Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 50

Sports Lansing State Journal Sunday, Jan. 3, 1993 4F WW! basil pDaofif 5 v. uSc at 9 iffflK .1 NFL playoffs on TV Today Houston at Buffalo. 12:30 p.m., Ch. 4.8,10 Philadelphia at N.

Orleans. 4 p.m., Ch. 3.6,25 Vs VT I 4 i- s. -x -x x-? -k1 txVx xx "i a xxxx, aX x-x XX X-X. Associated Press NEW ORLEANS The Philadelphia Eagles, who have had their troubles on the road this season, may find themselves happy to be playing in the Superdome today.

If they get off to a decent start, the crowd could turn on the New Orleans Saints. Call the first-round playoff game between the Saints and Eagles, two days after the Sugar Bowl, the Unappreciated Bowl. Philadelphia and New Orleans both in the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons are decidedly unappreciated. The problem, of course, is that neither has won any of those games. "The New Orleans Saints HAVE to win their first playoff game," said Sam Mills, one of four New Orleans linebackers voted to the Pro Bowl.

"People talk about it all the time the fact that we haven't won a playoff game." Mills said the Saints won't get the respect they deserve until they do. "People try to make the inference that we choke," defensive line coach John Pease said. "That's ridiculous." The regular-season record does make it a bit ridiculous. Until 1987, the Saints had not had a winning season in 20 in the NFL. Then, under second-year coach Jim Mora, they went 12-3 and were knocked out in the first round by Minnesota at the Superdome.

Two years ago, the Saints went to Chicago and lost. Last year, it was a loss at home to Atlanta after New Orleans had won the NFC West at 11-5. "You can have a really great season, but if you lose that first playoff game, it doesn't seem like a good season," center Joel Hilgenberg said. "We don't want to go through it again." This season, the Saints were 12-4 and second to San Francisco, losing two close games to the 49ers. The Eagles beat the Saints 15-13 in Philadelphia the first week of the season.

The winner this time has a good chance to wind up next Sunday in San Francisco. The Eagles lost to the 49ers 20-14 on Nov. 29. But none of that close stuff sits well with the fans in either city. In a recent newspaper poll, 74 percent said they didn't believe the Saints could reach "the next level" under Mora, despite his career record of 69-45.

The fans in Philadelphia sympathize. Buddy Ryan was fired two years ago for losing in the first round of the playoffs three seasons in a row (and for benching Randall Cunningham for a series in the last loss). Ryan was succeeded by Rich Kotite, who just missed the playoffs without Cunningham last year and was 11-5 this year after a 4-0 start. But Kotite benched Cunningham for a full game after an inepr performance in Dallas. "I certainly hope we're going there," Kotite saidoi the next level.

"That's why I'm here." Today's game figures to be a defensive struggle. The Saints were second in the league on defense, t5 Eagles sixth. New Orleans leads the league with "57 sacks, one more than Philadelphia. But the difference may be in the 15 sacks allowed by the Saints, a league best, compared to 64 permitted by the Eagles. The other difference may be the Superdome.

Philadelphia was the only team in the NFL to go unbeaten at home this season, permitting an average of just nine points. But the Eagles were 3-5 on the road, allowing 23 points per game. Bills hold out slim hope: The Buffalo Bills have reason to be bummed out heading into today's AFC playoff game with the Houston Oilers. In a humiliating 27-3 loss to the Oilers in last week's regular-season finale at Houston, the Bills failed to secure their fifth straight AFC East title and home-field advantage in the playoffs for what would have been a third straight year. Not only that, quarterback Jim Kelly will miss today's game with a sprained knee sustained last Sunday.

The status of a half-dozen other players is up in the air. Sorting through the dark clouds, coach Marv Levy found a sliver of silver. "They can be something better (than AFC East champs) that they've never been: Super Bowl champs," he said. there's only one way to do it." The way to a third straight Super Bowl appearance will be, an exceedingly hard one for Buffalo (11-5). Only twice in NFL'J history has a wild-card team won three straight playoff games to make the Super Bowl.

Only one the 1 980 Raiders woaa fourth to claim the championship. The Bills say they are ready for the challenge. "We'll definitely be up for this one. It's the playoffs," linebacker Shane Conlan said. "We just have a difficult road getting there." Straight ahead are the Oilers, who have to be pretty optimistic about their chances after the thorough whipping they gave the Bills last Sunday.

"It definitely helps our confidence knowing that we can beat them, but there's still a lot more obstacles we have to overcome to beat them in their place, as opposed to playing in our place," Warren Moon said. Houston coach Jack Pardee wouldn't say whether Moon who returned from an arm injury to look sharp in limited action last week or Cody Carlson would start at quarterback. Associated Press Alabama safety George Teague celebrates in front of Crimson Tide cheerleaders as he scores with an intercepted pass Friday in the Sugar Bowl. Alabama beat Miami, 34-13. Columnist eyed Tide talent ANALYSIS Corky Simpson, 54.

sports columnist tor the Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen, voted Alabama No. 1 for all 17 weeks of The Associated Press college football poll, including the preseason. The team received no other No. I votes. By CORKY SIMPSON Associated Press TUCSON, Ariz.

Vindication isn't mine, it's Alabama's. As the only voter in The Associated Press Top 25 poll who picked the Crimson Tide No. 1 every week, I took my share of flack from around the country, but rhat part of the game. I stuck with the kids from Alabama because they gave me no choice. How do you bail out on a team that refused to lose? Genius? Nah, I'm the same guy who picked the New England Patriots to beat the Chicago Bears a few-years ago in the Super Bowl.

The last winner I picked was a horse named Cha-teaugay in the Kentucky Derby, years before any of the Alabama players were born. But I knew this Alabama team was special because I did something others apparently failed to do: homework. Believe it or not, I cast my first ballot for the Crimson Tide last February. In a preseason poll conducted by the Football Writer's Association of America at the NCAA College Football Forum in Kansas City, I picked the Tide to be No. 1 in the nation.

I took the time to talk to Alabama coach Gene Stallings; to a good friend, Bill Lumpkin, a sports editor from Birmingham, and to Larry White, of the Alabama sports information office. I looked at the talent on this Alabama team and became convinced that the Tide would field one of the greatest defensive units in college football. Games are won on defense, and that is more than a cliche in football. Over the summer. The Associated Press gave me the opportunity to cast the Arizona ballot in its weekly poll, and I was pleased to take part.

But at one point during the season I wondered if I might not lose my voting privilege. I worried that I might be embarrassing the AP. Irate telephone calls and nasty letters to my newspaper, mostly from Miami fans, came pouring in after Mark Edwards of the Decatur Daily in Alabama revealed my identity. One man in Miami threatened to fax me his rear end. A woman in Florida wrote that I was "morally irresponsible and inherently evil" for voting for Alabama.

The Los Angeles Times raised the question as to what kind of moonshine I had been drinking. I had the chance to talk to Pete Rose, too, on his talk show in Florida. He gave me a good ribbing, said that Miami was by far the better team, and surprised me with a keen understanding of college football. Every vote I cast in the AP poll, from the preseason through the final ballot after the bowl games, was based on my honest opinion. It was not to attract attention.

The chance of this ever happening again, or having happened in the first place, must be a zillion to one. I was right all along, it turns out, but not, I'm sorry to say, because I am brilliant only because I did my homework. It was an interesting adventure. Most of it was in fun and I never once doubted my vote. Even when Washington and Miami were riding high, and Alabama was just slipping by, something told me fate was with the Crimson Tide.

After all, this is Alabama's centennial year of football. So maybe the ghost of Bear Bryant was somewhere on the sidelines next to his former player, coach Gene Stallings. goodyeah GOODfYEAIt Durable Double Belt Construction Our Lowest Priced Radial T-METRIC CORSAGT 3895 I55R12 GOQDpYEAR GOODBYE AH Our Best Selling I AquaCbannel Channels All Season Radial Water Out of Your Way INVICTA GL AQUATRED P14S8OR12 $37.37 60,000 Mile l5ll3, I Treadlife Warranty P17570R13 $55.64 P18S60R14 $69.56 P17570R13 $78.96 P18570R13 $59.12 R18S70R13 S83.66 P18570R14 $61.73 P18S-70R14 S87.96 P19570R14 $72.17 p195T0R14 $92.66 P20570R14 $68.69 P20570R14 $96.96 Black Serrated Letter. Blackwall 45R13 $40 95 $48.95 $50.95 $54.95 $56 95 $59.95 $53.95 155R13 165R13 175R13 17570R13 18S70R13 18570R14 165R15 155R13 165R13 17570R13 18570R13 18570R14 $29.96 $34.95 $37.95 $38.95 $39.95 Black Seriated Letter. SALE ENDS MY 2.

Biackwalf. Unci eveaieo aoo goodtear goooyeah GOODfVEAH goodteau Our Best Selling Radial U-M's three ties leave questions unanswered by bowl victory By HARRY ATKINS came back and won at Purd came back and won at Purdue," AquaChannel Channels Economy Whitewall GOODYEAR Premium Performance and Long Wear INVICTA GS The Original All Season Radial Water Out of lour Hay DECATHLON INVICTA GL TIEMPO Associated Press AQUATRED 60.000 Mi Tread Wuratj Moeller said. "That's the one game that normally would have slipped P18S5R14 GXS 89.96 P19S-75R14 GXS 94.46 P205.75B14 GXS 93-86 P205.70AU GXS $102 56 P205.70R14 BXS 97,16 P20575S15 GXS 5104.36 P15580R13 P16580R13 P17580R13 P18S80R13 P18575R14 P19575R14 P20575R14 P20575R15 P21575R15 P22575R15 P23575R1S $30 95 $38.95 $40.95 $42.95 $41.95 $43.95 $46.95 $48 95 $51.95 $54.95 $57.95 P15580R13 P18580R13 P18575R14 P19575R14 P20575R14 P20575R15 P2O570R15 P21575R15 P22575R15 P23575R15 $36.96 $50.96 $53.96 $56.86 $59.96 $62.96 $64.76 $65.66 $69.96 $72.86 $44.93 S58.25 $63.47 $65.98 $69.56 $69.56 $73.91 $77.89 $80.87 $85.96 P15580R13 P18580R13 P18575R14 P19575R14 P20575R14 P19S75R15 P20575R15 P21S75R15 P22575R15 P23575R15 P18575R14 PISSORM P19575R14 P20575R14 P20570R14 P20575R15 P20570R15 P21575R15 P21570R15 P22575R15 P23575R15 Extra Narrow 90.95 93.95 94.95 99.95 $103.95 $105.95 S108.95 $110.95 $114.95 $116.95 $122.95 Whitewall. GXS 5108.86 P20570R15 BXS 5102.56 P21570R15 EXS 5107.98 P21S70R15 GXS S113J6 6 6 Because of all the injuries we had, maybe we were an outstanding team to keep from getting beat a few times. 5 Gary Moeller, Michigan coach Extra Narrow Whitewall.

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After one of the proudest wins in Michigan's long football history, Gary Moeller went back to the hotel and fell asleep in a chair. There is good reason why the coach didn't go out and party. There really was nothing to celebrate. The W7olverines went undefeated, and unfulfilled. With their 38-31 win over Washington in the Rose Bowl, the Wolverines finished 9-0-3.

But that only moved them up to No. 5 in the final Associated Press poll. The nation's only other undefeated team, Alabama, won the national championship. Florida State, Miami and Notre Dame, all finished higher than Michigan, even though each lost a game. And it left Moeller to ponder what might have been.

Those three ties, one of them in the season-opener at Notre Dame, did Michigan in. "Right. We're undefeated and unfulfilled," Moeller said Saturday. "Yet as I said before, and ODfYEA Our Lowest Priced Performance Radial EAGLE ST GOOOTEAtt Our Lowest Priced Performance Radial EAGLE ST away. Of the three ties, the most disappointing was a 22-22 standoff with Illinois.

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"Yes, we're disappointed," Moeller said. "And I know that probably we had a great chance of doing a lot more if we had kept a few guys healthy. But that's spilled milk and I don't want to cry about anything. "Maybe in some ways our kids learned more than if we had done it the other way. They learned how to fight.

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COUPON COUPON a erts scored on a 22-yard run to give the Bulldogs a 14-0 lead after one quarter. Plump, who connected on a 2-yard TD toss to Olando Truitt to cap a 69-yard, 9-play drive on the game's opening drive, also had second-quarter TD passes of 82 and 21 yards to Truitt nullified by holding penalties. It was North Carolina's first postseason appearance since the 1986 Aloha Bowl and the Tar Heels' first win in four appearances in the Peach Bowl. The Bulldogs, who lost in the Liberty Bowl last year in coach Jackie Sherrill's first season, haven't won a postseason game since beating Kansas State 10-0 in the 1981 Hall of Fame Bowl. a Gramblina 45, Florida 1 5: At Tallahassee, Grambling's Eric Gant ran for 128 yards and a touchdown and Alex Perkins passed for two scores to beat Florida in the Heritage Bowl.

With Gant leading the way, Grambling (10-2) rushed for 277 yards. Grambling went ahead on the game's fifth play when the 255-pound Gant went 35 yards for a touchdown. Perkins' 18-yard pass to Ron Dyson with 3:23 left in the third period pushed Grambling's lead to nine points after Florida had closed to 17-15. Kelvin Raddix's pass interception two minutes later set up a 28-yard TD pass from Perkins to Dexter Butcher. Associated Press ATLANTA North Carolina's defense cashed in with two second-half touchdowns, including a 45-yard interception return by Cliff Baskerville, to earn a 21-17 victory over Mississippi State in the Peach Bowl Saturday night.

N6rth Carolina's victory in its first bowl appearance since 1986 was preserved when Kerry Mock intercepted Greg Plump's pass at the Tar Heels 19 with 2:37 left after the Bulldogs had driven 57 yards. Mississippi State (7-5) also had two second-quarter touchdowns nullified by holding penalties. Trailing 14-0 at halftime, North Carolina (9-3) tied it 14-14 in the third quarter on a 1-yard TD run by Natrone Means and defensive back Bracey Walker's block and 24-yard TD return of a punt by Scott Jordan. North Carolina took the lead 21-14 only 2:24 into the fourth quarter when Walker knocked the ball loose from receiver Chris Jones. The ball popped into Bas-kervjlle's hands and he went untouched 45 yards for the go-ahead score.

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