Steelers indeed are now a passing team. And Cowher’s transformation from running coach to passing coach has saved his 12-year career as their leader. Hardly any other coaches in the long history of football have made such a change.

The inclination of them all is to master one way of playing and stick with it. The Steeler team, by contrast, as it will appear in Kansas City this morning with Tommy Maddox at quarterback, is a living testimonial to its leader’s rare ability to sharply change directions.

I can’t remember anything like it since Frank Leahy, a winning single-wing coach, learned the T formation to save his job -- and save the Irish -- long ago at Notre Dame.