The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 25

The Indianapolis Star MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1988 Section trror-prone Colts give win to Oilers Mi 'sflSi'K' infill. fifSiSffi- "'--0' P0WS Sri A tci lis i- By JOHN BANSCH STAR STAFF WRITER The National Football League record book will forever show that Tony Zendejas' 35-yard field goal 3:51 into overtime lifted Houston to a 17-14 victory over the Colts in the Hoosier Dome Sunday. In reality, it was a multitude it r. I i of offensive mistakes that sent the Colts reeling to its fifth straight season-opening defeat since moving from Baltimore to Indianapolis. This was also the first overtime game for the Colts since relocating.

They won their previous two extra-session affairs, defeating New England and Chicago in weeks one and four of the 1983 season. It was was a no-holds barred match between two of the AFC's better teams and, in Houston's mind, atoned for a 51-27 thrashing administered here last Nov. 29 by the Colts. "I'm shattered by the loss." a disconsolate Ron Meyer said of the defeat witnessed by 57,251 paying customers. "We didn't deserve to win," observed quarterback Gary Hogeboom.

"The offense let the defense down," asserted running back Eric Dick-erson. Five of the breakdowns were most critical: Dickerson's fumble 22 seconds into overtime which put the Oilers in postlon to win. The failure to convert a Houston fumble at midfield 1:45 Colts' halfback Albert Bentley soars for Indy's second score during Sunday's second quarter action, star staff photofrank espich Related Stories, Page 2 into the fourth quarter into points. The inability to turn an Oilers' fumble at their 30 midway through the fourth period into points. Hogeboom's "miscommuni-cation" with wide receiver Bill Brooks on a first-quarter pass which resulted in a 44-yard touchdown for Houston corner-back Steve Brown.

Ineffective blocking by the offensive line which led to five sacks the last of which resulted in Hogeboom fumbling the ball back to the Oilers at their 22 when he was blindslded by William Fuller. Zendejas' game-winning kick came six plays after Houston linebacker John Grimsley knocked the ball out of Dicker-son's hand at the Colts' 42-yard line. Dickerson, who gained 12 yards on a screen pass from Hogeboom before fumbling, said Grimsley knocked it away with his hand. The linebacker disagreed. "I tried to get my head in front of his body and my helmet came up and hit the ball," said Grimsley.

That was one of Dickerson's rare bad moments. He rushed for 109 yards in 24 carries and caught six more passes for 98 yards. Three plays earlier, reserve Houston quarterback Cody Carlson, playing for an injured Warren Moon, flipped a 21 -yard pass to Drew Hill at the Colts' 24-yard line. Free safety Mike Prior slammed into Hill and the ball popped loose, but the receiver had already made contact with the synthetic playing surface and the officials ruled no fumble. Carlson was tossed into the battle In the third period when Moon departed with a bruised right shoulder.

The ailing quarterback is scheduled to undergo an arthrogram on the shoulder -today. Zendejas, who earlier had a 47-yard field goal attempt blocked by Eugene Daniel and a 26-yard effort carom off the right upright, should never have been in position to bring Houston its fourth straight opening day victory. The Colts' fourth-quarter miseries began immediately after defensive end Jon Hand pounced See COLTS Page 2 Hogeboom among rough edges of Colts Sports Over Lightly By BOB COLLINS give Sunday's performance was "adequate." Hogeboom appears to have lost some mobility. There also were moments when he appeared confused. On other occasions, he couldn't pick up the clump of the herd thundering after him and was sacked five times.

He also threw a Halloween pass it should haunt everybody for a while. Hogeboom waffled one behind intended receiver Bill Brooks. This was a big surprise to Brooks, who was running downfield with his head turned. Houston's Steve Brown, pulled it to his heart and ran 44 yards to score. The second half was so exciting some fans nearly fell asleep from it.

Neither team scored. See COLLINS Page 3 VtfHEN THE United Way sends out pledge cards, the Colts can dump them; they gave Sunday. It was Houston 17, Colts 14. Overtime. This means the home folks had to stay longer to get angry.

Indianapolis, now 0-1 in its National Football League season of high hope, was as erratic as a fast train on a rough road bed. The Colts huffed and puffed all afternoon and finally blew themselves away. All of the 60,358 Hoosier Dome seats were distributed. But 3,287 fans stayed away. They must have had a premonition.

There were times when the Colts had the Oilers bent over like a limb. The Oilers were in more holes than a gopher. But every time they escaped, moving from And from the noise In the stands, it's reasonable to assume fans did not think they got the better of the deal. Hogeboom, once a big hero here, has been injured more times than a blindfolded motorcyclist. 1 And he didn't win any hearts when he wanted his contract renegotiated before the start of the season.

So after several months of harsh words at 50 paces, the Colts loaded it with bonuses few of which he earned Sunday. Hogeboom completed 15 of 20 passes for 219 yards and one touchdown. That would seem more than adequate. But the folks in the stands bombarded him with tough language, the mildest of which was, "Get him outta there." Coach Ron Meyer is a Hogeboom booster. But the highest praise he could the stifling air of their own territory to places where they could operate in comfort.

There was a lot of pushing and shoving: scuffles after many plays. At times the game resembled a tag-team wrestling match. The Colts lost Warren Moon (bruised right shoulder) with 9:34 left In the third quarter. The Colts Gary Hogeboom went the distance. Omaha waltzes past Indians Fittipaldi wins at Mid-Ohio By DAVE GARUCK STAR STAFF WRITER Put that champagne back on ice.

The Omaha Royals kept the American Association Championship Series alive Sunday night with a 9-1 victory over the Indianapolis Indians at Bush Stadium. The Game 3 victory was the Royals' first in the the best-of-flve series. And from the very first Inning, manager Glenn Ezell's club looked as though they plan to cancel the Tribe's victory party permanently. If the two home losses had the Royals down, they were back up in the bottom of the first Inning when starter Jose DeJe-sus threw three straight pitches waved and yelled at him. the fan.

and I guess their coach thought I was talking to him. I let a fan get under my nose, which is unprofessional. Anyone who knows me knows I wouldn't do that to a coach, but if he wants to believe it, let him. "That guy (DeJesus) threw three 90-mile-an-hour pitches under my knows, and when someone does that, when my life is in danger, I'm going to do something about It." Still, the Royals showed they weren't planning on going home for the summer early Sunday morning when they reported to the Omaha airport for the flight to Indianapolis. Some players were angry that the Omaha front office had put See TRIBE Page 5 inside to Indians' leadoff man Jack Daugherty.

After the third which was ball four Daugherty waved his bat in DeJesus' direction and took a step toward the mound. The benches emptied. Apparently, there was some hint ahead of time there might be trouble. Saturday night, the Royals took offense to Daugherty after the Tribe first baseman waved his glove toward first base coach Tom Poquette and uttered some unpleasant words about the Royals in the ninth. "It's all a misunderstanding," said Daugherty.

"There was some fan (in Omaha) sitting behind first base in about the fifth row. He was on me all night. It was relentless. "I caught a line drive and By RICK SHAFFER STAR STAFF WRITER Lexington, Ohio Emerson Fittipaldi says he prefers driving on a dry track over a wet one. On Sunday, the two-time world champion from Brazil did a great job of driving in the wet and the dry to capture the CARTEscort Radar Warning 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Fittipaldi piloted the Marlboro LolaChevy to a 7.8-sec-ond win over Mario Andretti in the'AmocoK-Mart Indy 500 champion Rick Mears was third In the Pennzoil Pens-keChevy. Winning his first of the season and fifth Indy-car race of his career, the 41 -year-old native of Sao Paolo raised a trium- Glidden races to title in Drags SCORES AMERICAN LEAGUE Cleveland 3-2 Chicago Toronto 9 Texas 7 Milwaukee 6 Detroit 1 Kansas City 3 Minnesota 2 Oakland 11 New York 2 Baltimore 6 Seattle 4 Boston 6 California i 5 NATIONAL LEAGUE Montreal 3 San Francisco 2 Cincinnati 17 Chicago 0 Houston 4 St. Louis 3 Los Angeles at New York, ppd rain San Diego at Philadelphia, rain Pittsburgh at Atlanta, rain NFL Houston 17 Colts 14 Detroit 31 Atlanta 17 Pittsburgh 24 Dallas 21 LA Rams 34 Green Bay 7 Chicago 34 Miami 7 Buffalo 13 Minnesota 10 Philadelphia 41 Tampa Bay 14 Cincinnati 21 Phoenix 14 San Francisco 34 New Orleans '33 New England 28 New York Jets 3 LA Raiders 24 San Diego 13 Seattle 21 Denver 14 Cleveland 6 Kansas City 3 AAA PLAYOFFS Omaha 9 Indians Rochester 4 Tidewater i tjhSnt--flstas he crossed the Emerson Fittipaldi What started out to be a damp run became a dry one, then a very wet one, and finally dry again as Fittipaldi averaged 89.570 miles an hour. Starting sixth, he was in third place by the third lap and took his first lead on Lap 7. A pit stop for rain tires gave Bobby Rahal the lead on Lap 14, but Emmo regained it on the following lap and built a 21-second margin before surrendering it to Rahal again on a Lap 27 fuel stop.

Fittipaldi got the lead back two laps later and this time built a 31 -second margin as the rain got heavier. Andretti got the lead on Fitti-paldi's final fuel stop on Lap 57, but 12 circuits later Emmo was in the lead for good. "He just pulled out and went by," said Andretti of the pass into Turn 7 by the Brazilian. "I was very disappointed In the performance of the engine. We just had no power and I couldn't defend myself on the See CART Page 7 By GEORGE MOORE STAR STAFF WRITER The Ford Motor Company's Thunderbird flapped its wings and flew in the NHRA U.S.

Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park Sunday. A couple of midwestern boys carried Ford's flag high when Bob Glidden from Whlteland, stepped up and won the special eight-car Mr. Gasket Pro Stock Challenge with his Motorcraft Thunderbird. He was followed minutes later by Mark Oswald, Cincinnati, Ohio, who won the special eight-car Big Bud Shootout for Funny Cars with his MotorcraftStroh Thunderbird. As a fitting touch to these activities.

Eddie Hill took advantage of Ideal conditions to set a Top Fuel track record of 5.08 seconds. Hill, from Wichita Falls. took advantage of a track dried by NHRA officials and the cool air of virtual darkness to make his record breaking pass. In two final matches of the Mr. Gasket show, which were delayed by almost 10 minutes by sprinkles, Glidden overcame a time lag at the line to horsepower past Bruce Allen, Arlington, right at the finish line.

In the Bud Shootout, Oswald beat Jim Head, Columbus, Ohio, who was driving a borrowed car, the Jam-Air Chevy Beretta owned by John A. Martin. Glidden, eight-time winner and defending champion of the U.S. Nationals, had an elapsed time of 7.375 seconds and speed of 187.81 miles per hour versus Allen's elapsed time of 7.478 seconds and speed of 186.29. Oswald beat Head with an elapsed time 5.390 seconds to 5.462.

Oswald's speed was 273.7 mph to Head's 267.22. The T-Bird's horsepower really was the reason the Indianapolis area could lay claim to the Gasket victory, as Glidden was late at the line. "I had brain fade at the starting line," Glidden said. "Bruce did a great job and I did a poor Job of driving. Fortunately, we had enough horsepower to win this particular race.

See DRAGS Page 7 iiflsh line to collect the 58,160 first prize. "ll've tried so hard to win a race- this year," said Fittipaldi whose coming together with Al Unser Jr. cost him a victory earlier In the season at the Meadowlands. "When a win like this one comes, it explodes inside of you. I think the crew deserved this' win and 1 deserved this added the winner who led 62 of the race's 84 laps.

set up the car for the wet and it was better in the wet but faster in the dry," Fittipaldi said..