Dr. Z

Which team has the best pair of cornerbacks in football?

If you like Deion Sanders and Kevin Smith of the Cowboys, you'll get no argument here, but after watching the job that Philadelphia's Bobby Taylor and Troy Vincent did on the Lions in the Eagles' 24-17 win on Sunday, I would have to say that Philly's cornerback tandem is right up there. And Taylor, 22, and Vincent, 26, have their best football ahead of them. So let's call them the best young cornerbacks in the league.

Look at what they accomplished on Sunday. The Lions came into the Vet with a dangerous arsenal. At quarterback Detroit had Scott Mitchell, who has been struggling this year but last season threw for more yards than every other quarterback in the NFL except the Packers' Brett Favre. His targets included wideouts Herman Moore and Brett Perriman, who combined for 231 catches and 23 touchdowns last year. And of course there was running back Barry Sanders to worry about, too.

For starters Emmitt Thomas, Philly's defensive coordinator, did a very elemental thing. He said to Taylor, You take Moore, and he said to Vincent, You take Perriman.

Moore is 6'4", 217 pounds, a long strider who likes to muscle cornerbacks. Taylor is 6'3", 216, and he doesn't get muscled. Vincent, a quick six-foot, 194-pounder whom the Eagles signed as a free agent in the off-season after he had achieved near-Pro Bowl status with the Dolphins, got Perriman, a "moves" type of receiver.

That man-to-man coverage was to be employed whenever Moore and Perriman lined up wide on opposite sides of the ball in the three-receiver offense that Detroit uses most of the time. Zone coverage, using a combination of linebackers and safeties, would handle the third wideout, Johnny Morton—or either Moore or Perriman whenever they moved into the slot.

The Lions threw eight passes to Moore when Taylor had him one-on-one, and Moore caught only two of them, for 12 yards. And in the first quarter Taylor cut off a drive on the Philly six with an interception. Perriman hauled in only one of the six passes thrown his way while Vincent was on him, a 34-yard post on the Lions' last possession, when the score was 24-10.

You take away the outside with two men, and you can crowd the inside, which was what the Eagles did. Detroit's yardage total (233) was its lowest in two years, and afterward, when Thomas was asked if it was, perhaps, asking a bit much to assign two guys such serious escort duty, he smiled and said, "I felt they could handle it. I just like the way they matched up against them."

The best pair in football, Emmitt?

"Too soon," he said. "Bobby's only 22. He hasn't established himself yet."