 |
| Monday, September 20 Updated: September 21, 11:38 AM ET Up is down, down is up in '99 By Dave Goldberg Associated Press |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Detroit is winning without Barry Sanders. Denver is losing without John Elway. Minnesota and San Francisco are struggling, and Steve Young is barely standing.
Not quite yet, but it's getting there. Consider the numbers, and the teams:
But it's more than that. Terrell Davis has 40 carries for 140 yards in two games, or 3.5 yards per carry compared to 5.1 last season. Some of that is because opponents who feared Elway's arm don't fear Griese's and play eight men up. Davis also is banged up (shoulder and ribs). But perhaps most important, Elway made the Broncos seem invincible. Without him, teams approach them as just another opponent. Not good, not bad, but beatable. "I've never been 0-2 in 16 years of coaching," coach Mike Shanahan said. "Now you find out what your team is made of." Yes, Denver is starting to learn how everyone else lives.
For a decade, the Lions have tended to go up and down. They went from up (the playoffs) in 1997 to down (5-11) last year. Maybe it's just that pendulum.
Young, who will be 38 on Oct. 11, limped off the field after his last series like he was 83 -- he was sacked five times and took 15 more hits behind a shaky offensive line. The Niners lost 41-3 in Jacksonville last week. GM Bill Walsh is going onto the practice field to yell at players. Dynasty over?
Has complacency set in? Do the Vikes miss offensive coordinator Brian Billick, now the Baltimore head coach. Is it the injuries the Vikings didn't have last year? Right tackle Korey Stringer was lost early in Sunday's 22-17 loss to Oakland, and Randall Cunningham ended up taking six sacks. "We're not panicking," tight end Andrew Glover said. "It's a long season." OK. But next week the Vikings are at Green Bay. It might be a long season, but that's a critical game for Week 3.
Soaring 'Skins "Offensively, we were flawless," Johnson said Sunday after he went 20-for-28 for 231 yards and three touchdowns as the 'Skins put up 50 points on the Giants, who supposedly have one of the NFL's best defenses. Washington now has 85 points in two games, the first a 41-35 loss to Dallas Note I: Daniel Snyder, the 34-year-old owner, wanted to dump Johnson when he took over. Snyder also threatened to fire everyone he hadn't already fired if the Redskins lost this week after blowing that 21-point lead to the Cowboys. Note II: Charley Casserly, the GM fired by Snyder, made the trade for Johnson. Note III: Snyder is a lifelong Washington fan and is acting like a kid with a new toy. Fans don't necessarily make the best owners and neither football teams nor people's lives are toys.
Cautious Colts But Indianapolis has yet to find the killer instinct. Jim Mora tends to get conservative with big leads like the 28-7 margin the Colts had at halftime in New England. Most coaches do -- including other good ones like Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer and even Bill Parcells -- and sometimes it works. Only sometimes, however. In this case, the Patriots rallied to win 31-28, in part because of youthful mistakes, like a fumble by James that set up the Patriots' winning field goal, in part because Drew Bledsoe, Terry Glenn and Ben Coates are healthy.
Put that meat in a sack "It's always special when you get a new quarterback," the Bucs defensive tackle said. "New meat, you know." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Denver Broncos news conference
