The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 29

SPORTS San Diego County Monday, November 9, 1981 OofiAnjjelee Slimes CCtParJ III A Nickel Goes Long Way for Bengals, 40-17 Borrowed Defense and 102-Yard Interception Crush Chargers By DAVE DISTEL, Times Staff Writer SAN DIEGO Nickel and dime defensive backfields have been common for some time against San Diego's Air Coryell, but nickel defensive lines are becoming increasingly effective. Cincinnati stole a few pages from the defensive play-book of the Chicago Bears Sunday and dealt the Chargers a crushing 40-17 defeat in a game matching two teams that at least shared leads in their AFC divisions when the day started. Louis Breeden's 102-yard interception return late in the first half was the game's pivotal play, but what was up front was what really counted for the Bengals. Charger quarterback Dan Fouts was sacked six times, and when he wasn't being sacked was constantly pressured. It was, in fact, reminiscent of the Chargers' loss In Chicago two weeks ago, when the Bears went with five defensive linemen and with blitzing linebackers and backs in scoring a 20-17 upset.

This game was more one-sided simply because the Bengals have so much more offensive firepower than the Bears. "We did study some of the Bears' techniques," said Ross Browner, the Bengal defensive end who had two of the sacks. "We liked their five-man line, so we threw it in there in our defense. It got the job done." So it did. The surprising Bengals were no slouches coming in, however.

The win lifted them to 7-3 and gave them a two-game lead over Pittsburgh and Houston in the AFC Central. The Chargers, meanwhile, slipped to 6-4, tied with Kansas City for second behind Denver in the AFC West. Once again, the Chargers were talking of the need to get it together. "We're not lacking intensity, spirit or character," cornerback Willie Buchanon said. "We just have to get it going." He smiled wryly and added, "I guess I've said that before." Buchanon was a part of two little battles on the outside that seemed to be the most telling in the winning of Sunday's war.

Buchanon was matched against Bengal wide receiver Isaac Curtis in a confrontation between two former San Diego State Aztecs. When the Chargers had the ball, Breeden was matched against Wes Chandler. In the decisive first half, when the Bengals built up a 31-10 lead that would never be threatened, Curtis caught eight passes for 147 yards and a touchdown. Curtis caught no passes in the second half, but it made little difference by then. Bengal quarterback Ken Anderson, who left with a Please see CHARGERS, Page 10 Rookies Lead Over Rams, 21-13 By TED GREEN, Times Staff Writer In a private moment last week, iust after the Rams announced Dan Pastorini as their new starting quarterback, Pat Haden, who had been demoted, confided to a friend: "Maybe people will see now that a lot of things happening here aren't the quarterback's fault." Touche, Pat.

It wasn't the quarterback's fault, for instance, that the New Orleans Saints, of all teams, pushed the Rams' defense all over the place Sunday at Anaheim Stadium, gaining 462 yards 307 on the ground, 161 of those by the National Football League's new leading rusher, rookie George Rogers. It wasn't the quarterback's fault that the Ram defense was on the field so much in the second half the offense hardly had a chance to influence the outcome. It wasn't the quarterback's fault that the Rams' offensive line couldn't keep the Saints' anonymous defense off Pastorini, who was sacked three times and hit numerous others. Most of all, it wasn't the quarterback's fault that the Rams lost to the Saints, 21-13, in a game which probably signaled that the Rams, after such a long run at or near the top, seemingly are just another .500 football team. Not the leader of the pack; just a member of it.

The bottom line is, no matter who the Ram quarterback is, it is not his fault that the Rams (5-5) are all but out of the race in the NFC West, where they and the Atlanta Falcons trail first-place San Francisco (8-2) by three games with six to play. The bottom line is, the Rams' problems seem to run much deeper than the quarterback position. Oh, Pastorini, who had been officially promoted last Wednesday, threw four second-half interceptions in his first start for the Rams, so, in that sense, he shared a little of the blame. He did pass for 223 yards on 15 for 33 and, when protected, he had plenty on the ball. But the interceptions weren't the story on a warm, hazy day in Orange County.

One came on a third-and-20, another on third-and-23 and the last on the game's final play. None of the four cost the Rams any points. No, the story was that the Ram defense couldn't stop Rogers, the other New Orleans ballcarriers or rookie quarterback Dave Wilson, who played in place of injured star Archie Manning. Please see RAMS, Page 3 PATRICK DOWNS Lo Angeles Times Louis Breeden, Cincinnati Bengal cornerback, breaks away from Charlie Joiner on 102-yard interception return against the Chargers Sunday. Now 49ers Are Three Games Ahead They Make It Seven Wins in Row, 17-14, as Dean, Hicks Stop Falcons New Orleans 21 Los Angeles 13 Cincinnati 40 San Diego 17 San Francisco 17 Atlanta 14 Denver 23 Cleveland 20 Seattle 24 Pittsburgh 21 New York Jets 41 Baltimore 14 Chicago 16 Kansas City 13 Washington 33 Detroit 31 Miami 30 New England 27 Green Bay 26 New York Giants 24 Houston 17 Oakland 16 Philadelphia 52 St.

Louis 10 Minnesota 26 Tampa Bay 10 By BOB OATES, Times Staff Writer SAN FRANCISCO To those who remember the sad-sack 49ers of the 1970s, It's a strange feeling to sit in Candlestick Park these days and watch them push everyone around. This was a game the Atlanta Falcons had to win to stay in the race for the NFC West cham-i pionship. But the 49ers were the better team from start to finish Sunday and in the end they won, 17-14, to surprisingly take a three-game lead over the Rams and Falcons with six games left. This was an upset with three Ingredients. The 49ers did it with their majestic new defense starring end Fred Dean and safety Dwight Hicks.

They did it with a well-coached offensive what Atlanta's Pro Bowl fullback William Andrews said about the field: "The footing was so bad we couldn't execute half the time." While they were trying to get used to a soggy floor the National Football League should do something about, the Falcons fell behind in the second quarter, 7-0, on the first of the afternoon's four plus-70-yard moves. The 49ers sustained this one 72 yards to a 14-yard touchdown, Montana to split end Freddie Solomon. Three of Atlanta quarterback Steve 3artkow-ski's passes were intercepted, and Hicks picked off two on key plays. Just before half time he in- Please see 49EBS, Page 6 attack that bridged Atlanta's good defensive team for two touchdowns on passes by quarterback Joe Montana. And they did it on a sewer of a field that kept Atlanta's well-balanced offense almost motionless at the decisive moments of the afternoon.

Atlanta's All-Pro blocker Mike Keen said of wild-man Deem "He's by far the best pass rusher in the business. It's hard to play against a man of that caliber." Atlanta cornerback Kenny Johnson on the San Francisco offensei "Montana is one of the better quarterbacks we've faced this year. It's a tough offense to play against." And just in case that wasn't enough, here's Fornian Templeton They Make a Living Off Fun and Games John Henry Adds to His Big Wallet With a Big Heart By ROSS NEWHAN, Times Staff Writer With a display of heart as impressive as his bank account, John Henry won the $300,000 Oak Tree Invitational Sunday. Collared and seemingly beaten by Spence Bay with only a furlong to go, John Henry responded to the ambidextrous whipping of Bill Shoemaker and rallied for a neck victory. Spence Bay finished 4V4 lengths ahead of The Bart, who was a nose in front of Super Moment, fourth in a seven-horse field.

A record Oak Tree crowd of 47,410 saluted John Henry both before and after a race that was the most exciting of Santa Anita's fall season, a race in which John Henry: Registered his seventh straight turf victory at Santa Anita and his 10th straight Santa Anita stakes win, tying a record shared by Ancient Title and Terrang. Insured his claim to the Horse of the Year Award by matching Czar Alexander's 1969 stakes record of 2:23 25 for the 1V4 miles. Earned another $180,000 to raise his career total to $2,985,310, second to none on the all-time thoroughbred list. Dorothy and Sam Rubin's 6-year-old gelding can become the first to surpass the $3 million mark in Hollywood Park's $500,000 Turf Cup Dec. 6, after which, crainer Ron McAnally said, John Henry will receive a three-month vacation.

He also said he was unsure which cruise the Rubins, who paid only $25,000 for John Henry, would book for their bargain buy. It had looked like anything but smooth sailing about an hour earlier when Spence Bay, coming off an impressive victory in the Oct. 25 Carlton Burke Handicap, Please see JOHN HENRY, Page 13 11 fSW rjrowning husband, watching football game on TV, m-i to his wife, who is leaning over his shoulder leer-J. ing at the screen: "Frankly, Brenda, I don't care which football team wears the tightest pants." Ever fantasize about trading jobs with someone? When I do, I generally wind up wishing I could be Mick Jagger (a singer), Nolan Ryan (a linger) or Forman E. Templeton (a zinger).

You probably know all about Mick and Nolan, both involved in forms of hard rock. Let me Introduce you to Forman E. Templeton. Actually he is two people, and they are cartoonists. Tom Forman comes up with the ideas and Ben Templeton draws the cartoons.

When Ben signs the finished panels, he sometimes gets a little sloppy and the ampersand between the two names looks like an so they get a lot of mail addressed to Forman E. Templeton. Tom and Ben are responsible for The Sporting Life, a cartoon panel appearing in 185 newspapers, includ ing the sports section of The Times. They also do Motley's Crew, a blue-collar social-commentary cartoon strip (250 newspapers) and Prime Time, a TV satire strip (80 newspapers). A lot of us, when we were kids, tried to draw funny pictures and make people laughj then we grew up and got serious jobs.

Not Tom and Ben. Boxing promoter, signing up an Eskimo fighter, asks the fighter's mother, "Is it OK if we change Nanookfs name to Sugar Ray?" "The neighbors are pretty sure we're doing something illegal," Templeton says. Says Forman, "Yeah, they're very suspicious. All they know about us is that we work for a syndicate, get phone calls from New York, never go out and have meetings in the basement." Every Monday morning Tom drives from his home in Thousand Oaks to Ben's place in Palos Verdes. They heat up some coffee and go down into Ben's small basement, which serves as a combination stu dio, showroom for his huge collection of antique toy soldiers, and storeroom.

It's not real lavish, unless you're into cinder block and cement. Tom presents Ben with a neatly typed list of 38 gags for that week's cartoons, and Ben presents Tom with 38 cartoons he has worked on since their previous meeting. They critique each other's work. "We're very serious about it," Templeton says. "We have very high standards, we're very critical.

You can't have any ego, you've got to be open, say, 'I don't like it and here's and accept it when he says the same." There are no fights. "We're two different people," Templeton says. "Tom's manic and I'm depressive and together we make one healthy person." And some very funny cartoons, the products of broad sports backgrounds. Forman is 45, tall, with a mustache, glasses and frizzy hair. He is a sports junkie.

He played semipro Please see OSTLER, Page 8 Lakers Find Right Therapy Story on Page 3.