The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 21

SPORTS SECTION SUNDAY October 28, 1990 '90 Eagles bewildered but unbowed l.v" I for the removal of the Eagles' best and most consistent performer, Randall Cunningham, demanding his backup, Jim McMahon. Above all, the question is: What's wrong with the Philadelphia Eagles? And the answer, though not a popular one: not that much. By any measure other than wins and losses, which is, of course, the only one that counts, the Eagles are a good football team. They are by most measures a stronger, more experienced team than last year's. Unless there is a serious breakdown of will, the Eagles remain more likely to end the season with a winning record and go to the playoffs than to continue to play out this string of disappointments.

Consider that only five teams in the NFC have winning records, and with wins today and next Sunday, the Eagles could be tied for second place in their division. (See MOOD on 7-C) worried about anything." That was then, this is now. After the first six games of this season, the Eagles have compiled a 24 record, exactly the opposite of what it was last year. This time last season, the Eagles, by their own serendipitous means, had already defeated their top rivals in the NFC East, the New York Giants and Washington Redskins, not to mention the Phoenix Cardinals. This year, they have already lost games to all three of those teams.

Storms of discontent rage on the airwaves and in newspaper columns. The Eagles are too cocky and undisciplined. They have lousy work habits and overblown egos. They don't have a running game. Their offense stinks.

They can't defend against the pass. They are cheap-shot artists. The offensive line rolls over like a child's punching bag. The rookie receivers can't run routes. Coach Buddy Ryan is an incompetent egomaniac.

Desperate fans at Veterans Stadium illogically chant By Mark Bowden Inquirer Staff Writer Quiet and serious by nature, Ron Solt was startled by what he saw when he joined the Eagles this time two years ago. Practices were loose and, to his experienced eye, sloppy. "But then Ron Heller told me, 'Just wait. Don't judge this team by what you see in Solt recalled. "He said, 'In games, they find ways to win.

You'll And Solt did. As the team compiled records of 10-6 and 11-5, the skeptical veteran became a believer. "This team has been incredibly lucky over the last two years." he said last week. "It was a young, inexperienced team it still is but everyone just had this faith that things were going to go our way. No matter what happened during the game, no matter what the score was, everyone played real loose, wide open, figuring the breaks were going to come around.

Nobody ever The Philadelphia Inqwer MICHAEL S. WIRTZ Jerome Brown and Eagles aren't out. Penn State smothers Tide, 90 IJ Jk'mLj Mmm hi VnrwtiriMt ii iint mfnff' 1 i iiiirmwSrtMMii Jl mi The Philadelphia Inquirer JERRY LODRIGUSS Temple's Santo Stephens tackles East Carolina quarterback Jeff Blake, forcing a fumble. The FG helps Owls beat East By BILL LYON Manute shows who is the king LAS VEGAS Charles Barkley and Rick Mahorn, Thump Bump, the 76ers' tag team, merciless when they sense their prey is bleeding, have ganged up on The Human Stick, Manute Bol. You hope it will be over with quickly.

Messy but fast. Like one of those National Geographic food chain struggles. Close your eyes and when you open them, there will be just a few feathers fluttering in the dust. But it turns out that lunch fights back. Manute Bol may look as if he will snap in half when the first frost comes, but the newest, and certainly tallest, Sixer does not back down.

On the court or in the locker room. He calls Barkley "The Bald One" and Mahorn "Fat Man." He teases them about the size of their posteriors, suggests that even in the African veldt, such wide backsides would be conspicuous. It is advanced playground stuff, the insults earthy and profane, and Bol draws himself even more erect, an oil derrick in sneakers, puffs out his pigeon chest and announces grandly: "I am a king. Careful how you talk to me, Charlie." Barkley and Mahorn collapse in laughter. They have heard this before.

Bol, according to legend, had to kill a lion with a spear as part of manhood initiation rites in his Dinka tribe. "Yeah," giggled Barkley, "but the lion was sleeping." "And didn't have teeth," Mahorn said. "This isn't Africa, 'Nute. You don't have to kill dinner here." Bol looked down at them with regal disdain. "No," he agreed.

"Here, you go pick it up in a box." He grinned. "Big hunters." Thump Bump exchanged smiles. Yes, the new mar. is going to fit in just fine. Earlier in the evening, in a preseason game against the Utah Jazz, the Sixers had been repeatedly flagged for playing a zone defense, with Bol identified as the offender.

Usually a guileless, gentle sort, a giraffe in a sport played by cheetahs, he advanced menacingly on the referee, who was obviously caught by surprise by such uncharacteristic aggression. He craned his neck upward in astonishment while the 7-foot-7 Bol, from his aerie, threw down scowls and rhetoric that is most definitely not heard on your typical street corner in the Sudan. Bol got a technical. "Oh, you'd be surprised," said Barkley, later. "Yeah, 'Nute's got a nasty temper.

Quick and nasty. We got to work on him, cool him down some." Barkley is secretly pleased, though, to discover this side of Bol. Through his years with the Sixers, Barkley has fretted, sometimes aloud, that his teammates are far too passive. He welcomed Mahorn last season because he felt it would put some snarl in the Sixers. For whatever the reason, they did rebound from two pedestrian seasons to win S3 games, plus the Atlantic Division title.

When the Sixers acquired Bol last summer, there was a firestorm of criticism that while he would furnish them the trajectory-changer and shot-discourager they so obvi-(See LYON on 6-C) Index The Phillies might dip into the free-agent market for a No. 1 starling pitcher, but don't hold your breath. Baseball notes, Page 4-C. Scouting report for Week Eight of the NFL, Page 8-C. Ben Callaway 19-C Hockey notes 4-C Football notes 8-C Horse racing 18-C Golf 7-C NHL roundup 2-C Fayak lifts Lions with 3 field goals By Ray Parrillo inquirer Staff Wnfer TUSCALOOSA, Ala.

Color Penn State's 9-0 win over Alabama last night black and blue, depicting the punishment these two teams dealt each other. Color the Nittany Lions (5-2) happy, though, because they have now won five straight games, and their voracious defense is looking suspiciously like some of the great Penn State defenses of the past. And while the Nittany Lions thoroughly smothered the Crimson Tide (34) before 70,123 homecoming fans at Bryant-Denny Stadium, freshman Craig Fayak provided Penn State with some offense against a 'Bama defense that was suffocating. Fayak kicked field goals of 34, 50 and 34 yards for all the scoring in a game they could have played all night, and probably still wouldn't have scored a touchdown. "The way the defenses were stifling the offenses, I thought it might come down to me," said Fayak, whose field goals came in the first, third and fourth quarters.

Mostly, though, it came down to Penn State's defense, which handed Alabama its first shutout at Bryant-Denny Stadium since Oct. 8, 1955, when Texas Christian stemmed the Tide, 21-0. That's a span covering exactly 100 games in Tuscaloosa. The numbers vividly tell the frustrating story for Alabama, which has gone almost 12 quarters without finding the end zone. Penn State held Alabama, which was coming off a shocking 9-6 win over powerful Tennessee and had won three straight, to 6 yards rushing, the lowest ever by the Crimson Tide.

"They did some things on defense we didn't expect to see," said Gene Stallings, the Tide's beleaguered first-year coach. In all, the Tide managed just 141 yards, and Penn State collected five interceptions, four of them thrown by Gary Hollingsworth, the 1989 Southeastern Conference player of the year. "About midway through the third quarter, we felt pretty confident they wouldn't score on us," State defensive back Willie Thomas said. "To come in here and shut down a team with that kind of tradition is a great (See PENN STATE on 13-C) Flyers fall to Islanders? Hextall hurt By Tim Panaccio Inquirer Sla Writer UNIONDALE, N.Y. Flyers goalie Ron Hextall made his return last night after missing five games with a chronic groin pull, but just as quickly, he was back in the dressing room with yet another injury.

Hextall suffered a sprained ligament in his left knee in a second-period collision in the Flyers' 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum. He will be examined today by the team's orthopedic surgeon, Arthur Bartolozzi. Flyers trainer Gary Smith said he didn't know how serious the injury was, and coach Paul Holmgren said Hextall could be gone for two or three weeks. Hextall was injured in a three-player crash midway through the second period. Flyers defensemar, Jiri Latal, trying to prevent a breakaway goal, became entangled wit Islanders winger Randy Wood, am' the two ran into Hextall.

Hextall left leg was wrapped around the goal post as he and the net slid into the boards near the goal judge. Hextall was replaced by Ken Wreg-(See FLYERS on 2-C) .500 (4-3) for the first time in his two-year tenure. "I guess I'm going to have to get some percentage of the concessions in the fourth quarter. We're sure keeping people in the stands." Those anxious patrons, who had been living and dying on cliffhang-er-like plays all afternoon, had to hold their collective breath one last time as a 48-yard field-goal attempt by East Carolina's Rob Imperato fell a few yards short with 13 seconds left sealing the Owls' win. That bit of drama came after Temple placekicker Bob Wright, who made 3 of 4 attempts in the game, made a 24-yard field goal with 1 min Owls recovered the fumble.

Carolina College football highlights 4 Associated Pi ess Columbia's Mike Sardo makes a catch over Princeton defender Mike Hirou in the Lions' 17-15 upset win. Story on Page 12-C. Auburn blocks an extra-point attempt, preserving its 17-16 victory over Mississippi State. South roundup, Page 11-C. Penn plays a dismal defensive first half and never recovers, falling to Yale, 27-10.

Page 12-C. Villanova overcomes five turnovers and 12 penalties to beat Rhode Island, 14-7. Page 12-C. Scores -J Fatal rides cloud racing's big day ute, 16 seconds remaining to give the Owls the 30-27 lead. There seemed to be plays of weight all day plays such as Temple fullback Conrad Swanson running for 5 yards on fourth and 2 to keep the winning drive alive.

Then there were the two plays in a hectic second quarter, when Temple halted the Pirates on the brink of the end zone Gary Mobley intercepted Jeff Blake's pass at the Owls' 1-yard line and Ron Bruce fell on a Blake fumble in the end zone for a touch-back. In both instances, Temple had fumbled the ball away deep in its territory, giving East Carolina great (See TEMPLE on 13-C) yards away from victory when he jumped over a shadow cast by the top of the Belmont grandstand and lost by a neck to the Maryland-bred filly Safely Kept. But that race was marked by disaster too when the colt Mr. Nickerson dropped dead of an apparent heart attack in midrace, throwing rider Chris Antley, who broke his right collarbone. Jockey Jose Santos was spilled from his horse, Shaker Knit, who fell over Mr.

Nickerson, but Santos got off the ground to win both 2-year-old races on the card, with the colt Fly So Free and the filly Meadow Star. The two heart-breaking accidents were the first falls in the seven-year history of the Breeders' Cup races and came just 24 hours after two less accomplished horses, Why Not Try and Dinner Quest, suffered mortal injuries during back-to-back races at Belmont on Friday. Santos, in fact, regrouped quickly enough to go right back to the track for the second race of the card and help provide one of the brighter spots of the day, riding undefeated (See BREEDERS' CUP on 19-C) By Mike Bruton Inquirer Staff Writer The Temple Owls have left little comfort for the faint of heart lately, and they have left even less for their opponents. For the second straight week and the third time in the last four games, the Owls fashioned victory from extraordinary circumstances, their latest triumph being a 30-27 homecoming victory over East Carolina before a crowd of 24,612 at Veterans Stadium yesterday. "I don't think I have gray hair because I have three grandchildren," said Temple coach Jerry Berndt, whose team climbed above Associated Press Bayakoa, with Laffit Pincay streaks to victory in the Distaff.

TO -I Pi I-- i From Inquirer Wire Services ELMONT, N.Y. Tragedy eclipsed brilliance yesterday on racing's greatest event in the Breeders' Cup at Belmont Park. Go For Wand, a leading candidate for Horse of the Year, took a bad step, fell and broke her right front leg just one-sixteenth of a mile from the finish line of her dramatic, race-long duel with Bayakoa, who went on to score a hollow victory in the $1 million Distaff. It was a moment that rendered insignificant almost everything else that happened on this day at Belmont, even though it was a day marked by drama that otherwise would have been memorable. Unbridled won the world's richest race, the $3 million Breeders' Cup Classic, with a magnificent ride by jockey Pat Day.

After breaking from the seemingly disastrous No. 14 post position, Day managed to get to the rail, moved inside the field on the turn, squeezed between the two leaders in the stretch and beat long shot Ibn Bey by a length. In the Sprint, the much-acclaimed European speedster Dayjur was 40 Notre Dame 31 Pittsburgh 22 Nebraska 45 Iowa St. 13 Illinois 21 Wisconsin 3 Houston 62 Arkansas 28 Wash. 46 Cal 7 Miami 45 Texas Tech 10 BYU 55 New Mexico 31 Colorado 32 Oklahoma 23 Florida St.

42 LSI) 3 Texas 52 SMU 3 Iowa 56 Northwestern 14 Ga. Tech 48 Duke 31 Mississippi 14 Vanderbilt 13 Clemson 24 Wake Forest 6.