Pro Football SPOTLIGHT : WHERE DID THIS GUY BLAKE COME FROM?

It’s not as if Jeff Blake came out of nowhere. He was a college quarterback of some note at East Carolina in 1991. It’s that he all but disappeared after that, only to resurface in a big way Sunday when he nearly led the Cincinnati Bengals to an upset victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

Blake is from Sanford, Fla., where his high school coach was his father, Emory. His godfather is baseball’s Tim Raines.

At East Carolina, Blake set all kinds of school records in leading the Pirates to an 11-1 season in ‘91, and he finished ninth in the Heisman balloting.

But he was a sixth-round draft pick of the New York Jets. He made the team and played in three games, completing four of nine passes for 40 yards.

He spent the 1993 season on the inactive list, and was cut by the Jets before the season and ended up as the Bengals’ No. 3 quarterback.

He started Sunday because of injuries to David Klingler and Don Hollas, and all he did was complete 14 of 32 passes for 247 yards and shake up the Cowboys with two long touchdown passes to Darnay Scott, the rookie from San Diego State, to put the Bengals on top, 14-0.

“I’m trying not to let my head get too big, because I know where I came from,” Blake said. “I know how hard I had to work to get here. The situation I’m in now people dream of being in. I’m just grateful for it.”

GIANTS DO SOME REFEREE BASHING

The New York Giants were victimized by three controversial calls in their 28-25 overtime loss to the Lions, and all three led to Detroit scores. They were:

--Willie Beamon was called for pass interference late in the first half even though he appeared to make a good play on Herman Moore. Two plays later, Moore caught a 14-yard touchdown pass.

--On a one-yard touchdown pass on third and goal from Scott Mitchell to Moore that put Detroit ahead, 25-18, with 8:48 to play, side judge Don Wedge emphatically ruled Moore never had possession of the ball, but Wedge was overruled and the score was allowed.

“The field judge and head linesman both came down and told the side judge that they had (seen) two feet clearly down with possession of the ball,” referee Gary Lane said. “And when the man started to go down is when he lost the ball.”

Cornerback Corey Raymond, who was covering Moore, said: “I can’t believe they changed it. They get into their little huddle and looked up at the board. It was a terrible call. Every week we are getting the short end of the stick.”

--The most blatant error came in overtime on first and 10 from the New York 36 when Mitchell threw Moore a short pass and Giant safety Jarvis Williams slammed into him, knocking the Lion receiver to a knee at the 33. Replays clearly showed his knee down. However, the officials didn’t blow the play dead and Moore got up and made it to the seven before being tackled. Two plays later, Jason Hanson kicked a game-winning, 24-yard field goal.

Snapped Giant linebacker Corey Miller: “Obviously, his knee was down. What I want to say about these guys (the officials) I can’t say.”

Said Giant tackle Erik Howard: “You’re not supposed to worry about officiating, but too much stuff has happened to us over the last five weeks.”

DILFER A DUD SO FAR

Remember all the fuss made when the Rams passed on Fresno State quarterback Trent Dilfer in the draft? Well, maybe it was the right thing to do after all.

Dilfer, who flopped in his first pro start a week ago at San Francisco, replaced Craig Erickson in the third quarter of Tampa Bay’s 36-13 loss to Minnesota and struggled again.

He fumbled on his first possession, setting up a field goal, and threw an interception the next time the Buccaneers got the ball to set up Minnesota’s fifth field goal for a 36-7 lead.

Dilfer also failed to take advantage of Vernon Turner’s team-record 77-yard kickoff return to the Minnesota 22 in the fourth quarter, but later threw his first NFL touchdown pass to Courtney Hawkins.

The rookie finished seven of 13 for 75 yards.

TONIGHT’S GAME: Green Bay at Chicago

6 p.m., Channel 7

One week after fullback Merril Hoge retired because of post-concussion syndrome, the Bears lost two more offensive players: tight end Chris Gedney was placed on injured reserve because of a broken ankle and backup running back Tim Worley was placed on the reserve list after missing last week’s game for undisclosed personal reasons.

Gedney had been the favorite target of Erik Kramer, who is expected to start over Steve Walsh. Walsh led the Bears (4-3) to three of their four victories and is the fan’s choice in Chicago.

On the bright side, Jeff Graham emerged last week and caught seven passes for 136 yards and a touchdown against the Lions. He leads the Bears with 28 receptions for 417 yards and two touchdowns while former USC star Curtis Conway has 24 catches for 302 yards and two touchdowns.

Packer quarterback Brett Favre is listed as probable--he missed most of Green Bay’s 13-10 overtime loss to the Vikings two Thursdays ago because of a hip injury. Sterling Sharpe, as usual, leads the Packers in receiving (42 catches, 462 yards, five touchdowns), but the Packers (3-4) still need a running game.

The Packers have the NFL’s second-best defense, and are especially strong against the run.

The Bears will retire the jersey numbers of former running back Gale Sayers (40) and former linebacker Dick Butkus (51) at halftime.

NOTEWORTHY

Dave Meggett has six carries for 36 yards in the Giants’ last three games, all losses. He averaged 14 carries for 52 yards as the Giants won their first three games. His 56-yard punt return for a touchdown was the sixth of his career and the first time he has done it twice in a season. . . . Giant quarterback Dave Brown has thrown 12 interceptions and 10 in the last five games. Phil Simms had nine all last season. . . . Cleveland had scored first in every game this season until Sunday’s game with Denver. . . . Safety Darren Perry has six of the Steelers’ nine interceptions. . . . Of Henry Ellard’s 45 catches, 43 have been for first downs. . . . Philadelphia center David Alexander made his 100th consecutive start. . . . Dallas last lost a regular-season road game on Nov. 21, 1993 at Atlanta. . . . Dallas has won 11 consecutive games in its division. . . . How unusual were the two long touchdown passes given up by Dallas? The Cowboys had allowed only four pass plays of more than 25 yards in their seven previous games. . . . Kansas City’s 34-point loss was the worst non-strike loss for the Chiefs since 1984, when they were beaten, 45-0, by Seattle. . . . Jim Kelly moved into 23rd on the all-time passing yardage list. He finished with 184 yards to surpass the 28,000-yard mark. He now has 28,004. . . . Barry Sanders hasn’t turned over the ball in 561 consecutive plays. . . . The Giants’ five-game losing streak is the worst under Coach Dan Reeves and the longest skid since the team lost that many under Ray Handley late in the ’92 season. It’s one short of Reeves’ worst stint as a coach. He lost six in a row while coaching the 1990 Denver Broncos. . . . The Giants have forced 19 turnovers all season, resulting in four touchdowns and four field goals. . . . Anthony Parker’s interception return that gave the Vikings a 10-0 lead was Minnesota’s fifth defensive touchdown of the year. The team has 15 defensive touchdowns in the past 36 regular-season games, the most in the NFL. . . . The Vikings improved to 17-4 on the road under Coach Dennis Green. . . . Vernon Turner of Tampa Bay returned eight kickoffs for a team-record 242 yards, including a club-record 77-yarder in the fourth quarter. . . . The Chargers’ 7-1 start is their best since the strike season of 1987, when they opened 8-1. But they lost their last six games that year and missed the playoffs. . . . Art Monk scored his first touchdown with the New York Jets and the 66th of his career in the second quarter against the Colts. Monk extended his streak of consecutive games with at least one reception to 172 games and moved within five of the record held by Steve Largent. . . . Marshall Faulk’s second touchdown was his eighth rushing this year, the most by a Colt since Eric Dickerson had 14 in 1988. . . . The Seahawks will play their first game of 1994 in the Kingdome next Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.

BUT HOW DO YOU REALLY FEEL?

Even after a 44-10 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills running back Thurman Thomas found a reason to get mad.

Thomas ran for 77 yards and a touchdown Sunday and after the game, Thomas reluctantly faced the media and quickly grew tired of questions regarding team’s past troubles.

When asked whether the players ever wondered about their stalled offense, Thomas said:

“I never saw the point. . . . yeah, we’re scoring less points, but we still have a winning record,” Thomas said. “You media people, y’all write all that. . . . about ‘They need to do this and they need to do that.’

“Hey, we’re going to do what we want to do. I don’t give a damn what y’all say or how y’all go about saying it. We’re going to do it the way we want to do it.

“And I might take a lot of criticism after I leave this podium or whatever, but y’all are not playing. Half of you in here don’t even know how to play football. All right? So don’t even ask no stupid question like that. You want to come up with a game plan? You come up with a game plan.”

Thomas was then asked if the Bills wanted to use the big victory over the Chiefs to build momentum for the second half of the season.

“I think 44 points is enough damn momentum,” Thomas said, storming out. When the reporter tried to ask a follow-up, Thomas told him to shut up.

THE NUMBERS GAME

Jeff Hostetler completed four of five passes for 59 yards on the Raiders’ game-winning 67-yard drive against the Houston Oilers. Football experts will tell you that defense wins championships. The NFL measures defense by yards allowed. Houston, with a 1-7 record, has the third-best pass defense in the NFL. However, the reason they look so good is because the opponents usually jump to such a big early lead that they run the ball the rest of the game. The Oilers have allowed more yards rushing than any team in the AFC, but because of the misleading pass defense statistics, their defense is ranked second overall.

What does this mean? It means it’s about time the NFL gets with the program. The most accurate way to rank defenses is to rank them by points allowed. Isn’t that the point of the game, to give up fewer points than the opponent?

Of the last 10 Super Bowl winners, only one, the 1988 San Francisco 49ers, ranked below second overall in that category, and the 49ers were fifth.

Statistics are useful tools when used properly. Unfortunately, they aren’t being used properly by the NFL.

FALL OF THE ROAMIN’ UMPIRE

Umpire Al Conway was knocked down after being hit in the head by a pass from Miami’s Dan Marino. Conway came up bleeding but stayed in the game between the Dolphins and New England.

INJURY REPORT

San Diego quarterback Stan Humphries suffered a dislocated left elbow. . . . Kansas City cornerback Mark Collins was hurt on the opening kickoff when he tackled Buffalo’s Bucky Brooks. He was taken off the field on a stretcher and was later reported to have a deep thigh bruise. Brooks later sprained his left knee running back a third-quarter kickoff. . . . New York Giants’ center Brian Williams suffered a blow to the abdomen late in the first half and was sent to New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center for overnight observation. . . . Cleveland quarterback Vinny Testaverde sustained a mild neck sprain on a sack and was later sidelined by a hard hit. . . . Denver running back Leonard Russell sprained his left ankle.

QUOTEWORTHY

“Before the game, in the locker room, I told the guys, ‘This game is rated R--adult language and a lot of violence.’ And we really went out there and showed them that particular style of play.”

--Bill defensive end Bruce Smith after his team defeated Kansas City, 44-10.

“I’m too old for this . . . “ --Chiefs’ Joe Montana, according to Smith.