Kurt Warner is back in St. Louis. Brad Johnson is back in Washington. It might be too late.
Defenses are threatening two hallowed Bears records and are starting to flex their muscles as wide open NFL playoff races enter the final quarter of the season. For the defending champion Rams and their MVP quarterback, reviving the league’s No. 1 offense is going to pose a bigger challenge than Warner faced a year ago.
The New Orleans Saints pounded the Rams physically with their defense Sunday and took control of the NFC West with untested quarterback Aaron Brooks and without running back Ricky Williams.
The schedule favors the Saints–Denver, at San Francisco, Atlanta, St. Louis. The Rams have three road games–at Carolina, home against Minnesota, at Tampa Bay, at New Orleans.
By the time the Rams face the defenses of the Bucs and Saints, coach Mike Martz may no longer be enjoying his reputation as an offensive genius.
In Washington, where Johnson will replace Jeff George this week, the Redskins’ No. 4-rated defense failed to contain Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb, the only weapon they had to worry about in a game they had to win.
Now the Eagles have wrested control of the NFC East with a two-game lead and a dream schedule remaining–Tennessee at home, at Cleveland, an open date and Cincinnati. McNabb does have the ninth-ranked defense on his side.
Defense won for Miami against Indianapolis and the Colts’ No. 3 offense. Like the Saints, the Dolphins prevailed while playing with a backup quarterback and backup running backs.
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With six sacks against the Rams, the Saints lead the NFL with 55 and are on pace for 73, which would break the NFL record of 72 by the 1984 Bears.
The No. 1 defense of the Baltimore Ravens missed its record-tying fifth shutout when the Cleveland Browns scored first in a 44-7 romp. The Ravens have allowed only 135 points and are on pace to yield 166, which would break the 16-game NFL record of 187 by the 1986 Bears.
“I’d hate to be an offensive coordinator going against us,” said Ravens defensive end Michael McCrary. “I’ve played around sometimes [thinking] `how would you attack our defense?’ I haven’t come up with a way unless you go to PlayStation or something.”
Only a few weeks ago, the Rams were thinking the same thing about their vaunted offense.
“It’s fun when you have a defense when you can totally dominate,” McCrary said. “I think we’re definitely disappointed as a defensive unit even if we give up one touchdown. We don’t believe anybody can score on us.”
In a knock-down, drag-out defensive struggle, the Bucs outlasted the Buffalo Bills and won despite passing for 66 yards. The Bills lost more than the game when linebacker Sam Cowart now joins cornerback Antoine Winfield on the sideline for the stretch.
Need QB? See Packers: The off-season value of Packers backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is likely to skyrocket even though he doesn’t get to play at all behind Brett Favre.
Blame Brooks, who was the Packers’ third-stringer before the Saints traded for him in the exhibition season. In his first NFL start, Brooks overcame two interceptions to calmly beat the defenseless Rams in their loud TWA Dome.
Brooks joins Mark Brunell, Ty Detmer and Doug Pederson as former Favre backups who have started elsewhere. “We feel good about Aaron,” Saints General Manager Randy Mueller said. “We wouldn’t have traded a third-round pick for him if we didn’t. He’s shown himself capable of doing everything we want him to do at that position, which we felt, based on his ability and potential, he would.”
Haslett to front: The 8-4 record of Saints coach Jim Haslett is the best start of any New Orleans coach ever, but the real accomplishment is he has done it with more than 30 new players after the Mike Ditka era. They have endured season-ending injuries to five projected starters.
“You can’t say enough about what he’s done,” assistant head coach Rick Venturi said. “It’s as good a job as I’ve ever seen, and that’s not because he’s a friend of mine. That’s accurate.”
Raiders, too: The Oakland Raiders and Minnesota Vikings, both 10-2, remain suspect because of leaky defenses. The Vikings are No. 13 and just released a starting cornerback, Cris Dishman. The Raiders are 26th and think it’s a bit misleading.
The Raiders have given up 300-plus passing games to the Colts’ Peyton Manning (367), San Francisco’s Jeff Garcia (336) and Kansas City’s Elvis Grbac (504) and won all three games.
Eight times receivers have broken 100 yards against the Raiders, none of them in a victory.
“There have been times this season when I can honestly say we play some great defense around here,” coach Jon Gruden said.
“No matter what people say about our defensive unit, we believe in ourselves,” linebacker William Thomas said. “The most important thing is when the game is on the line, we’ve come through.”
Against helpless Atlanta, the Raiders added six sacks to their meager total of 28, but they have knocked out quarterbacks Ryan Leaf, Brian Griese, Brock Huard, Jon Kitna and Jeff Blake in games.
McNabb magician: The Eagles lost running back Duce Staley in the second game of the season and are getting only minor production from their wide receivers, which makes quarterback McNabb’s recent performances all the more startling.
For two weeks in a row, McNabb has completed passes to 10 different receivers, mostly running backs and tight ends.
Last week, he even completed a pass to himself when he caught one of his tipped throws.
Starting wideouts Charles Johnson and Torrance Small have combined for 69 catches and five touchdowns. Rookie Todd Pinkston, taken in the second round of the April draft, has contributed only seven catches.
“They’re still in the offense,” McNabb said of his wide receivers. “Just because we may not involve them in the offense throughout the course of the game doesn’t mean we’re just trying to get it to the backs or tight ends. [Defenses] are doing a good job in coverage. The best thing to do in those situations is get what you can get and go on to the next down.”
Rookie race: Eagles defensive tackle Corey Simon still leads Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher in sacks, 8 1/2 to six. Urlacher leads the Bears in tackles and has two interceptions.
Viking onslaught: New Vikings offensive coordinator Sherman Lewis has four Super Bowl rings while coaching offenses in San Francisco and Green Bay.
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“This is probably the best balance I’ve had, anywhere, even in San Francisco,” Lewis said. “We didn’t run the ball [in San Francisco] like we run it here. [There] we’d be up by 21 and in the fourth quarter we’d pound the ball. Here we consistently run the ball the whole game.”