The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 37

Ufa Inquirer 'MONDAY November 20, 1989 SPORTS EXTRA Section on, EaMes Carter hmg in By BILL LYON r- Vikings beaten on late TD ..4. 'if -f:) iP. Tv Jbi The Philadelphia Inquirer JERRY IODRIGUSS Cris Carter (80) and the Vikings' ball to come down after Lee had Carl Lee duel for the 3-yard pass batted it. Above, Carter reaches to 4t.H4 mmaoiJa) Ua iriU 1 A 4t 4 Until tt i ft 1tf ii i fl a i i iihi in uviucu liic Fidica mill a xu-7 li iu uaui ii in uuui viuivuiuk a he tumbles to the turf, below. victory.

An ugly but crucial win For most of a chilled, brittle afternoon, the Minnesota Vikings, a hothouse team that folds up once it is exposed to the out-of-doors, tried mightily to force a gift upon the desperate Eagles. And though urgently in need of a victory, the Eagles, ever the generous and considerate hosts, kept refusing. The Vikings, who are a tigerish 6-0 under a roof but a timid 14 under a sky, kept insisting. In the end, the Vikings got their way. They mustered up more generosity than the Eagles could manufacture rejection.

Result: Eagles 10, Vikings 9. A truly ugly win, but one whose importance cannot be overstated. This, simply, was a season-saver. "This was our playoff game," agreed Mike Golic, the defensive tackle. "Maybe we did dodge a huge bullet, but we should have been ahead most of the game anyway, with all the breaks we got.

It doesn't matter if you win by 90 points or one. But we had to find a way to win, or we were done." Well-timed swat They found a way, an exotic way to be sure, but a way. Specifically, they found a way to pry the ball loose from Herschel Walker, the seldom deployed and waslefully neglected weapon, with a well-timed swat from defensive end Clyde Simmons. Eventually they converted this fumble recovery into their only touchdown, and then won by the margin of the Shakiest of extra points. In fact, this game, which was a collage of the bizarre and the inept, eventually came down, as it frequently does as the season grows late, to kicking.

Or, more accurately, mis-kicking. There wasn't much special about the special teams on either side. The Eagles won because the Vikings' kicker, the same Rich Karlis who only two weeks before was equaling an NFL record with seven field goals in one game, missed an extra point. Also a 37-yard field goal. The Eagles won because their kicker du jour, Steve DeLine, made, barely, an extra point after botching three of four field-goal attempts.

His extra-point kick was a Stealth bomber special below radar and barely above the crossbar. 4 short layoff i But, however shakily, it cleared. And, however shakily, the Eagles fise to 74, staunch the bleeding from their two-game losing streak, and prepare now for a short work week and a turkey-day tussle in Dallas. With the Bears' loss to Tampa Bay, the Eagles are thrust back into postseason contention. Team Horseshoe lives on.

"We'll still be limping come Thursday," said Al Harris, the linebacker, studying the bloodied stump that was his left thumb. "But at least we've still got a season going. This was one of those games you bite, kick, scratch, claw anything to win, to stay alive. "If we'd lost this, we would have 1 (See LYON on 4-D) Pro football jj rmr By Bill Ordine Inquirer Staff Writer With a heart-stopping juggling act yesterday, Cris Carter rejuvenated the Eagles' playoff hopes. Carter's grab of a 3-yard touchdown pass from Randall Cunningham produced a 10-9 comeback vicv tory over the Minnesota Vikings at Veterans Stadium on an afternoon when the Eagles appeared bent on doing everything the hard way.

Five times, the Eagles had the ball inside the Vikings' 25-yard line and failed to score a touchdown. Despite having an edge of more than 13 minutes in time of possession through three quarters, they trailed by 9-3 going into the final period. And even Carter's winning touchdown reception with 2 minutes, 32 seconds left came on a sequence that could have ended in disaster. When Cunningham threw to Carter on a fade pattern, the pass was tipped into the air by Pro l5owl defender Carl Lee. But Carter batted the ball back to himself with his left hand and brought it inlo his stomach as he tumbled backward.

"Mike Quick, Keith Byars, Cris Carter all those guys have serious hands," Cunningham would say later. Carter's touchdown, along with the five takeaways that underscored another superlative effort by the defense, allowed the Eagles (74) to stay within hailing distance of the NFC East-leading Giants (9-2) and enhanced their wild-card playoff chances. Despite losing. Minnesota (74) still is atop the NFC Cenlral. "We had a slant on," Carter said, "and Randall changed my route to a fade.

That's how we usually score when we're that close, so we changed the route. He kind of underthrew it, so he did give me a chance to go up and get it, but the guy almost intercepted it." The catch, which ended the Eagles' seven-quarter touchdown drought, came at the end of a 20-yard drive that was set up by the defense. Nursing their 9-3 lead, the Vikings had advanced from their 5-yard line to their 46. Then defensive end Clyde Simmons swatted the ball from the hands of Herschel Walkr who had scored the Minnesota TD on the game's opening kickoff. Linebacker Byron Evans recovered and lateraled to cornerback Eric Allen, who would have scored himself had he not fumbled the ball out of bounds after reaching the 20.

"I wanted to get it over with as soon as possible and score," Allen said. "But as I started to drive, my knee came up and popped the ball out. I was talking to it: 'Come back to me, come back to Spraying short passes to his receivers and diving for a first down on fourth and 1 from the Minnesota 11, Cunningham guided the Eagles to a third and goal at the 3. From there, he hit Carter for the touchdown before Steve DeLine converted the extra point. It took another defensive stand for the Eagles to keep the lead.

Last year, (See EAGLES on 4-D) missing his comeback with a block on Vikings safety Joey Browner that may have registered on the Richter scale. That occurred during a 6-yard run by Cunningham and made Jackson smile afterward. The response from Browner was slightly different, taking the form of an obscene gesture. "I know Joey from the Pro Bowl," Jackson said. "I told him, 'You were trying to get my quarterback, so I had to take you The receptions, on the other hand, were nothing more than Jackson and (See JACKSON on 4-D) Meldrick Taylor Glad he's facing a "name" opponent i mmmmmmmm U'ZSmnn Jackson By Ron Reid Inquirer Stall Writer Football may be the ultimate team game, but when Keith Jackson returned to the Eagles yesterday, he demonstrated at least a dozen times, what a difference one player can make to an offense.

Equaling his personal best set nine weeks earlier at Washington, Jackson caught 12 passes, for 87 yards, to breathe new life into the Eagles' offense, which had struggled fitfully in his absence. As comebacks go, it was something States a 1-0 victory. "I scored the goal that put us in the World Cup," Caligiuri said, quietly, greatly understating the matter. His goal sent the United States into its first World Cup berth in 40 years. The victory came with the jobs of the coach and the players in jeopardy, as was the fiscal health of the United States Soccer Federation.

It also may have muted critics who were questioning coach Bob Gansler's strategy and the team's offensive ability. With Mexico out of the tournament because it had used overage players in a youth tournament, the United States was expected to make it to Italia '90 as one of the two qualifiers (See WORLD CUP on 3-D) r' At left, the two wait for the as fense, which went seven quarters without a touchdown until yesterday's fourth quarter. Jackson made his presence felt early. Disdaining the risk of further injury and the Vikings' No. 1-ranked defense, Jackson caught the first pass Randall Cunningham threw him, for a 6-yard gain.

By halftime, he had hauled in six others in a performance reminiscent of his rookie season a year ago, when he led all NFL tight ends with 81 receptions for 869 yards, six touchdowns and a starting slot in the Pro Taylor set By Robert Seltzer Inquirer Stall Wnier If Sylvester Stallone were calling the shots, Jaime "Rocky" Balboa would win a titanic battle over Mel-drick Taylor tonight at Pennsylvania Hall. But this is the real-life Rocky Balboa, not the fictional pug whose only venue is a Hollywood set. Taylor, the International Boxing Federation junior-welterweight champion, knows little about this Rocky, but he does know that there are no happy endings in Balboa's immediate future. The champion, making his professional home-town debut, said he would try to be "spectacular" when he meets Balboa in a scheduled 10-round nontitle fight. "I'm glad they got me a name opponent," Taylor, 23, said, winking.

shows offense what it's been Bowl. Jackson racked up his impressive numbers exploiting a dump-off passing attack that hardly burdened Cunningham's arm. With repetitive lobs, dinks and easy tosses that probably reminded Vikings fans of Fran Tar-kenton, Cunningham made Jackson virtually fill the role of a running game, as far as yardage and ball control were concerned. In the second half, Cunningham hooked up with Jackson for a pair of 12-yard receptions that gave the Eagles first downs. Jackson also graced Tampa Bay 32 Chicago 31 Cincinnati 42 Detroit 7 Miami 17 Dallas 14 Cleveland 10 Kansas City 10 Pittsburgh 20 San Diego 17 New England 33 Buffalo 24 New Orleans 26 Atlanta V7 Houston 23 l.A.

Raiders 7 N.Y. Giants 15 Seattle 3 L.A. Rams 37 Phoenix 14 Green Bay 21 San Francisco 17 Colts 27 Jets 10 less than a blockbuster for the second-year tight end from Oklahoma. But it could hardly have had more impact. Jackson, of course, has been sidelined often this season by back, ankle and knee problems.

He had hardly played at all in the three games that preceded yesterday's critical 10-9 conquest of the Minnesota Vikings at Veterans Stadium. And he had missed all or part of eight games before yesterday's. Jackson's absence revealed his value to the Eagles' moribund of- Index Steffi Graf beat Martina Navratilova to win the Virginia Slims Championships and even her career record at 7-7 against Navratilova. Page 8-D. or 'Rocky' Balboa? jUJS.

beats Trinidad, 1-0, to gain World Cup berth Taylor is 22-0-1 with 12 knockouts; Balboa is 47-10 with 44 knockouts. "He'll pose a challenge to me," Taylor said. "I'm likely to get a good workout." Balboa, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, who now lives in San Antonio, Texas, has different plans. Balboa wants to win as desperately as his fictional counterpart. He has seen each of the four Rocky epics at least twice, but his favorite is the first the one that introduced the Philadelphia ham-andegger to the world.

"Those movies truly motivate me," said Balboa, 26. "They help me stay strong and dedicated." Balboa, who arrived here on Friday night, loves the films so much that he fell in love with Philadelphia the moment his plane landed at the (See BOXING on 2-D) By Mike Jensen Inquirer Stall Writer PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad As -champagne bottles were uncorking all around him, Paul Caligiuri, a mid- fielder for the U.S. soccer team, stood 'alone by his locker, a numbed, blank 'expression on his face. Caligiuri had not started for the States in any previous World vCup qualifying matches, and by his own admission, did not play particularly well yesterday against Trinidad and Tobago. But he changed the course of the United States' modest soccer history when his 35-yard shot looped out of traffic, past the Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper and into the far right side of the net to give the United NBA 24) NHL 24) College soccer 34) NFL 64) Sports in brief 94) Horse racing 104) College football 10-D.