PRO FOOTBALL : Nothing-to-Lose Pass Can Become Winning Proposition

One of the NFL’s worst offensive formations, and probably its least popular, is the kneel-down formation.

It is used by many teams in the last minute of the half or the game, when the quarterback takes the snap and, forsaking a chance to score a quick touchdown, kneels down to run out the clock.

“The NFL tells us they’re in the entertainment business,” says Times reader Norton Beach. “Do they think we’re paying to see an athlete hunker down?”

It isn’t likely that Chuck Knox, who coaches the Seattle Seahawks, was considering that question Sunday. But he probably won the game when he renounced a splendid opportunity to send in a kneel-down play three seconds before halftime.

At that moment, with Seattle losing, 6-3, Knox ordered a long pass, which enabled quarterback Dave Krieg to practice the Seahawks’ desperation offense.

And although the play failed, the next desperation pass that Krieg threw--on the last play of the game--beat the Kansas City Chiefs as Paul Skansi caught it in the end zone.

Like any other play in football, the desperation or Hail Mary pass has to be practiced. That’s the best strategic argument against the kneel-down formation.

Most coaches reason that the odds are almost hopelessly against completing long passes when the clock is running down.

“Why wear out your wide receivers?” Hall of Famer Sid Gillman asks. “They could pull a muscle. A lot of bad things could happen.

“Coaches aren’t in the entertainment business. They’re in the winning business.”

That’s one side.

The other side is that a long desperation throw makes more sense than a kneel-down play because it provides as many as four scoring chances:

--It could be deflected for a completion.

--It could be deliberately deflected by a receiver tipping the ball away on a designed play.

--It could bring an interference penalty setting up a closer-in shot.

--It could be completed to the intended receiver.

The Raiders are still ahead in the AFC West because, this time, Krieg’s was completed.

The Chiefs demonstrated again in the Seattle game that a talented, skillful pass defense isn’t much help in pro football if accompanied by a unproductive offense.

It was after a Kansas City linebacker, Derrick Thomas, sacked Krieg seven times that Krieg got up and won it with his last throw.

The pass-defense problem for any pro club is that no passer can be roped on every play. Any quarterback is bound to complete a few against any NFL defense.

In Kansas City, despite Thomas’ record binge of sacks, Krieg completed 16 of 23 for 306 yards.

The Chiefs have probably the AFC’s best defensive, offensive and special-team players--except at Steve DeBerg’s position, quarterback.

They have produced only one touchdown in their last three games--and the defense scored that.

The NFL fined Raider owner Al Davis again Sunday--in effect. It took $300,000 or more away from Davis and the Green Bay Packers when it scheduled the Rams against the New York Giants at the same hour, 1 p.m., in Anaheim.

To an estimated 20,000 or more potential Raider-Packer fans, the free Ram-Giant game on TV was preferable, holding attendance at the Coliseum to 50,855.

It isn’t easy for the Rams to sell out Anaheim Stadium, which seats 69,008, but it has proved almost impossible for the Raiders to sell out the 92,488-seat Coliseum--with or without a competing game in Anaheim.

In New York, the NFL never schedules the Giants against the Jets in competing games. It can’t-- because they play in the same stadium.

For scheduling purposes, it should pretend that the Raiders and Rams play in the same stadium, too.

The league’s present scheduling policy is a disservice to its own teams as well as to pro fans who follow both the Rams and Raiders.

The most likely explanation is that the NFL office is still mad at Davis.

In their 29-16 defeat Sunday, the Raiders learned that the best time to have played the Packers this year was in the first half of the season, when they were a struggling team.

As a former Ram coach, Tommy Prothro, used to say: “The thing that counts in football is who you play when.”

By the time the Raiders got around to Green Bay, quarterback Don Majkowski had finished his own personal training camp and, after a few rough early-season performances, had finally come almost all the way back to his 1989 form.

When the other Packers were in their training camp last summer, Majkowski was holding out for a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract, which the club wouldn’t give him.

If it had, it would be that much closer to the Super Bowl. For he is a genuine talent. Throwing on the run, he is nearly as accurate as the San Francisco 49ers’ Joe Montana, even in the midst of eight sacks.

As Derrick Thomas learned, seven or eight sacks can be surmounted.

“I don’t think its ever possible to miss a training camp and get things down,” Green Bay Coach Lindy Infante said. “You can’t get the guy enough repetitions.”

The 8-1 Chicago Bears, who play in Green Bay’s division, can be thankful for that.

As for the Raiders, they know now what Prothro meant.

The Giants have been talking about their money packages lately--their nickel and dime defenses and the others--in which, on passing downs, they add one to three defensive backs to the starting four.

As Giant General Manager George Young said when asked about the club’s fast start: “Our money packages have been on the money.”

If you’re looking for a reason to promote the Cal State Long Beach coach, George Allen, for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, that’s one good one.

For it was Allen who, as the 1960s coach of the Rams, invented the nickel defense. He came up with both the alignment--five defensive backs replacing four--and the name for it.

One day against a particularly strong passing team, Allen added another defensive back and called him the dime back.

His and other clubs, needing even more help, subsequently put in quarter and dollar defenses.

As a college coach, Allen, 72, had a chance Saturday to join Auburn’s Pat Dye and the other famous college coaches this year by playing for a tie. Instead, Allen went for two and beat Cal State Northridge, 25-24.

The undefeated 49ers ran the ball with a little more style Sunday night in Dallas, but as a running team they still are no match for the undefeated Giants, their opponent at Candlestick Park Monday night, Dec. 3.

Few teams match the Giants for ground power, as they demonstrated again in Anaheim Sunday. Although they won, 31-7, the score was 10-7 in the second half when, on second and 11, rookie running back Rodney Hampton burst 19 yards through the Rams for a touchdown on the game’s big play.

The Giants also attack with a tough old workhorse, Ottis Anderson, as well as a 5-foot-7 pony back, David Meggett, who weighs 180 pounds, not to mention a sure old blocker, Maurice Carthon.

Their running plays set up quarterback Phil Simms’ decisive passes against the Rams as surely as Majkowski’s passing against the Raiders set up the Packers to run for a season-high 101 yards.

In the Giant-49er game, Montana will be on his own unless the 49ers can in the meantime find a running attack.

“We’re concerned,” said 49er Coach George Seifert. “We’re working on it every week.”

Quote Department:

Boomer Esiason, Cincinnati quarterback, on how the Pittsburgh Steelers have caught the Bengals for first in the AFC Central: “We’ve got guys open, and I’m not hitting them.”

Bubby Brister, Pittsburgh quarterback, on the Steelers’ rise from 1-3 to 5-4: “We should be proud and enjoy it, because the first month was hell.”

Dan Henning, San Diego coach, on winning four of his last five: “There is an overall stability factor that we hadn’t had earlier or last year.”

Mike Ditka, Chicago coach, on chasing the 49ers and Giants: “I don’t think there are very many people even right now who respect (the Bears). That’s the way I like it. That’s the way I want it.”