The Houston Oilers scare Herschel Walker much more than any 1-5 team should.
Why? Because the way Walker figures it, the Oilers are due for a win, and he doesn't want it to come Monday night against his Philadelphia Eagles (4-2)."You know it's going to come. You know it's going to happen," Walker said. "You just hope it doesn't happen against you.
"They are a dangerous team because they don't feel they should be in the position that they are."
The Oilers, a playoff team for the past seven seasons, knew there would be a transition period when they allowed Warren Moon to leave. And they anticipated the defense might need time to recover from the loss of coordinator Buddy Ryan and ends William Fuller and Sean Jones.
But few saw Houston having only one win in its first six games, not even coach Jack Pardee.
"It's very disappointing," he said. "This has been a season with a lot of change."
Offense has been the big problem for the Oilers, who scored their season high in points in the opener.
That was also the game where they first lost Cody Carlson, the longtime backup to Moon, to a separated shoulder. Carlson sat out two weeks, then reinjured the shoulder in week five.
The Oilers went with Bucky Richardson and, last week, Billy Joe Tolliver, who signed as a free agent in week two. "We've been playing what would normally be our third or fourth quarterback all year long," Pardee said.
If Carlson is ready, he'll get the start. "I feel it's progressing," Carlson said. "It's a lot better than last week."
The Oilers may also get running back Gary Brown back. Brown, who came off the bench midway through last season and still ran for 1,002 yards, missed the last two games with a sprained ankle.
Defensively, the Oilers still run the 4-6 defense Ryan installed. It's a blitz-oriented defense, and the Eagles expect defensive coordinator Jeff Fisher to rush a lot of people in an attempt to hurry Randall Cunningham.
"As we speak, they're blitzing," joked Philadelphia coach Rich Kotite last Wednesday.
Fisher, who had the same job with the Eagles when Ryan was coach in Philadelphia, "does great things," Cunningham said.
"He'll make you think he's going blitz, then he'll throw zones and combinations and man-to-man," he said. "Then he'll blitz you when you think things are all right. And sure enough, they'll sack the quarterback."
In a 24-13 loss to the Dallas Cowboys last week, Cunningham got plenty of pressure. He was sacked four times, made ill-advised throws into coverage that led to four interceptions and looked generally nervous in the pocket.
"It was just a bad game, that's all," said Kotite of Cunningham's work against the Cowboys. "He's come bouncing back before."
Cunningham said it's been easy for him to forget about his bad game because, unlike past Eagle teams, his teammates have been supportive.
"We've got a great group of guys here," he said. "They don't lose confidence in me."