Parcells Pulls One Over on Giants

Bill Parcells has come back throwing the ball. Still posing as a running coach, he had his new team throw 40 passes Monday night to upset his old team, a 7 1/2-point favorite.

Winning a four-hour game in overtime, Parcells lined up the Dallas Cowboys in the best of all the new formations -- three wide receivers with, often, only one running back.

Then he told his unheralded new young quarterback, one Quincy Carter, to keep hitting those receivers with the passes that set up all seven of the field goals that whipped the New York Giants, 35-32.

Earlier, Parcells’ new associates had quietly passed the word that the old man lacked confidence in Carter. And Parcells himself showed his red-zone game plan, on which he had written only three words: “Run, run, run.” But this was all a ruse, a con.

He knew the words would get back to and deceive the Giants.

He won because he had full confidence in passer Carter and those three wide receivers.

Real Game Plan

In action that night, Parcells called just enough running plays to keep the media talking about his new tailback, Troy Hambrick, who averaged only 2.5 yards and made no big plays. To make room for three receivers, Parcells sat down a fullback sometimes and a tight end other times.

The real game plan called for repeated strikes to sophomore catcher Antonio Bryant and two great receivers Parcells inherited from the previous Cowboy regime, Terry Glenn and Joey Galloway, all of whom were on the field at all times.

Quarterback Carter also had played on old-regime Dallas teams that had regularly finished 5-11 in the NFC East.

Parcells had hoped that some of his many pass plays, a number of them thrown on first down in keeping with passing-team customs, would end up in the end zone. But in the end, they mostly set up field goals.

In order, the seven big-play passes -- which seven times advanced kicker Billy Cundiff into field goal position -- were caught by Galloway, Glenn, Bryant, Glenn, Bryant, Bryant again and Glenn.

A Glenn catch also set up the only touchdown by the Dallas offense, scored by Carter on a scramble from the eight-yard line after Parcells had called for a pass.

Pass Defense

Temporarily ending his secondary career as a media announcer -- a job that taught him how media people think -- Parcells came back as a pass expert on both sides of the ball.

His pass-defense design confused the Giant offense as thoroughly as his pass-offense strategy confused the Giant defense.

In their bag of 35 points -- which sounds like five touchdowns -- the Cowboys scored none on running plays. Their offensive touchdown came on a fake-pass play.

And their touchdown on defense came on an interception as Parcells fooled Giant quarterback Kerry Collins continually until the thinly manned Cowboys wore down in the third quarter, at which stage they had a 16-point lead, 23-7.

Even after the Giants caught the tiring Cowboys and moved ahead, 32-29, Parcells continued to show faith and confidence in Carter, who reached Bryant with the long pass that set up tying Field Goal 6, and then chose Glenn for the long pass that set up winning Field Goal 7.

It was an impressive display on offense and defense by Parcells and the Cowboys, who:

* Came out unhesitatingly throwing in the second half and in overtime, just as they had at the start of the game.

* Made a remarkable game-long pass-defense attack -- most notably in overtime, when they conned quarterback Collins into the three incompletes that cost the Giants their last chance.

But Parcells’ biggest con job was on those, including the Giants, who thought he would keep to safe running plays and hold down the score against a heavy favorite.

Chiefs Better

The undefeated coach of Kansas City, Dick Vermeil, now in his third season with the Chiefs, is still on track for the 2003 playoffs -- and who knows, maybe even the Super Bowl.

Twice before, he has elevated bad teams to the playoffs in his third year in other towns -- at Philadelphia, which advanced to the Super Bowl in 1981, and at St. Louis, which won the Super Bowl in 2000.

Starting a new season, Vermeil is 2-0 with his new affiliate, which hammered a good Pittsburgh team, 41-20, in the NFL’s big game of Week 2.

Following a long-standing Vermeil tradition, the Chiefs last year were .500 performers in his second Kansas City season, when, with one of the league’s worst defenses, they developed the NFL’s highest-scoring offense with 467 points.

Their obvious problem: That was only 68 points more than they gave up, 399.

So the question for this year is: Can the Chiefs improve their defense enough to think of overtaking Denver and Oakland in the AFC West?

They seemed to be saying “yes” last Sunday when they ran away from the Steelers.

On a day when they limited Pittsburgh to 60 yards rushing, the Chiefs couldn’t everlastingly contain Pittsburgh passer Tommy Maddox, but they intercepted him on two critical plays and sacked him on four plays -- all at absolutely the right times.

Vermeil, who at 66 is five years older than Parcells, hasn’t dramatically changed his personnel on defense this year. Rather, the Chiefs seem to be simply playing better in his third season in charge -- as his prior teams have done.

Three Turnarounds

The Vermeil story is something of a football miracle. Earlier in his career, all this happened:

* The UCLA Bruins, searching for a helpful successor to one of their legends, Tommy Prothro, were an unimpressive 6-3-2 in their first season with Vermeil the year before he made sure they upset nationally top-ranked Ohio State in the 1976 Rose Bowl, 23-10.

* Philadelphia, also stuck in a slump, improved from 4-10 to 5-9 to 9-7 to 11-5 under Vermeil in the four years before he took the 1980 Eagles into the only Super Bowl game they’ve reached. He had them in the playoffs in his third year there.

* The Rams were 5-11 and 4-12 in Vermeil’s first two seasons at St. Louis, 1997-98. A season later, he coached them to the only Super Bowl championship they’ve won in a lengthy NFL tenure that began in Cleveland and continued for 49 years as the Los Angeles Rams.

It isn’t all that easy to see how Vermeil does it, although there’s one clue. He has an eye for personnel. Realizing that the first two keys to success in football are the right quarterback and the right running back, he acts first in those areas.

He has had Trent Green at quarterback both at St. Louis and Kansas City. And he had Marshall Faulk in St. Louis, after which Vermeil was looking for another Faulk for Kansas City. Vermeil came up with Priest Holmes, a Baltimore castoff.

Vermeil could have the Chiefs 4-0 in September, but they could be 0-4 in October against Denver, Green Bay, Oakland and Buffalo.

Owens’ Big Play

A defensive move by Terrell Owens, so unexpected, could have been a turning point for the San Francisco 49ers at St. Louis, but the Rams wouldn’t hear of it, winning their Week 2 start in overtime, 27-24, though losing a touchdown when Owens overhauled Ram cornerback Travis Fisher.

It was the kind of amazing downfield play that makes pro football an American pastime. It began as an interception by Fisher, who, as he sped along the sideline, enjoyed a convoy of three speeding Rams -- led by safety Aeneas Williams.

Suddenly Owens sprinted up, circled the convoy and took on Williams, casting him aside before bringing Fisher down.

Williams at 5-11 and 200 is big for a cornerback, but Owens at 6 feet 3 and 226 is the biggest, fastest and most talented of the NFL’s many fine wide receivers.

Some of his critics didn’t know, though, he was that fast. They do now.

Faulk’s Big Play

The Rams made an even more wonderful play to nail the 49ers in overtime.

To begin with, they’d won the overtime coin toss -- underlining the point that there’s more luck in sports than some fans acknowledge.

Then the Rams got a kickoff return to midfield by rookie running back Arden Harris, defying conventional wisdom, which is more conventional than wise, that rookies shouldn’t be used to run kicks.

Next, luck intervened again, providing 15 yards for 49er unsportsmanlike conduct before the Rams advanced the ball some more on a screen pass.

Now they needed one big play, and just then, their coach, Mike Martz, thought of one. It had clearly been rehearsed carefully at training camp or possibly during the week because, though tricky and requiring perfect timing, it was executed to perfection by quarterback Marc Bulger, running back Faulk and their teammates.

Bulger began by faking a move to his left as Faulk went in motion to his right. Watching Bulger, the 49er defense took a step along with him before he stopped, turned and fired to Faulk, who also had stopped, far to his right, on the line of scrimmage.

The play is known as a stay screen. And as Faulk, standing out there, fielded the pass, his screen blockers came over to get in front of him. Well shielded, Faulk angled through to gain the 25 yards that doomed the 49ers, setting up Jeff Wilkins’ winning field goal, which was kicked on first down.

Falcons Miscalculate

The Washington Redskins, with Patrick Ramsey making his second consecutive start as Coach Steve Spurrier’s quarterback, lucked into an Atlanta team that has lost spectacular quarterback Michael Vick for half the season, but that isn’t why the Falcons lost in Week 2 to the Redskins, 33-31.

With Doug Johnson at quarterback, the Atlanta offense played well enough to win. In an upset, the trouble spot for the Falcons was their defense, specifically their defensive strategy.

They played Spurrier to play it safe and run the ball with Trung Canidate and the good-looking sophomore from Iowa, Ladell Betts.

Instead, attacking a pass defense depleted by too many would-be run-stoppers, Ramsey got what he needs most: target practice. He also got 356 yards overhead and a pair of touchdown passes.