Strong Get Stronger

RATING THE WEST
CATEGORY	CHIEFS	RAIDERS	CHARGERS	BRONCOS
Quarterback	16	12	8	4
Linebackers	12	16	8	4
Defensive line	12	16	8	4
Offensive line	12	9	6	3
Secondary	6	8	4	2
Receivers	6	4	8	2
Running backs	4	3	2	1
Kicking game	4	3	1	2
TOTAL	72	71	45	22

By beating Detroit and Minnesota in exhibition games last month, the Denver Broncos indicated what is happening in the Western Division of the American Football League. For years it was automatic to refer to Denver as the worst team in professional football. That is quite obviously no longer true. Now Denver is merely the worst team in the Western Division of the AFL and that is not exactly shameful. With the exception of Buffalo, the best teams in the league are in the West, a division that is getting stronger every year.

The best team of all is Kansas City. Although Oakland has an edge on the Chiefs in defense and San Diego is coming back after a year of floundering, Kansas City will defeat Buffalo again for the AFL championship and another trip to the Super Bowl.

The power in the West is not as clearly stratified as it is in the East, where there is only one really solid team. But of the Chiefs' first seven games this season, two are with Houston, two with Miami and one with Denver. By the time the schedule is half finished, Kansas City should be too far ahead to be caught.

The Chiefs have the finest offense in the AFL. Last year they led the league in rushing, in total offense and in touchdowns passing. Not content with that, Coach Hank Stram has added a trick that he believes will make his team more efficient. The Chiefs are using an unusual I formation in which the tight end lines up directly behind the quarterback. Before the ball is snapped, the end moves to one side of the line or other, thus establishing the strong side of the formation so quickly that the defense has no chance to adjust. The Chicago Bears found this out in their disastrous 66-24 loss to Kansas City.

A tight end is commonly covered by a strong-side safety who is big enough to grapple him for the ball. The weak-side safety is often smaller and faster, more of a rover, who will pick up a man coming out of the backfield. Until the Kansas City shift is accomplished, the defense has no way of knowing where the end will go and cannot flip-flop its safeties to counter the Chiefs' strength.

"What we want to do most of all," says Stram, "is to create indecision on the part of the other team. When we reduce the defenders' reading and reacting time, we feel we've got an advantage. We also feel we will force them to play a normal defense. They can't overshift, because they don't know what our formation will be. They can't locate the tight end. In effect, we freeze them.

"We can't get away with things in this league as we once could. Every team now has quality defensive personnel—and experience. Once we didn't have to create formations. The other teams didn't recognize them when you threw them at them straight. But now it's different. We're trying to be more sophisticated and present new problems. The nicest thing about this formation is that it's simple. The end either lines up in a familiar position or he stays in the I and blocks with the equivalent of a downfield block."

Coincidentally, the Baltimore Colts' coach, Don Shula, has installed the same type of I formation with his tight end, John Mackey. After the Chiefs' opening exhibition game in Houston, someone asked Stram why he was using the "Shula I." Stram erupted. "This is my formation," he said. "In fact, we started to put it in for the Super Bowl game last January." Perhaps he should have. One thing the new I formation has seemed to do is make Mike Garrett even better, in Stram's language: "Mike is such a cavity runner that the I provides him with free expression. He is able to bleed yardage from it."

As a rookie Garrett finished second in the league in rushing and had an average of 5.5 yards per carry. His early play this season has been at least as good. "He's the best runner in traffic or in trouble that I've ever seen," says Stram. Many observers thought Garrett was too small ever to become a top professional running back, but he did it. At 5'9" and 195 pounds, he is a tough, quick, waterbug sort of runner and a very good blocker who hits low. His competition, Bert Coan, is tall, moody and frequently injured. A slashing type of runner, Coan often has trouble with his legs. He missed several exhibition games because of a mysterious leg ailment. Last year Coan had a 5.4 rushing average, scored nine touchdowns and caught 18 passes while sharing the running job with Garrett.

The Kansas City fullback, Curtis McClinton, is an excellent blocker. As an experiment, Stram moved Defensive End Aaron Brown, the Chiefs' No. 1 draft choice in 1965, to fullback. Despite his size, Brown is one of the fastest men on the Kansas City roster. The swing back, Eugene Thomas, has speed and power and can play either of the running-back positions. Stram insists upon balance in his offense, slightly favoring the running game. With the best set of backs in the Western division, Kansas City will be the strongest running team in the AFL again.