Survival Quotient

For 32 violent minutes, the Dallas Cowboys seemed on their way to gaining a measure of revenge on the Green Bay Packers who had whipped them two years in a row for the National Foot ball League championship. In the first half, Quarterback Don Meredith rifled a touchdown pass to Bob Hayes; after that, he engineered a field goal for a 10-7 lead. Then it happened. Early in the third quarter, the Packers' Willie Davis crashed through the Cowboy line, grabbed Meredith's face mask and wrenched him to the ground, breaking his nose. The infraction cost Green Bay a 15-yd. penalty. It cost Dallas the ball game. Obviously in pain, Meredith was only fitfully effective, seemed to have trouble finding his receivers, was twice intercepted. Meanwhile, Green Bay Quarterback Bart Starr completed ten of eleven passes, three of them for touchdowns. Final score: Green Bay 28, Dallas 17.

Once more pro football had demonstrated that even the best team is rarely better than its quarterback. With Meredith healthy, the Cowboys had galloped to six straight victories and an undisputed lead in the N.F.L. Until the Dallas game, the world champion Packers had managed only a 2-3-1 record--largely because of a freak injury to their own field general. While lobbing passes in a warmup drill before the Los Angeles Rams game three weeks ago, Starr unaccountably pulled the biceps muscle in his throwing arm, watched from the sidelines as the Rams toppled his teammates 16-14. Against Detroit a week later, Starr entered the game for one play, painfully flipped a 3-yd. touchdown pass to eke out a 14-14 tie.

Abortive Appearance. This season Meredith and Starr have had more than their share of companions in pain. Indeed, the outcome of the 1968 pro football season seems to be predicated on the survival quotient of quarterbacks. As of last week, no fewer than 16 signal callers in the two leagues have been sidelined with injuries for one or more games. Many of the injuries, like Starr's, could hardly have been prevented. Pete Beathard of the Houston Oilers (record: 3-5-0) was rushed to the hospital last month for an emergency appendectomy, while winless Philadelphia's Norm Snead, trying to make a tackle after an interception, turned sharply and broke his ankle in a preseason game against the Detroit Lions. Baltimore has had to rely on a stubborn defense and second-string Signal Caller Earl Morrall ever since Johnny Unitas, the N.F.L.'s Most Valuable Player last year, "felt something pop" during a preseason exhibition against Dallas. That something turned out to be his elbow joint. Johnny U. has made only one abortive appearance thus far; he completed one of eleven passes and was intercepted three times as the Cleveland Browns handed the Colts their only loss, 30-20.

The game's inherent violence has also taken its toll. Randy Johnson of the Atlanta Falcons has been knocked out of three games, is currently nursing a pair of broken ribs. Steve Tensi of Denver was hit by a blitzing San Francisco linebacker and suffered a broken collarbone. The Chicago Bears lost both Jack Concannon (broken collarbone) and Rudy Bukich (sprained shoulder) in a costly 27-17 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. The New York Giants were riding a four-game winning streak until their artful dodger, Fran Tarkenton, failed to dodge quickly enough against Atlanta and was rudely bounced on his throwing shoulder, as the Giants lost 24-21. The next week, Fran was way below par, completed only twelve passes in the Giants' 26-10 loss to San Francisco. Last week, in what promised to be a dazzling passing duel, the Giants limped to a 13-10 victory over the Washington Redskins, mainly because Sonny Jurgensen, his cracked rib encased in plastic, completed only seven of 25 passes for 73 yds.

Other teams are discovering joy through strength. Los Angeles' Roman Gabriel, at 6 ft. 4 in., 220 Ibs., is nothing if not durable; he has completed 101 of 187 passes for ten touchdowns to give the Rams a 6-1 record and a tie with Baltimore for the lead in the N.F.L.'s Coastal Division. Lennie Dawson has missed only two quarters of play as the Kansas City Chiefs (7-1) opened a 1 1/2-game lead in the A.F.L.'s Western Division. In the East, Joe Namath's well-knocked knees have somehow remained intact, and he has passed the New York Jets (5-2) to a two-game margin over the Boston Patriots. But Willie Joe could hardly be expected to outlast the injury epidemic. As the Jets routed Boston 48-14 last week, Namath was removed in the last quarter with a jammed thumb on his passing hand.

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