No Compassion For Expansion Oilers, Falcons Get First Crack At Debuting Teams

The Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars, who faced numerous obstacles just getting to their first regular season NFL games, face one more now that they’ve reached it: The Fear Factor, the biggest motivation for a team facing the Panthers or Jaguars.

Nobody wants to lose to - gasp! - a first-year expansion team, particularly in its first game.

The teams in the bull’s eye this week are the Atlanta Falcons, who play the Panthers in the Georgia Dome today, and the Houston Oilers, who visit Jacksonville.

The Oilers have reason to be scared. Not only did they finish 2-14 last season, but they have to go to newly renamed and refurbished Jacksonville Stadium, the old Gator Bowl, where 73,000 people will be cheering against them. The Oilers are little better than an expansion team - their first team couldn’t beat Dallas’ backups in last week’s exhibition finale.

Tom Coughlin, the Jaguars’ coach and general manager, spent 18 hours a day for l8 months in preparation, doing mock game plans last season when he had no players and no opponents.

Now he has players. Quarterback Steve Beuerlein and wide receivers Desmond Howard and Ernest Givins, a former Oiler, probably are the best known. His game plan is for real and he was 2-3 in exhibitions.

Carolina, meanwhile, got rid of its biggest name this week: Barry Foster, the oft-injured running back with a $2.5 million salary. Frank Reich, the ex-Bill, won the quarterback job over Jack Trudeau.

But the strength is defense, led by a respectable linebacking corps.

“I think the biggest factor is that we’re playing well and we’re playing together,” said linebacker Paul Butcher, primarily a special teams player at Detroit and Indianapolis.

“They are going to be very good on defense,” said linebacker Corey Miller of the Giants, who lost to Carolina last week.

That’s to be seen as the 1995 season opens with the two expansion teams in place and the two Los Angeles teams out of place - the Raiders back in Oakland after 14 seasons in Southern California, and the Rams in St. Louis. The Raiders open at home against defending AFC champion San Diego and the Rams are at Green Bay.

In other games today, Cincinnati is at Indianapolis, Cleveland at New England, San Francisco at New Orleans, Tampa Bay at Philadelphia, St. Louis at Green Bay, Detroit at Pittsburgh, the New York Jets at Miami, Kansas City at Seattle, Arizona at Washington, Minnesota at Chicago, and Buffalo at Denver. Dallas is at the New York Giants Monday.