Del Rio’s Defense Will Get a Test

Jack Del Rio, a USC linebacker who started for the Trojans from 1981 to ‘84, will get the next chance to stop Peyton Manning, the Indianapolis quarterback who threw the ball on every snap in the first quarter last Sunday as the Colts became the only NFL team to total 100 points in the first three weeks of the season.

At Jacksonville, Del Rio coaches the 3-0 Jaguars, whose defense has given up 28 points -- a weekly average of 9.3 -- while 2-1 Indianapolis has been scoring an average of 33.3.

After Jacksonville edged Tennessee, 15-12, last Sunday, when Indianapolis routed Green Bay, 45-31, the two hottest teams in the AFC South stood one-two -- the Jaguars on top, the Colts next.

And when they play today at Jacksonville, Del Rio, one of the least experienced head coaches, will have Byron Leftwich, one of the NFL’s least experienced quarterbacks, leading the Jaguar attack.

After 11 seasons as a pro linebacker, Del Rio, 41, had been an NFL assistant coach for only six years when Jacksonville owner Wayne Weaver brought him in as Tom Coughlin’s successor on Jan. 17, 2003

In Del Rio’s rookie season, the Jaguars, setting up the 2004 season, finished 5-11 with rookie passer Leftwich, their first draft choice from Marshall.

You haven’t heard the last of Leftwich.

Or Del Rio.

Passing Duel

Bill Parcells of the Dallas Cowboys and Joe Gibbs of the Washington Redskins once were devoted running-play coaches who, if they felt frisky, might pass on third down. Those days are long gone.

The NFL has changed since Parcells and Gibbs were boys. Theirs is a passing league now. And in a passing duel, the two 63-year-old leaders sent their new quarterbacks out throwing the ball Monday night, Vinny Testaverde for Dallas, Mark Brunell for the Redskins.

But though Parcells and Gibbs both spent years away from football, Parcells had come back a year or two earlier.

He’s played modern football longer.

Thus, Parcells’ team led all the way -- and won it, 21-18 -- as Testaverde put the Dallas players through the more sophisticated pass offense with the better-designed pass plays.

The Cowboys understood how to unleash long passes until they drew a marginal interference penalty setting up an easy touchdown.

The Cowboys, in the third quarter, covered 80 yards with three consecutive passes for another touchdown. The Cowboys threw the halfback pass for the winning touchdown.

But Gibbs tried. He was ready with a timely two-point conversion pass. And in one memorable second-quarter bit, Gibbs and Brunell stitched together a 15-play drive from their nine to Dallas’ one, mostly on passes.

On the goal line, unhappily, Gibbs reverted to his old-time running game and had to kick a field goal.

And for too much of the fourth quarter, Gibbs was still running Clinton Portis.

Otherwise, often, Gibbs was trying.

He’ll get it.

New Passing Team

The Colts came up with a new meaning to “come out throwing” against Green Bay.

With powerful runner Edgerrin James available, they didn’t use him, or anyone else, as a ballcarrier in the first quarter, when Manning passed for 270 yards and three of his five touchdowns.

The Colts’ air show illustrated what can be accomplished with a good passer and three good little receivers.

The Indianapolis starters, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, stand 6 feet even, and third receiver Brandon Stokley is 5-11.

Until now, the Colts have been beating themselves by running James, good as he is, instead of airing out the ball with their extraordinary passer.

Strategically, one problem with hammering a defense with a good running back is that it takes too long for runners to score. A passer can score on one play. When the officials are enforcing the rules, a good passer working with a sound offensive coordinator can move the ball against any defense.

Packers Run

The Packers became the latest good offensive team to lose by repeatedly running the ball on first down.

Their quarterback, Brett Favre, matched Manning touchdown for touchdown for a while and finished with four scoring passes.

In spite of that, the Packers tried to run Ahman Green on nearly every series before calling on Favre to throw.

The recent chatter out of Green Bay is that the Packers have decided to be a running team this season because their passer is only days away from 35. That perception, however, has never been accurate.

For years, the Packers have been the NFL’s best-integrated offensive team, mixing runs with passes.

They’ve won by threatening with Favre and Green on almost every play and then dividing up their chores.

Even so, Indianapolis’ defensive people believed the word they heard from Green Bay and lined up to stop Green, who ironically, and unwisely, was asked routinely to run on first down against an 8-3 defense. Naturally, he couldn’t run far.

The Colts’ strategy beat the Packers -- as early as the second quarter -- when on first-down runs, the Colts kept denying Green at the line of scrimmage and Favre couldn’t quite make up the difference thereafter.

One problem with running and failing on first down is that it asks the quarterback to pass for 10 yards on the next two downs -- against defenses now aligned to prevent pass completions.

A Star is Born

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, losing a 30-20 game at Oakland on Sunday night, didn’t put up much of a fight.

But they did make one $50,000 play.

That’s the fine Tampa linebacker Derrick Brooks rates for the illegal hit that broke Raider quarterback Rich Gannon’s neck and possibly ended his season, if not his career. Gannon is 38.

Brooks danced merrily over the stricken quarterback after the first-quarter foul.

Gannon, who led Oakland to the 2003 Super Bowl, had already given himself up after a scramble.

He was sliding normally along the ground, feet first when Brooks came in flying.

The aftermath was as strange as things usually are with the Raiders.

When Gannon went down, they found a classic Raider quarterback, a big-armed natural for the vertical passing attacks that owner Al Davis always talks about

Kerry Collins, at 6-5, 245 pounds, is the second-largest quarterback in captivity.

A larger version of Daryle Lamonica, Jim Plunkett and other vertical stars of other Raider seasons, Collins isn’t as gifted as, for instance, Plunkett was. But Collins is a satisfactory passer.

And in Oakland, unlike New York, where he came from this year, the Raiders’ new Mr. Vertical will have plenty of help. There might not be a better wide receiver in football than Jerry Porter. And Tyrone Wheatley is an adequate running back. Conceivably, the good times are rolling in again at Oakland.

Best Rams Err

The St. Louis Rams, during their championship-years heyday at the turn of the century, were never the most disciplined team in football.

But they used to overcome their lack of discipline with brilliant pass plays. They can’t do that now. They aren’t that good.

Sloppy, unnecessary mistakes by their finest players cost the Rams last Sunday.

Their best passer, Marc Bulger; their best blocker, Orlando Pace; their best receiver, Isaac Bruce, and their best defensive back, Aeneas Williams, all messed up big-time, allowing the New Orleans Saints to sail in, 28-25.

Bulger fumbled the ball away in the first quarter, when he couldn’t get a pass off. He had fought his way back to the line of scrimmage but failed to protect the ball, an inexcusable fumble.

Pace kept jumping offside, also inexcusable in an All-Pro blocker.

His problem was that, time-wise, he’s still in training camp, having missed the whole preseason in a salary fight with management.

Bruce dropped an easy pass at a strategic moment and Williams dropped an easy interception on an even more important play -- quarterback Aaron Brooks’ pass for New Orleans’ go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.

When Williams ran directly into the errant ball, looked it over, and dropped it, Saint Joseph Horn, the wide receiver for whom it was intended, said thanks and caught it.

All that adds up to a sufficient reason why the Rams aren’t winning.