Now that the NFL has grabbed everybody’s attention with high-scoring offenses and wild overtime games, it’s time to get down to the cold, hard facts of championship play. Defense is beginning to nudge its way onto the stage, starting with the No. 1-ranked defense of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The 8-2 Bucs take on 8-2 Green Bay in Sunday’s “game of the year,” pitting Brett Favre’s Packers against Warren Sapp’s Bucs, or as Sapp puts it, “the ultimate weapon versus the immovable object.”
The Packers have yet to beat the Bucs in four tries at Raymond James Stadium, and this game immediately following the Bears-Lions undercard could decide home field in the NFC playoffs.
“With their defense, [Tampa] is a tough place to play,” Favre said. “If we played this game on a beach in the Bahamas, it would be a tough place to play.”
Green Bay’s defense is middle of the pack in terms of points and yards allowed. It ranks 30th against the rush. Nursing injuries on the defensive line, the Packers were gashed last week by Minnesota’s Michael Bennett.
The 7-3 New Orleans Saints, the only team to have beaten both the Packers and Bucs, remain the league’s highest-scoring team. But they are fading, with two losses to Atlanta in the last four weeks, largely because their defense has given up at least 20 points in every game this year and is ranked 28th in yards allowed.
With the exception of Pittsburgh, every division leader or co-leader–Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Miami, Indianapolis, Tennessee, Denver and San Diego–boasts a defense that leads the division either in points or yards allowed. In the case of the Steelers, last year’s No. 1 defense is struggling on third down, ranked last in the AFC.
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“When you can’t get off the field on third down you’re going to get killed,” safety Lee Flowers said.
If the Steelers don’t get it together on defense, breath will be wasted booing new quarterback Kordell Stewart, subbing for Tommy Maddox. Philadelphia quarterback Koy Detmer, replacing injured star Donovan McNabb for the rest of the season, has the advantage of the NFC’s second-best defense (to Tampa) in points and yards. Likewise, Denver quarterback Steve Beuerlein, filling in for injured Brian Griese, can rely on the Broncos’ top-ranked AFC defense.
The Kansas City Chiefs began the season as the highest-scoring team but weren’t winning because their defense was allowing 33 points per game through their first seven games. But the Chiefs have stopped the bleeding, yielding just 43 total points in winning two of their last three against some pretty good offenses: Oakland (10 points) San Francisco (17) and Buffalo (16).
Motivation: San Diego coach Marty Schottenheimer told his players to forget a surprising 44-13 loss to the Jets recently, recalling something he learned from Lou Saban, coach of the Buffalo Bills during Schottenheimer’s rookie season in 1965.
“I was petrified of Saban,” Schottenheimer said. “He was on you every step of the way, and I never knew when I did anything right because anything he said to me I was probably paralyzed with fear of the guy. But we had won six or seven games in a row, and after every game it was a tirade, raising the devil. One time he picked up a projector and threw it across the room. It was crazy, and I’m thinking, `What in the world is this?’
“So we finally lost a game. And we talked about it, some of the players [saying], `We may not survive this meeting.’ And he walked in and said, `Hey, we didn’t play as well as we’re capable of playing. We need to go fix it, but we’re capable of getting it fixed and let’s go do it.’ We were absolutely dumbfounded.
“I think sometimes what they deserve isn’t what they need.”
Purple haze lifting: There is light in the 3-7 tunnel of the Minnesota Vikings. They have emerged as the No. 1 rushing team in the league. Second-year back Bennett has reached the 100-yard mark in four straight games and has become the big-play threat the Vikings wanted to replace retired Robert Smith.
With runs of 85, 78, and 62 yards the last three weeks, Bennett became the first running back in NFL history to have runs of at least 60 yards in three consecutive weeks.
When that happens, of course, Randy Moss emerges. In the first five games, Bennett made few big plays and averaged 56 yards per game. In those games Moss averaged 63.6 receiving yards and 8.8 yards per catch. In the last five games, Moss’ averages have risen to 89.2 and 17.1.
Why they play: With 87 yards Sunday, Miami running back Ricky Williams will earn a $500,000 incentive for reaching 1,000 yards. If he gets to 1,250 yards, the incentive rises to $750,000; 1,350 yards, $850,000; 1,450 yards, $1 million . . . all the way up to $2 million for 1,950 yards. Wherever he ends up, those numbers will roll into next year’s base salary. And you thought these guys were out there just for the fun of it.
Emmitt update: Emmitt Smith has carried only 24 times for 61 yards in two games since breaking Walter Payton’s rushing record as the Dallas Cowboys move Troy Hambrick into the feature back role. With Smith scheduled to count $9.8 million against the salary cap at 34 next year, speculation has him gone.
“It should not be a foregone conclusion that Emmitt Smith won’t be with the Dallas Cowboys next year,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. “That idea is unfounded and wrong. . . . Emmitt Smith is still very productive, and we need him to win games.”
Shane’s down: Washington quarterback Shane Matthews finally sounds fed up with the constant shuffling of his favorite ball coach, Steve Spurrier. Benched again for Danny Wuerffel, the 32-year-old Matthews said, “I’ve made it longer than most people expected, and my wife and kids are tired of moving around.”
Spurrier, who has second-guessed his own play-calling after losses in which he tried to force the passing game, sounds dazed and confused.
“I don’t know why we did that,” he said. “I don’t have all the answers for why we try to throw and then don’t throw and then we try to run and we run a little bit and then don’t run.”