Inside the NFL
Posted: Thursday December 17, 1998 01:06 PM
This week's topics:
Desperation Time | Capers Could Walk the Plank
'Aloha' Means 'Goodbye' | Dispatches
Horsepower | The Buzz
The
End Zone | The Inner Game
Dr. Z's Forecast
Desperation Time
The Bucs are making a late playoff bid, but did they wait too long?
By Peter King  "Playoff fever -- catch it!"
yelled one of the players in the Tampa Bay locker room after the Buccaneers
defeated the Steelers 16-3 on Sunday. Other Bucs gazed at the 31-inch
television that quarterback Trent Dilfer controlled,
flipping the satellite channels as one game after another with NFC playoff
implications wound down.
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Mike Alstott carried 24 times for 78 yards and a score as the Bucs offense played it close to the vest. Bob Rosato |
Cardinals-Eagles, overtime at the Vet: Arizona
kicker Chris Jacke lines
up for a 32-yard field goal. "Miss it!" Dilfer yells. The kick splits the
uprights. The Cardinals win 20-17, leaving them 7-7 and in a tie with Tampa
Bay for the sixth and final playoff spot in the NFC. "Goshdawgit," Dilfer
mutters. Falcons-Saints, fourth quarter at the Superdome: New Orleans
coach Mike Ditka paces the sideline. Dilfer watches a replay of Falcons
quarterback Chris
Chandler throwing a 63-yard touchdown pass to Terance Mathis. The Saints
lose 27-17, falling a game back in the wild-card race. Coming off a
year in which they made their first playoff appearance since 1982, the Bucs
were picked by many, including SI, to reach the Super Bowl. But after
losing three straight in November to fall to 4-7, they were given up for
dead. Now in the wake of Sunday's win -- their third in a row -- Tampa Bay
is at least talking playoffs. As cocky as ever, the defense was ferocious
on Sunday, holding the Steelers to 102 yards over the last three quarters
and intercepting four passes in that time. The offense stumbled around in
its typical fashion and did just enough to win in a rainstorm at Raymond
James Stadium. "The playoffs aren't in the back of my mind," says
defensive tackle Warren
Sapp. "They're in the front. I can smell 'em." If it were only that
easy. Tampa Bay closes its season with winnable road games at Washington on
Saturday and at Cincinnati on Dec. 27, but the Bucs need help. The Vikings,
Falcons and 49ers have already locked up playoff spots. The Packers need to
win over Tennessee on Sunday or in Chicago on Dec. 27 to secure a wild
card, and the Cowboys must win only one of their last two -- home games
against the Eagles and the Redskins -- to wrap up the NFC East. That would
leave the Cardinals and the Bucs vying for the last wild-card spot, which,
by virtue of a better conference record than Tampa Bay's, would belong to
Arizona if the two teams sweep their final two games. (The Cards have home
games left with the Saints and the Chargers.) Tampa Bay has nobody to
blame but itself for that predicament. After handing the Vikings their only
loss of the season, a 27-24 defeat on Nov. 1, the Bucs went on their
three-game skid, losing at home to the Oilers and the Lions and on the road
to the Jaguars. "I think that our biggest problem this year was fighting
all the expectations," Dilfer said last Saturday night. "I sit in bed and
think about it. When we lost and fell under .500 early in the season, you
kept hearing guys say, 'We've got to run the table.' But the key was,
'We've got to win one game.' Forget the other stuff. We beat Chicago and
Green Bay thinking that way, and that's how we are entering this game with
Pittsburgh." Dilfer was right. Tampa Bay ran 45 times for 144 yards,
held the ball for 35:29 and forced five turnovers. "We know we can beat
anyone in this league," says Bucs strong safety John Lynch, who had two
interceptions against the Steelers. "I just hope we get a chance to do it."
Back to the
top Capers Could
Walk the Plank After watching the
Panthers lose to the mediocre Redskins on Sunday, the Carolina hierarchy
must have grave doubts as to whether coach Dom Capers is the man to lead
them into 1999, much less the 21st century. The Panthers fell behind
21-3 en route to a 28-25 loss at Ericsson Stadium. On the sideline during
the second quarter, linebacker Kevin Greene responded to a
stern lecture from assistant coach Kevin Steele by grabbing him by the
collar and shaking him. Capers should have sent Greene to the showers, but
instead he put him back in the game. "Kevin regained his poise," Capers
explained later. (On Monday the Panthers announced that Greene would be
suspended without pay for this week's game against the Rams.) Also, Sean Gilbert, the
defensive tackle whom Capers pried from Washington and made the
highest-paid defensive player in history last spring, had no sacks or even
a tackle against his former team. "I don't remember seeing Gilbert all
day," said Washington quarterback Trent Green, who dropped
back to pass 43 times. After the game Capers, who in the franchise's
first three seasons had made discipline a Carolina hallmark, said his
players were undisciplined. "Where does that start?" kick returner Michael Bates asked
pointedly. Since beating the Cowboys to reach the 1996 NFC Championship
Game, the Panthers are 0-15 against teams with winning records. This season
they are tied with the Bengals, at 2-12, for the league's worst record, and
their first-round pick in next April's draft belongs to the Redskins as
part of the compensation package Capers gave up to sign Gilbert. What's
equally disturbing is that, while Capers and the front office have been
given almost carte blanche to sign free agents, those personnel moves have
not panned out. What a turnaround in two years for the 48-year-old
Capers, who had been regarded as one of the game's brightest new coaches.
Back to the
top 'Aloha' Means
'Goodbye' Chargers president Dean
Spanos and general manager Bobby Beathard had assured interim coach June
Jones that he would get a two-year contract after this season, so Jones,
45, went into a meeting last week with University of Hawaii trustees and
athletic officials thinking he'd surely say no if the Rainbows' coaching
job were offered. But memories of his two years playing and another season
spent as an assistant coach at the university came rushing back during the
interview. "Three minutes into it I felt passion about a job that I
hadn't felt in a long time," says Jones, who replaced the fired Kevin
Gilbride in San Diego on Oct. 13. Jones accepted Hawaii's reported
six-year, $1.5 million offer. Now he is faced with rebuilding a team that
has lost its last 18 games. "Big challenge," Jones mused. "But I don't feel
like I'll miss the NFL." As for the Chargers' coaching situation,
Beathard would like to retain the defensive staff, whose unit has ranked
among the top five in total defense all season. To replace Jones, look for
San Diego to strongly consider offensive-minded college coaches, notably
UCLA's Bob Toledo and Stanford's Tyrone Willingham. Back to the top Dispatches: Super Time For Replay Some league officials and owners are worried that
the six-week lull between the end of the season and the annual league
meetings in March will slow momentum and make the return of instant replay
next season less likely. Now that the possibility of having replay for the
upcoming postseason is all but dead, expect proponents of replay to push
for a discussion and maybe even a vote the next time representatives from
all 31 teams are together -- at the Super Bowl in Miami next month....
Assuming the league will lift its suspension, look for Eddie DeBartolo to
trade his DeBartolo Corporation holdings to his sister, Denise DeBartolo
York, for sole ownership of the 49ers. DeBartolo had already stepped aside
before pleading guilty in October to felony charges for failing to report a
serious crime, and his sister took control of the team in his absence.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue is expected to consider lifting the suspension
in February.... Bills quarterback Doug Flutie went Christmas
shopping last week at a Buffalo mall, signed autographs for 20 minutes and
never made it to a store. "I'm resigned to catalog shopping and the
Internet," he says.... After running for 137 yards and a touchdown in
his team's 20-17 win over the Cowboys, the Chiefs' Bam Morris, suspended
twice in the past three years for violation of the league's substance-abuse
policy, presented a game ball to owner Lamar Hunt to thank him "for
bringing me here and giving me a chance." Back to the top Horsepower The Colts' Marshall Faulk is having
one of the greatest seasons a running back has ever had -- yet it has gone
virtually unnoticed. He is second in the league in receptions, with 78, and
has a good shot at joining former 49er Roger Craig as only the second back
to win a receiving title. Faulk also could match another feat accomplished
by Craig -- the only player to surpass 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in
the same season. Also, with 2,090 yards from scrimmage, Faulk could break
the NFL record for combined rushing-receiving yards set last year by the
Lions' Barry Sanders
(2,358). Unfortunately for Faulk, the Colts are 3-11, the focus in
Indianapolis is on Peyton
Manning, and the Broncos' Terrell Davis is having a
runaway season. The measure of an all-around back comes down to what
percentage of his team's offense he accounts for, and here's how Faulk's
season rates against the best ever. (Cliff Battles accounted for 43.4% of
the 1932 Boston Braves' offense, but he did so with only 1,465 yards and is
thus omitted from the following list.)
| Player
| TEAM
| YEAR
| RUSH.
YARDS
| REC.
YARDS
| TOTAL
YARDS
| TEAM
TOTAL
YARDS |
PCT. |
| O.J. Simpson |
Bills | 1973 | 2,003 | 70 | 2,073 | 4,324 | 47.9 |
| Marshall Faulk
| Colts |
1998 | 1,228 | 862 | 2,090 | 4,475 | 46.7 |
| Walter Payton
| Bears |
1977 | 1,852 | 269 | 2,121 | 4,881 | 43.5 |
| Eric Dickerson
| Rams |
1984 | 2,105 | 139 | 2,244 | 5,246 | 42.8 | |
Back to the
top The Buzz
1. The Crying Game Midway
through the third quarter Steelers coach Bill Cowher pulls quarterback Kordell Stewart, who looks
neither athletic nor decisive during a 16-3 loss to the Buccaneers. After
an angry exchange between the coach and his passer, Stewart weeps. This
must really be going over well in shot-and-a-beer Pittsburgh. 2.
The Return Game In their 23-year history the Bucs have never returned
a kickoff for a touchdown, and the Broncos haven't done it since 1972. In
Baltimore on Sunday, the Ravens (two) and the Vikings returned a total of
three kickoffs for scores in a span of seven minutes. "The world has never
seen that before," said Minnesota linebacker Dwayne Rudd. And probably
never will again. 3. The Compromising Game After striking a
tentative sweetheart deal with Connecticut state officials to move his team
to Hartford, Patriots owner Bob Kraft got word that the move to the largely
blue-collar state capital might encounter resistance. So he agreed to cut
his annual guaranteed take on luxury and club seating from $17.5 million to
$13 million, and he cut the price of the most expensive club seats from
$5,000 to $4,000 a year. Kraft is still left with the richest NFL stadium
deal ever. Back to the
top The End Zone:
Separate Them At Birth Rams defensive
linemen Ray Agnew and
Mike D. Jones were also teammates at North Carolina State and with the
Patriots. Each drives a white Mercedes-Benz and a blue Suburban, each is
nursing a sore left knee, and each has a pregnant wife who is due the same
month. Back to the
top The Inner Game:
An Assistant's Plight The future
of a coach and his family can turn on one blown call Shortly after
head linesman Earnie Frantz's blown touchdown call had handed the Jets a
last-second victory over the Seahawks on Dec. 6, all but sucking the last
breath out of Seattle's playoff chances, Seahawks offensive coordinator Bob
Bratkowski was crestfallen. When a reporter mentioned how tough the loss
must be on the coach's family -- wife Rebecca, son Shane, 15, and daughter
Courtney, 12 -- Bratkowski was too choked up to answer and walked away. He
knew what the mood was like in his suburban Seattle house. "Coaches'
families aren't watching these games for entertainment," a somber
Bratkowski said last Thursday. "They're watching to see where they'll be
living next year." Ten assistants on the 17-man Seattle coaching staff
are in the final year of their contracts. It has been widely reported --
and refuted by no one on owner Paul Allen's management team -- that Dennis
Erickson and his assistants are coaching for their jobs. The Seahawks, one
of the league's most aggressive teams in the pursuit of free agents over
the past two off-seasons, are 30-32 in four years under Erickson and have
never made the playoffs. So Bratkowski, 43, who before joining the Seahawks
in 1992 had been an assistant with five college teams in 14 years and wants
to coach somewhere else if the axe falls, will probably have to move his
family again this winter. Bratkowski grew up in a football family --
his father, Zeke, was a quarterback for the Bears, Rams and Packers, and he
later became an assistant coach -- so he knows the toll that failure takes.
"My wife was awake when I got home from New York," he says. "She just shook
her head. I said, 'Tough day, honey.' Usually I sleep fine. Not that night.
The next morning my son said, 'Dad, that sucks.' I told him talking like
that's not going to do anybody any good. We've been fortunate. Football's
been good to us. It's kind of unspoken between my wife and me: no sense in
gloom and doom, especially around Christmas. We want to be positive and
upbeat. We have to be." Nevertheless, Bratkowski admits that the way
his fate was apparently sealed "twists the dagger a little bit. I think the
officials' job is very difficult. They need help in situations like that.
The answer's probably instant replay. But officials have gotten themselves
a little union. They're protected. Sometimes coaches are left to twist in
the wind. I love coaching. I love game day. But when I see how it affects
the family, I wonder, Don't they deserve better?" Yet the coach doesn't
hold a grudge against Frantz. "I have no animosity toward him," Bratkowski
says, "just as I wouldn't have animosity toward a player who made a mistake
in a game." Back to the
top Issue date: December 21,
1998
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