Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 29

DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE. ROCHESTER. N.Y., SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1996 5D rJk rvr a Tight end trying hard to end slump A' 7 -k, X. 1 Last season, Johnson served as Kelly's personal whipping boy. Johnson made numerous errors running pass patterns, and Kelly never let an occasion pass without pointing out Johnson's gaffe.

This year, Johnson thinks he has cut down on the mental errors, and his problems are more physical. "I wish I had an explanation," Johnson said. "All I can say is I didn't get it done. It all goes back to being focused on the ball and watching it coming into my hands." Johnson knows his pass-catching production has to increase in order for the Bills offense to click. "It's a very important position, and if I don't get it done, the offense is not going to go," he said.

"It's like having a car with an old battery, it's not going to run smoothly. "I heard someone say the only thing consistent about Lonnie Johnson is his inconsistency. I'm trying to work at the things that I'm supposed to do and do them well so I won't be the loose link in the chain." For more on the Bills, check out http:www.RochesterDandC ble of doing," Kelly said of his talented but streaky tight end. Johnson thinks the problem has been a lack of practice catching balls. In training camp, Johnson stood in front of a Jugs machine every day and caught at least 100 balls.

Once the regular season began, he got away from that drill because he has had to spend more time studying game plans and perfecting his blocking techniques. ''You try to work on all aspects of your game, and I guess I've been working so hard at the blocking, maybe you can say that's why the receiving has decreased," he said. "I'm a guy who has to work hard on catching the ball in order to perform as a receiver, so that's something I need to get back to doing to get out of this slump that I'm in right now." Tight end is a vital position in the Bills offense. When the Bills run their counter plays with Thur-man Thomas, the tight end has to be a good blocker, and Johnson has upgraded his skills. He has had at least two plays where his block was the one that sprung Thomas for a touchdown.

"I have made progress at blocking, and I'm beginning to enjoy it a lot more than when I first came here," Johnson said. "I think I can call it a strength of mine." Coach Marv Levy agreed. "He's done a very good job of blocking as our running game has improved," Levy said. "He's done a superior job as a blocker." But in the same breath, Levy added: "He hasn't been as involved in the passing game, however." And that has been a detriment In past years, Kelly has relied heavily on the likes of former tight ends Pete Metzelaars and Keith McKeller and nothing has changed as Kelly has thrown Johnson's way almost as frequently. The difference is that Metzelaars and McKeller rarely let Kelly down.

Johnson has made driving Kelly nuts an art form. "Of all the receivers, I'm on Lonnie a little more because I know what he can do," Kelly said of his propensity for directing tirades at Johnson. "The thing is, I can't say too much because he's getting it from all directions, his coach (tight ends coach Don Lawrence), the offensive line coach (Tom Bresnahan) because of blocking, and from me telling him how to run a route. "He's probably getting so much coaching, it's probably driving him crazy. He just needs to concentrate and not worry about anything but catching and running with it" At 4 By SAL MAIORANA STAFF WRITER ORCHARD PARK The scene has become all too familiar, and Buffalo Bills tight end Lonnie Johnson realizes it.

Every time Johnson drops a Jim Kelly pass, he shakes his head and points his fingers at himself to let everyone know it was his fault Give credit to Johnson for owning up to a mistake, but Kelly, the coaches and scores of Bills fans would prefer the third-year pro stop worrying about owning up, and just catch the ball. "I would say that I'm in a slump, compared to the way I got started," Johnson said. "At least it feels that way." It looks that way, too. In the first eight games, Johnson caught 31 balls for 292 yards. In the last two, he has more drops (3) than receptions (2), and was held without a catch by the Philadelphia Eagles.

"It concerns me a little bit because I know what Lonnie is capa REED HOFFMANN HarT photographer Eyes on the ball Buffalo Bills Lonnie Johnson's stats have suffered lately. The third-year pro dropped three balls in last two games. on the Internet. ills-style homecoming for bengals' Alexander By SAL MAIORANA STAFF RIT1R When Paul Alexander was growing up in Rochester, his favorite National Football League team was the Buffalo Bills. And because of his allegiance to the Bills, Alexander, now the offensive line coach of the flflr Cincinnati Bengals, 'L, tooK a lot oi teasing from his grammar school classmates at St Lawrence.

before Bruce Coslet hired him in 1992 to coach the Jets tight ends. "I've been very fortunate to have been around a lot of great football coaches," Alexander said. He joined the Bengals in 1994, coached tight ends one year, then took control of the offensive line last season. Under his tutelage, Cincinnati allowed just 25 sacks despite attempting 586 pass plays. It was the lowest sack total for the club since the inception of the 16-game schedule in 1978.

This year, the retirement of Bruce Kozerski, and season-ending injuries to Kevin Sargent and Scott Brumfield have depleted the line. The Bengals have allowed 32 sacks in 10 games, but Alexander has seen improvement recently. Two weeks ago, though, improved play was the last thing on Alexander's mind. Brumfield, a starting guard, suffered a spinal cord injury in a victory over Baltimore, and for a short time, he was paralyzed. Alexander, who was on the Jets staff when defensive tackle Dennis Byrd was temporarily paralyzed in one.

Alexander graduated from Mooney in 1978, then attended Cortland State where he earned Academic Ail-American honors as an offensive tackle. Upon graduation, he student-taught at East Rochester, and volunteer coached under Don Quinn, another local coaching legend who had a great impact on Alexander's future. "I had never seen an operation like the one he had at ER," Alexander said, "especially for a school that was undersized in terms of enrollment. He ran a program where everyone was determined. They were very disciplined, well-taught, well-coached.

He was a very demanding person, and he did a terrific job. The chance to be around men like Ed Nietopski and Don Quinn was tremendous." While obtaining his master's degree in physiology at Penn State, Alexander worked as a graduate assistant under Joe Paterno. He later served two years as an assistant coach under Bo Schembechler i at Michigan, and spent five years as an assistant at Central Michigan a 1992 game, feared the worst for Brumfield. After the game, he drove to the hospital and spent the first few lonely hours there with Brumfield before the player's family arrived. "I went to the hospital with him because I feel like he's one of my boys," Alexander said.

"He was pretty out of it until about 6 o'clock that evening, and around 7 o'clock, he recognized his wife's name which was good. By around 10 o'clock, he was back to normal mentally." Brumfield continues to make progress physically, and it now appears that he will regain full use of his limbs. Without Brumfield, the Bengals, and Alexander, have pressed on. "When that happened, there was grave concern of course," Alexander said. "I basically told my guys and myself that you have to believe everything is going to be OK, and you keep going." Tomorrow, Alexander will have his own personal cheering section at Rich.

His parents, Richard and Shirley, and his brothers, Rick, Jim and Tom, will all be at the game. Alexander NFL QB's health vexes agent THE 0 PRhSS SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young, after two concussions in his last three games, should consider retiring after this season, in the opinion of his agent "Everyone around him who loves him is concerned," Leigh Steinberg, was quoted as saying in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle. Steinberg, agent to several top quarterbacks, said he plans to have a "long talk" with Young when the season ends to "make an assessment of the risk to his long-term health" by continuing to play football. Steinberg noted that research indicates concussions lead to an "increased risk of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and senility." "It's one thing for a football player to expect some level of pain after his career is over, or, for a player when he turns 50 to know he's going to feel pain when he picks up a child," he said. He said Young has suffered six serious concussions since he started playing pro football in 1984.

Elvis Grbac will start in Young's place tomorrow when the 49ers (7-3) host the Baltimore Ravens (3-7). The 49ers signed former Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta as an emergency backup yesterday. or against, the Bills. That dream came true in 1992 when he was a member of the New York Jets staff, and tomorrow afternoon, Alexander will make his third visit to Rich Stadium as an opposing coach when the Bengals take on the Bills. "I was telling the guys this week, I said, 'If it's cold, well be driving down that one-lane road into Rich Stadium, and you'll see thousands of people in hunting clothes, with orange gloves Alexander said.

"There'll be big barrels with fire coming out of them. It's one of the ugliest sites in the country, and the worst part about it is that used to be me. Alexander, 36, knew he wanted to be a coach when he was in junior high, but it wasn't until his freshman year of high school, when he played for Ed Nietopski at Mooney, that he knew football was the game he wanted to pursue. "The week before the season started, the freshman coach quit, and Nietopski was the athletic director, so he coached the freshman team," Alexander remembered. "He had never coached football, he was a basketball and baseball coach.

It's amazing that for a guy who never coached football, he was the best football coach I ever played for. He probably influenced my aspirations to coach more than any- "When I was in grade school, I think I was the only Bills fan in the whole school," Alexander recalled this week. "They weren't very good then, and the other kids liked the Cleveland Browns. I used to get harrassed about it." When Alexander moved oh to Cardinal Mooney and played football for the Cardinals, he would occasionally drive over to Orchard Park on Sunday afternoons to watch his beloved Bills. Although the late 70's were a frustrating period for the Bills, Alexander never let the Bills' woeful record deter him from enjoying NFL football.

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