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Scoring machines

The Bucs' four NFC Central foex should rack up the points -- on both sides of the ball.

By ERNEST HOOPER

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 1, 2000

People may still call the NFC Central "the old black and blue division," but this year it will be the division's defensive coordinators who are getting beat up.

In Chicago, Minnesota and Green Bay, questions abound about how the teams will fair defensively. The Lions defense looks a little better, but in Detroit, the uncertainty rests with the health of the team's offense.

DETROIT

Lions quarterback Charlie Batch has missed the entire preseason with a knee injury suffered during minicamp, but he vows to be ready for Sunday's season opener at New Orleans. How important is Batch? Since he was drafted in 1998, Detroit is 2-9 in games Batch didn't start. If he doesn't play Sunday, journeyman Stoney Case will start.

"I'm a little frustrated by the injuries," coach Bobby Ross told the Detroit News. "Here we are, getting ready for the first game of the regular season, and we still have probably three or four question marks. All of them are based on injuries."

Both tight ends, David Sloan and Pete Chryplewicz, have been out most of the preseason, and rookie guard Stockar McDougle may not be able to go against the Saints. Receiver Herman Moore is slated to miss four to six weeks after separating his shoulder in the final preseason game.

So where do the Lions draw hope? Start with running back James Stewart, who should give Detroit the rushing attack it desperately needed last year.

The defense is another source of confidence. The Lions' front seven is one of the league's best. The only question is at cornerback, where Bryant Westbrook and Terry Fair are coming off injuries.

"It's pretty clear on defense," Ross said. "We're locked in there. That's why we've played fairly well there."

CHICAGO

The Bears made all the right off-season moves in bolstering a defense ranked 29th last season. But in the final preseason game, the Titans racked up 31 points, 267 passing yards, 309 total yards and 18 first downs in 181/2 minutes of the first half.

"We really stunk out the joint," Bears defensive coordinator Greg Blache told the Chicago Sun-Times. "Mercifully, they took their starters off the field. We failed the test. We dropped the ball."

It's hard to understand what's wrong because the Bears picked up some talented players through free agency: cornerback Thomas Smith from Buffalo, defensive end Phillip Daniels from Seattle and linebacker Brian Urlacher from the draft.

But in four preseason games, the Bears allowed Tennessee's Steve McNair, Cincinnati's Akili Smith, Cleveland's Tim Couch and the Giants' Kerry Collins to complete 64 of 89 passes for 649 yards and three touchdowns. Blache conceded his schemes have been basic during the preseason, but the problems may be more than that.

The offensive outlook is far brighter. Quarterback Cade McNown has shown all the signs of maturity as he enters his second season, and the receiving corps is deep and talented. Running back Curtis Enis continues to be sporadic, but the Bears may solve their problems by benching Enis in favor of backup Marlon Barnes.

MINNESOTA

The Vikings meet the Bears in the season opener Sunday, and if the naysayers are right, the final score will be something like 45-42.

Minnesota's problems on defense are far more evident because coach Dennis Green is trying to bring winning football out of a host of unknown players. The cornerbacks head up the list of no-names: former receiver Robert Tate and Kenny Wright are the starters. The nickel corner is still up for grabs.

In the final preseason game, the Vikes played their defensive starters for three quarters against Indianapolis. The Colts played their starters for three series, but backup Indy quarterbacks Billy Joe Hobert and Kelly Holcomb combined for 227 yards on 18 of 31 passing.

The off-season concerns about the offense have been largely alleviated by the performance of second-year quarterback Daunte Culpepper. The former Central Florida standout finished the preseason with five passes of at least 54 yards and threw for a total of 751 yards in the equivalent of about two full games.

What helps Culpepper is the talent around him: receivers extraordinaire Randy Moss and Cris Carter, running back Robert Smith and tight end Andrew Jordan. Still, the Vikes went only 1-3 in the preseason.

"Right now, you can't be too satisfied with what we've done," Moss told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "But we're injury free and the starters aren't playing the entire game."

GREEN BAY

The Packers beat Cleveland, a team that went 2-14 in 1999, by the smallest of margins in their final preseason game. But new coach Mike Sherman said the 34-33 victory "built confidence."

Huh?

Times have changed in Wisconsin. The success against Cleveland was rooted in the ability of the Pack's first-team defense to force the Browns into a punt, something the starting unit had not accomplished in any of the other preseason games.

"We read the articles y'all write about us, and obviously the defense wasn't the most confident group going in," Sherman told the Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal. "We gained some confidence.

"I thought our first defense clicked. It's not the final step, but it's a step."

In 12 series over four games, the starting defense allowed 669 yards and an average of 6.8 yards per play. The first unit also failed to record a sack or a turnover. The unit has been without some injured starters such as defensive tackle Santana Dotson and linebacker Brian Williams, but even if they return, the struggles may continue.

Offensively, the promise has been bludgeoned by injuries. Quarterback Brett Favre played only two series in the preseason because of tendinitis in his elbow. Receiver Corey Bradford and running backs Dorsey Levens and Ahman Green did play in the preseason, but all three got hurt.

Levens' knee was scoped in August, and he likely won't play in the opener against the Jets. Ditto for Bradford, who will miss at least a month with a fractured fibula. Green may return but has been sidelined in recent weeks with knee ligament damage.

"Nothing changes," Sherman said of the injuries. "The expectations of the Green Bay Packers are the same. The challenges are a little bit more extreme, but our fans expect us to win our first ballgame and we're going to do whatever we can to do that, with or without those guys."

The Packers believe they can contend with Favre, but there are a lot of question marks.

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