Their Fate Should Be in Bush’s Hands

USC will be represented by Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart in the top 10 drafted by the NFL in the not-too-distant future. Such a distinction doesn’t happen every year. A runner like Bush, who has both speed and the ability to make hard, fast cuts, is rarely combined with a college passer who has Leinart’s coolness and proficiency under pressure.

That isn’t to say they’ll win the college national championship in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 4. To beat an Oklahoma team that’s much improved this year, Leinart will have to put the ball in Bush’s hands much more often.

At either running back or wide receiver, Bush can and should be thrown to repeatedly. And he should return every punt and kickoff.

First down, ideally, is Leinart’s down. There’s less double-coverage and less heat on passers. Second down should belong to Bush. Because of defensive tendencies, second down offers the widest selection of running plays.

The defenses that Leinart and Bush will encounter in the NFL and the Orange Bowl feast on first-down runners and third-down passers. Why give them that? Trojan offensive coordinator Norm Chow’s play design promises success to any good players getting smart play selection.

Lovie in Business

The Chicago Bears are back in business if -- as seems possible now -- Coach Lovie Smith has finally found a quarterback in Chad Hutchinson.

When Smith joined the Bears this year, after giving the St. Louis Rams a defense, he restored the Bear defense to respectability. He also settled down Chicago’s special teams

But on offense, one Bear quarterback after another has been hurt, or has faltered or failed.

Hutchinson might not be Chicago’s final answer -- he might not even be the answer today in Jacksonville -- but he was clearly the answer in the Minnesota game last week, shooting down the Vikings with three touchdown passes, 24-14.

Skeptics noted that all three touchdowns were thrown on third down, meaning that Hutchinson was mostly capitalizing on Minnesota’s inept defense. With the game on the line, Hutchinson converted 10 of his first 16 third-down chances, meaning, among other things, that Smith didn’t trust him to throw on first or second down

But if Hutchinson is for real, he will.

There was a time in Dallas when Hutchinson was going to be the Cowboys’ savior, their new Roger Staubach. Yet he was a baseball pitcher, too, and the St. Louis Cardinals gave him a chance. In time, so did the Cowboys, for one unhappy season.

He also played football in Europe.

When the Bears called, Hutchinson had matured, and Lovie Smith finally had a complete team -- for one game at least.

Falcons? Not Yet

The Atlanta Falcons will get their second of five chances to clinch a division title today when the Oakland Raiders come to town. But though 9-3 Atlanta has the NFC South’s sole winning record, it has the look of a team that will lose its first playoff start next month -- to any team.

The Falcon problem is that Michael Vick has furnished little evidence that he’s an instinctively sound quarterback. In a 27-0 loss to division rival Tampa Bay last week, Vick showed again that he can be lit up in the pocket by pass rushers.

He’s too short and as a passer, he has problems with vision, accuracy and confidence.

His strong arm and his speed often seem to cover up his deficiencies, but they’re always there.

At the Tampa goal line last week, Vick threw two interceptions -- on first and second down. A good passer knows better instinctively than to take a chance on an early-down, goal-line interception.

Unless he’s losing in the fourth quarter on third or fourth down, an instinctively alert passer won’t let the ball go toward an end-zone receiver unless his man is clearly open.

The Falcons seem to be one of the NFC’s two standout teams, but in reality there’s only one, Philadelphia.

The 15 others -- along with half of the AFC teams -- are so closely matched that they’re providing Las Vegas with more dead-even propositions every week than you’d see if two dozen strangers were flipping coins.

Runner Wins Shootout

The Cowboys used a running back to win a strange shootout in Seattle on Monday night, 43-39, when rookie Julius Jones ran the last 17 of his 198 yards to score in the last half-minute. That took care of the Seahawks, who, it’s beginning to appear, can never win games like this.

Although Jones had tipped his hand with a 150-yard nationally televised performance on Thanksgiving Day, that was before the Bears had come together as a competitive team.

So the question remains: Is Jones the sensation he seems to be? Or will he fall back to earth when the NFL’s defensive wizards have had a chance to examine him closely?

The history of pro football suggests that Jones, a 217-pound, second-round draft choice last April from Notre Dame, will level off.

An earlier, little-known running back named Timmy Smith once ran for 200 yards in the Super Bowl, then leveled off. Quarterbacks have thrown three or four touchdowns in one quarter of one Super Bowl before leveling off. An unheralded Dallas passer named Clint Longley beat up on the heavily favored Los Angeles Rams one day long ago and was never heard from again.

On the 2004 Dallas team, though, Jones looks as if he can be a formidable force. Although the NFL is packed with superior defensive coaches, he beat one of the best, Ray Rhodes, in Seattle.