They’re Young and in Charge

The world suddenly seems full of great quarterbacks. At least two of them are still in school, Aaron Rodgers of Cal and Matt Leinart of USC. And at least two other young ones played like old pros again last Sunday, Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers and David Carr of the Houston Texans.

At 6 feet 5 and 242 pounds, Big Ben Roethlisberger is an unbeaten rookie from Miami of Ohio whose next test, in Dallas today, looks to be his toughest yet.

Moving with the agility of a 200-pound quarterback, the Steeler rookie has beaten the AFC North’s two Ohio teams, Cincinnati and Cleveland, back to back in his last two starts.

That makes the 4-1 Steelers first in the division, surprising even Bill Cowher, their veteran coach.

In his Pittsburgh career going back to 1992, Cowher, a 126-85 winner, has rarely been a fast starter. Nor has he won any Super Bowls. All this time, he’s been looking for a quarterback.

As one of the league’s fine defensive coaches, Cowher always has a running game, and in recent years he has also embraced passing. But he’s never had a champion passer. This year, he might be grooming one.

One-Dimension Team

The Minnesota Vikings, on their three-game October tour of the South, will be in New Orleans today to show the Saints how anybody can be an NFL winner these days after injuries have taken out every veteran running back the club has.

You simply throw on, say, two of every three plays. The Vikings did just that last Sunday to beat back Houston’s young quarterback Carr in overtime.

As the one-dimension Vikings struck for more than 500 yards in Houston, quarterback Daunte Culpepper gained 418 of them on passes and scrambles.

Carr, of Fresno State and starting his third year at Houston, showed the skills of the good NFL veterans -- particularly the toughness to get up from sacks and throw strikes.

According to an NFL rule of thumb, it takes a well-balanced, two-dimension team to succeed.

Yet the rule of thumb has never been challenged by a good one-dimension passing team, and that’s what Minnesota is with Culpepper and two of the NFL’s great wide receivers, Randy Moss and Marcus Robinson. To win last week, Minnesota scored five touchdowns, all on passes.

Turnovers Overrated

The St. Louis Rams lost last week’s first half in Seattle, 24-7, as quarterback Marc Bulger threw two interceptions and was sacked twice. At halftime, old-timers who don’t like the Rams’ pass-minded coach, Mike Martz, were sarcastically shouting: “Keep passing, Mike. Keep passing!”

And he did. In the last five minutes, he kept passing to catch the Seahawks, who had stepped out to a 27-10 lead, and in overtime he kept passing to win, 33-27.

Here’s the point: An interception or a sack is nothing but a nuisance to a passing team. Turnovers are, in fact, inevitable for passing teams. To a passing team, though, a turnover annoys but doesn’t destroy. A passing team simply absorbs the shock of a turnover and keeps passing to overcome the turnover. Of all the adverse things that happen to good football teams, turnovers are the most overrated.

First Down Useful

Perhaps trying to heed his critics in the first half at Seattle, Martz called running plays for his backs, Marshall Faulk and rookie Steven Jackson, two of the NFL’s best, at the wrong times.

The wrong time to run in a pro game is on first down. Defensive teams concentrate on running plays on first down. Even if they suspect a pass might be coming, they realize they must be ready for a running play too.

They know that offensive coaches fret that a first-down incompletion will bring up second and long. As an example of the right time to run, think of any time the defense is anticipating pass -- second and eight, maybe, or third and 10.

Martz -- who has three of the NFL’s great receivers, Isaac Bruce, Terry Holt and Faulk, and an exceptional passer, Marc Bulger -- is the NFL’s brightest pass-play designer. Yet the skill to design good plays doesn’t equate with the ability to call good plays.

For example, it doesn’t necessarily follow that a gifted play designer understands that first down is by far football’s most useful offensive down. It’s the only time when the play caller can count on calling anyplay in his offense from any yard line on the field against defensive players who, fearing a creative running play, are reluctant to blitz on first down.

Sure, sometimes, a back can break out for seven yards or even 15 on a first-down running play. But even then it’s a wasted play. On first down, what’s a good 15-yard run when you can use valuable time to get off, say, a good 40-yard pass?

Why Play Action?

The Indianapolis Colts, who were unbothered by Oakland last Sunday, are heading into their Sunday off with the best-play-action team the NFL has seen in many years.

Passer Peyton Manning has practiced his role in all that since the day he arrived in Indiana, and running back Edgerrin James punishes as he runs, so the Colts have been a successful play-action team again this year with a division-leading 4-1 start in the AFC South.

Yet, the Colts have been wasting their time. They’ve been wasting, first, the most accomplished pass-offense personnel in the AFC. Second, they waste James, who has to take on defenses that are stacked against him, most noticeably on first down.

If the Colts had established the pass first against Oakland, then sent James running against pass defenses, he might be running still.

Passing Beats Packers

The Tennessee Titans, 1-3, came out passing Monday night when the Green Bay Packers, 1-3, came out running. And that was the difference between teams with good passers, Steve McNair of Tennessee and Brett Favre of Green Bay. The difference grew to 21 points on McNair’s first series of passes in the second quarter and was still 21 at the end, 48-27.

This wasn’t a total breakdown of the Green Bay team. Nor did running backs decide it as Ahman Green gained 36 yards for the Packers and Chris Brown 148 for the Titans.

The difference was that Green Bay repeatedly tried to run Green on first down, gaining next to nothing, whereas Tennessee ran Brown only after setting him up with passes.