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Piling On In the season's crazy first two weeks, some erstwhile NFL have-nots have jumped all over venerable havesBy Peter King
Through the miracle of satellite communications, a football fan's nirvana exists in the press lounge of Nashville's Adelphia Coliseum, new home of the Tennessee Titans. Nine TVs are stacked in three rows. On Sunday afternoon, just after two o'clock, the nine games being shown on these sets held an increasing number of media types, scouts and pro football executives captive. Row 1: The surprising Indianapolis Colts had the favored New England Patriots on the ropes, 28-7. The Carolina Panthers, one of the worst teams in the NFL, led the Jacksonville Jaguars, arguably one of the best, 14-12. The Pittsburgh Steelers, 43-point winners in their opener, were struggling to hold off the Baltimore Ravens, 14-10. Row 2: The Miami Dolphins, the best-looking team in Week 1, trailed the Arizona Cardinals 16-13, and Dan Marino was throwing as many balls to the Cardinals as he was to the Dolphins. Even with Barry Sanders retired and wideout Herman Moore sidelined with a knee injury, the Detroit Lions led the Green Bay Packers 14-6. As new Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren looked on dourly, his team trailed the Chicago Bears 13-0. Row 3: Oakland Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon, a backup most of his career, had the Raiders up on the Minnesota Vikings 22-10. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were in front of the snoozing Philadelphia Eagles 19-5. With an astounding 43 points in the first 37 minutes, the Washington Redskins were routing the New York Giants (a defensive team, we're told) 43-14. In a dapper tan suit, Cleveland Browns vice president Dwight Clark, at the Coliseum to watch his team play the Titans, hunched down in a front seat to let the viewers behind him get a good look at the weirdness that is becoming the last NFL season of the 20th century. "I can't believe these games," he said. Join the club. Late-afternoon games in which the Kansas City Chiefs pounded the two-time Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos and the New Orleans Saints almost knocked off the San Francisco 49ers only added to the insanity. Who could recall such an odd beginning to a season? By the time Week 2 wound down, the Broncos, Vikings, Atlanta Falcons and New York Jets, last season's conference finalists, were a combined 1-7. Their starting quarterbacks -- Brian Griese, Randall Cunningham, Tony Graziani and Rick Mirer, respectively -- were all different from the men who started Game 2 in 1998. The Lions, St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers, a combined 14-34 a year ago, sat alone atop their divisions. The Packers were a miracle Brett Favre drive in Week 1 from being 0-2. The 49ers were a frantic, late fourth-quarter comeback against the Saints from being 0-2. The Bears and the Colts were each one defensive stop from being 2-0. It's early. NFL cream almost always rises, but it just might curdle this year, if the first two weeks are a barometer. The Broncos, 49ers and Jets, all projected playoff powers, are in serious trouble. Projected lollipop Detroit is two weeks into embodying the story of the year (page 34). Here are four reasons why weirdness has been the rule. The dominant teams are coming back to the pack. The Niners have been terrific for most of the past 18 years, an amazing streak in the parity-driven NFL, but a team can put off the salary-cap reaper for only so long. "When I came back to work for the 49ers [last January]," says club president Bill Walsh, "the first thing staring me in the face was that I had to cut $27 million from our payroll to reach the salary cap." Six full- or part-time starters disappeared, and San Francisco hadn't a dime to spend on the Steve Young Preservation Society. No wonder the offensive line looks so overmatched. If the 37-year-old Young keeps getting hit as hard and as often as he was in the first two weeks, he won't be able to play at 38 -- and his birthday is Oct. 11. If the Niners' 38-point loss to the Jaguars and a dreadful-looking win over the Saints portend anything, it's this: 1999 may be San Francisco's Waterloo. The 49ers aren't the only aging power. Denver's defense looks creakier than the retired John Elway's knees. Reggie White has left a big defensive hole in Green Bay, and Favre's vital weapons are disappearing faster than they can be replaced: Gutty wideout Robert Brooks (injured back) had to retire during the preseason, and tight end Mark Chmura (neck) might have to soon. Injuries to cornerbacks Deion Sanders and Kevin Smith and fullback Daryl Johnston (who went on injured reserve last week) are hurting the Dallas Cowboys, as is the substance-abuse suspension of defensive tackle Leon Lett, who isn't eligible to return to action until early November. Most years the NFL experiences the decline of a perennial power. But four in one season? Great coaches don't look so great when their quarterbacks aren't so great. Name the three best coaches today. Tough question, but you could do worse than the Broncos' Mike Shanahan, the Jets' Bill Parcells and the Seahawks' Mike Holmgren. Before the season each was considered a good bet to take his team to the playoffs. Now each has a quarterback problem, which is a big reason why the three teams have combined for one victory: Seattle's 14-13 squeaker in Chicago. Shanahan is nursing second-year signal-caller Brian Griese through post-Elway syndrome. Holmgren thinks that young Jon Kitna is his quarterback of the future, but Kitna missed Sunday's game with turf toe; the backup in Seattle is Jets reject Glenn Foley. Parcells lost his Super Bowl ticket, Vinny Testaverde, to a season-ending Achilles injury in New York's opener. Now the Jets are rolling the dice with the well-traveled Rick Mirer (chart, page 36). Impatience is at an alltime high. We say it every year, and every year we get more examples of how the NFL is the most what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league on the planet. Before the season Browns coach Chris Palmer said he wouldn't have a short leash on starting quarterback Ty Detmer, but he yanked Detmer for first-round golden boy Tim Couch (page 90) after three quarters of Cleveland's opener. In Philadelphia, coach Andy Reid picked a peculiar time to give rookie quarterback Donovan McNabb his first significant playing time: the second half against Tampa Bay's stifling defense. This occurred despite Reid's having said a couple of weeks earlier, "Those young quarterbacks who've made it had time to learn. They weren't thrown into the mix right away." Maybe Couch and McNabb should be playing, but you can't blame players and fans for looking askance when their coaches run reverses like that. Teams are extending contracts for their own looming free agents before the players hit the market, leaving a questionable crop for other teams to pursue. Take the Raiders (page 38). They've hit on a couple of players who have helped dramatically. Running back Tyrone Wheatley failed trials with the Giants and the Dolphins before finding a home. And how would we have known that kamikaze outside linebacker K.D. Williams would emerge as one of the Raiders' best defensive players? The Rams may have guessed right on former Arena League quarterback Kurt Warner, who was pressed into service after Trent Green went down in the preseason with a knee injury. The Cowboys hit on behavioral nightmare Alonzo Spellman as a replacement for Lett. Who knows if Spellman will remain a valued player or blow up tomorrow? But that's the point. The first two weeks have been remarkably unpredictable. Which brings us to the Broncos, the month's biggest mystery. "This is basically the same team as our championship team -- minus one guy," befuddled owner Pat Bowlen said on Sunday, after the toothless Chiefs beat Denver 26-10. Though Griese was pulled for Bubby Brister in the second half, he has played passably as Elway's replacement. Everything else is off-kilter. Terrell Davis has run for a pedestrian 140 yards, largely because the line isn't meshing as it did last year when Davis ran for 2,008 yards. "Nobody's been able to stop our run in the past, and now they've stopped us the past two weeks," says left tackle Tony Jones. "I've got worries, concerns, questions." And perhaps a problem on the other side of the line. Right tackle Matt Lepsis, who replaced free-agent defector Harry Swayne, was flagged for four false starts on Sunday. Making matters worse, Denver's defense was run over by the Dolphins and the Chiefs. "We've got to get used to people getting sky-high for us, because we're two-time Super Bowl champions," says Shanahan, who is at the end of his motivational rope. Now the Broncos' opponents will smell desperation: Only two teams -- the '93 Cowboys and the '96 Patriots -- have reached the Super Bowl after starting 0-2. So who's the Super favorite now? Blink and it might change, but our call is the Dolphins, who finally have a semblance of the running game that a championship team needs. Miami has a strange story of its own. After defensive end Dimitrius Underwood, Minnesota's first-round pick, went AWOL from Vikings camp and was subsequently released, the Dolphins picked him up. Underwood practiced for a week and then separated a shoulder in his first preseason appearance. Miami coaches think he'll be healthy and in the defensive-line rotation in two weeks. "He's been unbelievable," Dolphins assistant head coach Dave Wannstedt said last week. "He's in early every day for treatment. And when he practiced, I saw as natural a defensive lineman with his hand movement as any I've ever seen. What happened in Minnesota is a mystery to us." Dimitrius Underwood, poster child for the first two weeks of the season? It is shaping up as a strange year. Issue date: September 27, 1999
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