The Winona Daily News from Winona, Minnesota • 13

Sports Winona Daily News Jan. 2. 1912 Pag 11 Cowboys, Dolphins are veteran playoff teams By HAL BOCK 7 APSfxrta Writer Miami and Dallas, who've traveled this road before, move into the National Football League playoffs today, hosting the first two games of the weekend. The Dolphins, champions of the American Conference East Division, play the San Diego Chargers, winners of the AFC West. The Cowboys, who won the National Conference East, go against the Tampa Bay Bucs, who finished First in the NFC Central In Sunday's playoff games, the NFC wildard New York Giants play the West-champion 49ers at San Francisco and Cincinnati's AFC i 1.

The Dolphin defense should have a busy day against the charged-up Charger attack. San Diego set NFL records for total yards and passing yards (4,739) and was the league's highest scoring team with 478 points, an average of just under 30 per game. Quarterback Dan Fouts broke NFL records for completions (3601, attempts (609) and yards and tight end Kellen Winslow won his second straight receiving title with 88 receptions for 1,075 yards and 10 TDs. The Chargers don't do it only through the air, though. Run- -ning back Chuck Muncie rushed for 1,144 yards and tied the NFL record with 19 TDs scored on the ground.

Dallas' defense must contain Tampa Bay's Doug Williams, who had his best year, completing 238 of 471 attenmpts for 3,563 yards. Wide receiver Kevin House set club Dallas brings the NFL's No.2 offense into its game against Tampa Bay. The Cowboys averaged 3674 yards per game and had four players who were either first or second in NFC individual statistical categories. Place kicker Rafael Septien tied Detroit's Ed Murray for the scoring championship with 121 points; Danny White passed for 3.098 yards and was the second-ranked quarterback behind San Francisco's Joe Montana Tony Dorsett's 1,646 yards was second in rushing behind George Rogers of New Orleans, and rookie cornerback Everson WaUS" led the NFL with 11 interceptions. Both teams also posted proud defensive records.

The Dolphins' were ranked fifth in the AFC and allowed 10 points or less in eight games this season. Dallas led the league with 37 interceptions. George Ha Us (326) and Curly Lambeau (234). This marks Dallas' 15th visit to the playoffs in the last is seasons. 'Both the Dolphins and Cowboys bring impressive credentials to the Super Bowl chase.

Miami quarterback David Woodley set club records with 191 completions and 366 attempts, passing for 2,470 yards and 12 touchdowns. Running back Tony'Nathan, who rushed for 782 yards, had the highest average in the league with S.3 yards per carry. He also caught SO passes for 452 yards. Wide receiver Duriel Harris had 53 catches for 911 yards, second highest in club history, just 85 short of the mark set by Paul Warfield in 1971. Place kicker Uwe von Schamann made 17 of his last 19 field-goal attempts and finished with 24 of 31 for the season.

pionship games Jan.10. with the survivors playing in Super Bowl XVI at Ponnac, JaaJ4. The playoffs began last Sunday, with the Giants eliminating Philadelphia 27-21 in the NFC wildcard game and Buffalo downing the New York Jets 31-27 in the AFC wildcard contest For coaches Don Shula of the Dolphins and Tom Landry of the Cowboys, the Super Bowl trail is a familiar road. Shula has had Miami in the playoffs eight times and won six division titles since 1970. His overall coaching record of 204-82-6 at Baltimore and Miami since 1963 is a.

.709 winning percentage, highest among active NFL coaches. Landry, the only coach in the history of the Dallas franchise, has coached the team to 213 victories, third on the all-time list behind only records with 56 catches for 1.178 yards and nine TDs. The other NFC game between the wild-card Giants and West Divisioa-champion San Francisco Sunday matches two teams with long postseason droughts. The Giants had not been to the playoffs since 1963 and this is San Francisco's first visit since 1972. The 49ers' 13-3 record was the best for any NFL team since Pittsburgh went 14-2 in 1978.

The best record in the AFC was Cincinnati's 12-4. The Bengals go against Buffalo, another wild-card team, in Sunday's other playoff game. The Bills' defense was third best in the AFC, allowing 309 yards per game and the offensive line 'permitted only 16 sacks lowest in, the NFL. The Bengals come in with a high-powered attack that was second in total offense with 373 yards per game and third in passing yards with 249.6 average per game. against the wild-card Buffalo Bills.

The four winners this weekend advance to the conference cham 's NFL games Today Bucs' Williams will face old nemesis in Dallas secondary slight case of flu by game lime. Dallas has not lost at Texas Stadium since the 1979 playoffs ahainsl the Los Angeles Rams. The Cowboys are 6-3 in playoff games since they moved to the stadium in 1972. "The home-field advantage doesn't really mean all that much once you get to the playoffs," said Landry. "When you get to the final round of eight any team can win anywhere." McKay said: "I think it may be a little more difficult to defeat them on the road because they are more familiar with the surface and the weather is unpredictable Tampa Bay was 9-7 during the regular season and Dallas was 12-4.

The Bucs defeated Detroit in their season finale on the road. It was the Lions' only loss of I he year in the Silverdome. play onus. "But I've got a ton of confidence in those kids in our secondary. You might burn them but they burn back." The survivor of today's noon matchup between the -Central-champion Bucs and the East-champion Cowboys meets the winner of Sunday's New York Giant-San Francisco matchup in the NFC title game.

The Cowboys are eight-point favorites-over the Bucs, who are 0-2 against Dallas. Tampa Bay Coachh John McKay hopes the limelight of national television doesn't freeze his team. "On the few occasions we've had national exposure, we ha ven'I always performed well," said McKay. It is only the second appearance in the NFL playoffs for six-year-old Tampa Bay, while Dallas is playing in a record 30th postseason contest. Dallas Coach Tom Landry has a 17-12 playoff record.

Quarterback Danny White reported to the Cowboys' doctor with a sore throat but was expected to shake the IRVING, Texas (AP) Tampa Bay quarterback Doug Williams will be challenging a Dallas secondary that includes an old nemesis in today's National Conference playoff game. 4 The Cowboys' secondary led the National Football league in interceptions with 37 this season, with two rookies and another player at a new position. The No.l thief was cornerback Everson Walls, a college teammate of Williams, who had 11 interceptions. Walls was followed by Dennis Thurman, playing cornerback for the first time, who had nine interceptions, and rookie free safety Mike Downs, who got seven. "The hardest limes 1 had my senior year were in practice," said Williams, who remembered a freshman named Walls at Grambling.

"We used to get Doug rattled in practice, we would pick off so many of his throws," said Walls. "Doug Dallas Cowboys Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn't like to throw against US' when the scouts came around because he didn't want us to make him look bad." Strong safety Charlie Waters, the old man and signal caller of the secondary, really has a strong arm and the Bucs will be trying to hit the big session on Fouts, Chargers Miami defense plans jam Miami Dolphins San Diego Chargers Miami to three Super Bowls and two championships. The way he sees it, if everyone on the defense does his job, the Chargers' offensive players shouldn't be able to do theirs. "They've got 11 players on the field and so do we," Arnsparger said. "So we start out even.

What we have to do against San Diego is what we always have to do, execute. We've got to jam and do it right. If we do, we've can beat them." club record, and scored i 19 rushing touchdowns, tying the NFL record shared by Jim Taylor, and Earl Campbell. "We know what Fouts can do," said safety Lyle Blackwood. "And we know they've got a lot of weapons." But this defense of ours is no fluke." The Dolphins' defense limited the opposition to a conferencelow, 275 points in 1981.

The ar- chitect of the unit is Bill Arnsparger, who developed the superb "no-name" defense which helped carry all over the field. With luck, we'll throw their timing off enough." If the Dolphins suc-ceedjfin slowing down the chargers' offense, they'll do sO where others have failed. San Diego averaged a National Football League-high 30 points a game this year en route to the AFC West title. In four of their six losses, the Chargers still managed to score 23 or more points. Some of their numbers are nothing short of awesome.

Fouts set MIAMI (AP) The Miami Dolphins' defense is planning tto conduct a jam session every time Dan Fouts and the rest of the San Diego Chargers' explosive offense take the field in today's American Football Conference divisional playoff. Jamming in the National Football League means bouncing the receivers around as they leave the line of scrimmage. It's legal for one defender to hit one receiver once within five yards of the line. But Miami expects to take that one step farther. CallifpinbaUing." "We're going to jam, jam, jam and then jam some more," said A.J.

Duhe, Miami's inside right linebacker. "Fouts likes to take a couple of quick steps back ancLthen fire the quick pass. Well, if we can delay his receivers at the line, even if it's just for a second, it'll throw Fouts off. He'll need more time then and maybe it'll rattle him." "We can only hit the guy once, but I can push him into somebody else and he can hit him again," said Mike Koslowski, a reserve defensive back for Miami who lines up in a linebacker slot in obvious passing situations. "We'll be trying a lot of things like that We're going to bring back the bump and run.

"None of the San Diego receivers like to be hit," he went on. "We are going hit, hit and hit some more push them yards or more in total offense was another NFL mark. And to show that San Diego isn't strictly a passing team, Chuck Muncie rushed for 1,144 yards, just 18 shy of the NFL records with 609 passes, 360 completions and 4,802 yards and the Chargers rolled tip a league-record 6,74 total yards and 378 first downs. Their six consecutive games with 400 i i 1 it 1 Ken Anderson has love-hate relationship with Cincinnati fans full-time career as a lawyer, though. What he's doing has become gratifying again.

"It's fun. If I didn't think I could play well, as good as I ever have; if I thought I was really losing something; if I couldn't run with the ball and scramble; if I couldn't throw it I'd quit," he said. "Physically I'm OK, so the next criteria is, it's still fun. After the last couple of years, I had some doubts whether it was still fun. But this year; I'm like a young kid again." year, it's been great.

The fans are really wrappednp in the football team," Anderson said. "You go to the stadium and it's noisy. People are yelling; they cheer you when you come they cheer you when you go off and cheer what happens and it makes a big difference to a football, player. Having fans like that really helps a football team." Anderson, 32, recently finished law school after studying and attending classes several years during the offseason. He won't quit football for a 2nd Half Men's "MINI-LEAGUE" first-half interceptions.

"It was tough; nobody likes to be booed everybody wants to be popular, and I'm no different," Anderson said. "It hurts you. You try to block it out of your mind, and most of the time I do a pretty good job of it. "I think the thing that was tough was that I had a lot of success and I was a pretty popular guy early in my career. All of a sudden, we had a few losing seasons and our No.

1 draft choice was a quarterback named Jack Thompson with a big reputation, and the tables started to swing a little bit and it got to be kind of frustrating. "The one thing you have to learn as a quarterback very early in your career is that here will be a lot of ups and downs with the fans. I wish that I could get across to them that the worst critic about Ken Anderson is Ken Anderson himself. When I'm playing bad, I'm harder on myself than they could ever be." Bengals were 4-12 two consecutive years, then 6-10 last year under Coach Forrest Gregg. As the team improved and Anderson got more support for his young offensive line, his personal statistics improved This year, he bettered all his own Bengal passing records and won the NFL passing title with the highest completion per centage and lowest interception rate in the league.

"All of a sudden this CINCINNATI (AP) -Quarterback Ken Anderson is one of the few professional athletes who lives here year 'round. Most of the Cincinnati Reds and Cincinnati Bengals take their paychecks elsewhere, places warmer or more glamorous. But Anderson believes he owes something, to the community that provides his living more than 16 Sunday af ternoons a year. "It is my community too. I want to get involved," Anderson told "PM Magazine," in an interview taped at his home.

"We make this our home in the off-season, and no matter what happens with football, we're going to live in Cincinnati in the area, permanently. "So I think it's fun for me to get involved. Our friends are here, and we've met a lot of -nice acquaintances. And I think that an athlete has a certain you're in the limelight, and if you can help out and make somebody else's life a little bit easier, you owe that." Anderson, in his 11th year in the National Football League, had his best season as a pro while leading the Bengals to a 12-4 record the best in the AFC and the Central Division championship. The irony about Anderson's commitment to Cincinnati is the love-hate relationship he's had with the fans, who last year cheered when he was injured and in the 1981 season opener booed him to the bench after he threw three Now Forming 4 OR MEN TEAMS 3 WEDNESDAYS at 9:00 P.M.

15-Week Schedule STARTS JAN. 6th Gat your team together now! Associated Prtt Photo Steelers. Anderson, who led the Bengals Into the AFC playoffs, has had a love-hate affair with Cincinnati fans. Cincinnati Bengals' quarterback Ken Anderson runs for 10 yards In a game earlier this' year against the Pittsburgh HAPPY HOUR 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. Mrjn.thruFri.

American advance in Australian tennis Coming Soon! Watch For "Moonlight Bowling" Friday Evenings at NOW! Israel'! Shlomo Glickstein The Americans face each other today (or a slot In Sunday's title match, whils South African Johan Kr'jV plays Australian Mai' Edmondson, the 1976 Australian Open champ, In the other semifinal. Krlek and Edmondson -won trying to make contact, that's why we were breaking each other so much," he said. Both players also had to cope with numerous bad bounces from the dried-out court. Pfister predicted that his biggest problem Saturday would be returning serve against Denton. quarterfinal matches Thursday.

Swirling wlndi In the Kooyong center court bowl gain played havoc with the players' games. Pfister said on hia service toss up tha wind was moving the ball around about eight Inches. "We were both just Australia (AP) Hank Pfister and Steve Denton ad- vanced Friday Into the semifinals of the $400,000 Australian Open. Pfister defeated las. year's runner-up, Kim-Warwick, 6-1, 4-6, 64, 6-3, while Denton outlasted WINONA BOWL 411 Cottonwood Drive 452-6441.