Power of Caring
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Saints follow The Philosopher

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Posted: Friday September 24, 1999 05:52 PM

Click here to send your NFL questions to SI's Peter King.

Leave it to Mike Ditka to sum up NFL reality this week. Even though I think Ditka rushed Ricky Williams back into the lineup before he was ready to play (I would have said to the kid: "I'm sittin' you for the first three weeks and you'll be ready, after our bye, in early October), I like his perspective on the spate of injuries to vital players and on how unpredictable the early NFL season has been.

Somebody asked Ditka the other day about Williams missing practice this week and about his best defensive lineman, Joe Johnson , who is out for the year because of a summer knee injury. "It's frustrating," Ditka said. "But everyone goes through it. It's nothing you can control. You can't fret about it. Life goes on. That's the one thing in life that's a constant -- change. You may not like the change, but there's going to be change."

Then he brought up the story of the year so far. The Detroit Lions are 2-0, as you all know, without Barry Sanders and without Herman Moore . "People in Detroit aren't fretting too much," Ditka said. "You just go about your business. The most amazing about getting older is that you find out there are no indispensable people in life. Nobody can put his hand in a bucket of water and, when he takes it out, leave a hole.

"Everyone has to be replaced sometime or another. I don't say that to be rude. It's just a fact of life."

Now Ditka The Philosopher started in. "One of the keys to life, I believe, is flexibility. Can you adjust? Can you change on the fly when things aren't going your way? Can you be flexible enough to change at halftime when the other team is doing something other than what you expected? Or are you too rigid? People who are too rigid break, and they don't go anywhere. People who are flexible adjust to change. My rule is that you have to feel like every backup on your team can be a starter. If you don't, then you better get different backups."

I think sometimes we forget what football really is. Football is not stars, football is team. Now, it helps to have stars, but when I look at the Dallas Cowboys -- even if Deion Sanders were healthy and in the starting lineup -- I see four, maybe five, players who are headed for the Hall of Fame. They're still playing pretty well, but do I think they've got a prayer to play in the Super Bowl? Not a chance. When the Cowboys were good, really good, they had some very good players surrounded by good, quick, contributing players who knew their place, That's what this game is.

Now on to your questions ...

I know you, and every other critic, hate the Redskins -- for unknown reason -- but why aren't they in your top 10? I know they choked the first game, but take a look at the scoring ability -- 85 points in two games!
-- Jerrard Ellerbe, Washington, D.C.

Jerrard, you've got to be kidding. Try to find one thing I've written or said in the last few years that shows that I hate the Redskins. You can't. I don't. In the summer I said: "If Brad Johnson is healthy for 16 games, the Redskins will win the division." I said that to Norv Turner Thursday morning, and he agreed with one proviso, "I think if we have him for at least 12, Rodney Peete 's a heck of a backup quarterback and he'd be a really good relief pitcher."

While I would disagree that they'll win the division if Johnson misses a quarter of the season, there's no question in my mind that they are a better team than most people thought this summer.

Now about my Monday morning rankings. I always ask myself when I do the rankings, these questions: Would the No. 1 team beat the No. 2 team on a neutral field? Would No. 2 beat No. 3 on a neutral field? And so on. This week when I look at the Redskins, they were probably 11 or 12 because I have no faith in their defense. If Washington played Denver tomorrow on a neutral field? Denver wins, in my opinion. Or Tampa Bay? I'd take Tampa Bay.

When the Washington defense proves it can stop somebody, the Redskins will make my top 10.

Just when I was convinced the Chiefs were in the toilet, they go and play a damn fine game against the Broncos. What am I to think? Is this a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde team? That is, Jekyll on the road, Hyde at home, or are the Broncos just not that good? I am really confused about this team. Sometimes I want them to fail so Lamar Hunt will make serious changes, but at other times I think they might be able to contend for the AFC West title. I am considering seeking professional help on this, but I thought I'd come to you first.
-- Brian Moore, Kansas City, Mo.

You just knew the Chiefs were going to be dangerous in their first game at home because Gunther Cunningham , among all coaches in the NFL, believes strongly in working on players' heads in the week before a game. This was Kansas City's first home game under Cunningham. This was against the dreaded Broncos. When the Chiefs leave their locker room there is an eight-foot-high picture of the Vince Lombardi Trophy on the wall reminding them of what's expected of them. Plus they played a team that doesn't have its act together on offense or defense.

Do not seek professional help. No one knows what the Chiefs -- or any other team for that matter -- are going to do in this league from week to week. The only time you know you're going to win most weeks is when you have a great quarterback and a top-10 defense. Other than that, get on the merry-go-round.

Do you think Joey Galloway will sit out the entire season? If not, when will you expect him back?
-- Kyle Bean, Lubbock, Texas

I stuck my foot in my mouth before the season when I told everyone: Don't worry, Joey Galloway will not miss a paycheck. I still think he's made a dumb move in missing the first two weeks, because there's no way he deserves to make more money than Carl Pickens or Antonio Freeman . He doesn't think that, obviously. But I think there's a very good chance something will get done this weekend when Galloway's agent meets with the Seahawks in Pittsburgh, prior to their game with at Three Rivers Stadium Sunday. In fact, it will be to Galloway's advantage to sign before Sunday so that he doesn't miss another 1/16 of his 1999 salary.

Through the preseason and two weeks of the regular season, the Vikings have failed to light it up on offense this year. Is this due to poor execution or poor play calling? Ray Sherman was a bust in Pittsburgh, where Kordell Stewart appears to be having a much better year without him.
-- Tim Simpson, Watkinsville, Ga.

I think it's too early to roast Ray Sherman over hot coals just yet. I want to take you back with me on one of my training-camp trips to Green Bay this summer. I must have talked to LeRoy Butler , the Packers' Pro-Bowl safety, for a half hour about how to beat the Vikings. He was obsessed with it. The biggest problem with staying on top in this league from a pure Xs-and-Os standpoint is that every team in the league spends hours and hours in the off-season studying the best offense and best defense. One head coach in the NFC Central told me that his defensive staff spent close to a month analyzing what the Viking did and how they did it. So it isn't only the Vikings competing against themselves to get better. It is the Vikings competing against teams like the Packers, who have studied Minnesota for scores of hours this off-season. They've determined they must rush Randall Cunningham harder and more often, and they must leave a deep safety way out in centerfield to prevent Randy Moss from torching them deep. (The Packers also added three corners at the top of their draft for one specific reason: to stop the Vikings.) The Lions could have done a lot with their pick high in the first round (No. 9 overall), but they knew they had to get more pressure with their defensive front seven and took linebacker Chris Claiborne so he could learn to harass Cunningham and Brett Favre and the other NFC Central quarterbacks.

That's what teams do to combat very, very good teams in the off-season. All that stuff is at least as big a factor as the man who is calling the plays for the offense now.

Bonehead play of the year: with four minutes left in the game, New Orleans safety Chris Hewitt hits Steve Young in the helmet as Young's fourth-down pass falls incomplete. My question: How many games will Young have to sit out this year from the beating he is taking? The 49ers' offensive line has no clue how to stop the blitz. The 49ers are toast.
-- Kurt Vance, Westlake Village, Calif.

Is this a question to Peter King's Mailbag, or a fax to the Jim Rome show? I guess you're asking me about Steve Young and how long he can take this. My gut tells me Steve Young will not last longer than the end of next season. And I think whenever he steps away from the game, deep down inside, he will know he stepped away a year or two before his time just because he's been getting the snot beat out of him for the last two or three years. This year will be no different.

You're right about the Hewitt play, Kurt. If he doesn't make that play, the Niners are 0-2 and there's a lynch mob after somebody in 3Com-ville.

Three things:

1) GREAT story on the Bucs' Damien Robinson in the off-season.
2) Why isn't Dallas in your top 10? Granted, there are defensive problems, but there also is an abundance of talent and players who know how to win.
3) If you were the Tampa Bay coach, who would start at QB and why?
-- Jason McCoy, Coralville, Iowa

Jason, No. 1, thank you. No. 2, I do my top 10 before the Monday night game. Clearly I wouldn't have Atlanta high after the loss and after losing Jamal Anderson , and Dallas would probably be knocking on the door of the top 10. No. 3, Eric Zeier . I know the defensive players cannot have faith in Trent Dilfer anymore, no matter what they say publicly.

Now that you have picked the Dolphins No. 1 in your Power Rankings. Do you see them going to the Super Bowl? If yes, against whom?
-- Douglas Matamoros, Miami, Fla.

One problem with my totally meaningless, insignificant, flyspeck-on-the-hyde-of-an-elephant ratings: On Sept. 20 of any past year, the teams you thought were going to play in the Super Bowl are very rarely the teams that meet there. That's because everything changes so dramatically each week in the NFL. The Jets in Week 1, the Falcons in Week 2. So I want to wait until around Thanksgiving before putting a crown on the head of the Dolphins.

Here's why: Jimmy Johnson practices most weeks like some teams play on Sunday. He demands intensity in full pads during the week, so I can't tell you what Dolphins team will be taking the field late in the year. If you could tell me their starting lineup late in the year, then I could tell you whether they would be my Super Bowl pick.

But entering Week 3 of the NFL season, I'd take Miami against Minnesota.

I heard someone say that Barry Sanders is sorry he retired now since the Lions are off to a 2-0 start and are looking fairly competitive. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't, but for my two cents, I don't think the Lions would be 2-0 if Sanders were playing. I actually think that as a team they are better off without him. The main (and maybe only) reason is now teams can't focus solely on one person and crowd the line of scrimmage. Defenses don't know what to expect or who's going to get the ball. The O-line will perform better as well because they know if they hold their blocks like they're supposed to, the backs will go where the hole is rather than dancing behind the line for three seconds trying to decide which way to run à la Sanders. I will not be surprised to see the Lions in the playoffs this year. They're not, however, allowed to win the division because that task belongs to my beloved Vikings (yes I'm still hurting ... the Raiders? Give me a break!).
-- Robert Wyatt, Knightstown, Ind.

Maybe Barry Sanders is sorry he retired. How would we know that? He is the Howard Hughes of professional sports. And every day he doesn't tell people what he really thinks and what he really wants to do, Sanders is unwittingly doing something I never thought anyone could do. He's making metropolitan Detroit love Lions management and dislike Sanders. How crazy is that? As far as the Lions go, I think there's a lot of truth to what you say. One of the things Jim Pyne said to me, after he was picked by the Browns in the expansion draft, is that he was relieved to go back to blocking for a straight-ahead, pro-style offense. In Detroit, he never knew which way Barry was going to run.

There's no question that an offense with Barry Sanders will be an incredibly explosive one, but we've also seen how incredibly inconsistent it can be, too.

Why are you so down on Dallas? Picking them to win the East by default? I know they are not the same team they were in '93, but they have the best offensive line in the NFL, have finally developed a polished speed threat on the other side of Michael Irvin and will be fine defensively once Deion Sanders and Leon Lett return. I say 12-4, with a loss in the NFC Championship game (if it's on the road). If they can get home field advantage (not a remote possibility considering the way Atlanta, Minnesota and Green Bay are playing), I like them to face Miami in the Super Bowl.
-- Zak Kretchmer, Minneapolis

You could be right, Zak. But if you are, I say it's testimony not to how great Dallas is but how weak the NFC is. Until Washington let them back in the game in Week 1, the Cowboys were getting ready to lose the game in a rout. And they beat the Falcons, who were playing without their quarterback and for half the game without their running back. Dallas hasn't proven very much yet.

Which NFL team do you think is the most improved this year, and what team is the most overrated?
-- Rick Bissonette, Campbell River, British Columbia

Most improved: Indianapolis. Most overrated: San Francisco.

Send a question to Peter King, and check back Sept. 23 for the next NFL Mailbag.

Peter King is a Sports Illustrated senior writer.

 

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