Will Moss get covered?

Cardinals' CB Williams has pick of Vikings receivers

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Posted: Thursday January 07, 1999 08:32 PM

Aeneas Williams and the Cardinals' secondary are confident they can handle the Vikings' lethal weapons Todd Warshaw/Allsport

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- The routine rarely changes for Aeneas Williams.

The Pro Bowl cornerback of the Arizona Cardinals usually is asked to shut down the other team's best receiver. More times than not, he succeeds.

The mystery about Arizona's second-round playoff game against Minnesota is which one of the Vikings' talented wideouts the Cardinals consider the best. Minnesota (15-1) set an NFL scoring record (556 points) and tied San Francisco for most touchdown passes (41) this season because of targets like Randy Moss, Cris Carter and Jake Reed.

Williams says outsiders won't know until after the kickoff Sunday.

"I didn't talk about what we were going to do against the Cowboys from a secondary standpoint," he said. "All I know is we will be ready to play."

Defensive coordinator Dave McGinnis was just as secretive.

"We're going to have 11 players on the field, and every one of them playing like hell," he said.

Moss, a rookie, owns 28 Minnesota records, including 17 TD catches that tied him with the number Carter put up three years ago. Moss is 6-foot-4, and both Carter and Reed are 6-3, a daunting array of size and speed for any secondary.

The Cardinals, who finished 17th against the pass this season and start a rookie, Corey Chavous, at the corner opposite Williams. But they are quietly confident that they can handle the Vikings.

Strong safety Tommy Bennett, who returned an interception 70 yards for a score against Philadelphia on Dec. 13, said Moss' newness in the league worked to his advantage.

"What defensive backs do is look for tendencies on receivers, and people really didn't have any tendencies on him," said Bennett, who believes the 5-11 Williams and 6-foot Chavous have enough speed and leaping ability to counter Moss. "We have some bigger corners, some more aggressive corners that can play guys like that."

The Vikings are in the playoffs for the sixth time in seven years, while the Cardinals (10-7) are in for the first time in 16 years and have never played in the second round. When they won the only playoff game in their history, it was 1947 and they beat Philadelphia for the NFL title.

But Williams will have the edge in experience if he draws the assignment on Moss. Williams, an eight-year veteran, was elected to his fifth consecutive Pro Bowl last month and holds the franchise record for TDs off interceptions with six.

"I don't know whether Moss would be the acid test for him," said secondary coach Larry Marmie. "Aeneas has played against a lot of great receivers over the years."

A five-time team leader in interceptions, Williams had only one this year because other teams usually avoid his side of the field -- a tendency that helped him break Michael Irvin's 117-game receiving streak on Nov. 15.

When the Cardinals beat the Cowboys 20-7 in the first round last week, Williams held Irvin to four catches for an insignificant 32 yards. Chavous knocked down five passes and had an interception nullified by a questionable interference call, and Arizona's overall coverage was almost flawless.

"I think we'll do an assortment of things," Williams said. "... I guess our thinking as a secondary is that we have to contain these guys."

 

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