WILL MCDONOUGH

It's two for the money

Faulk, Warner a priceless pair

2/3/2002

EW ORLEANS - Bill Walsh, who won his share of Super Bowls and coached his way into the Hall of Fame, likes to say, ''The great players see the game differently. They see it in slow motion.''

Today, the Patriots defense will face the greatest challenge any Super Bowl team has ever faced: stopping the best offensive team in the history of the game.

Only one NFL team has scored 500 points in three consecutive seasons. These St. Louis Rams. The reason for it is that they have two great ones - two stars who play a game different from the one almost all of their peers play. Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk see the game in slow motion, while everyone else on the field is trying to catch up with them.

Warner, the Rams quarterback, is probably the most accurate passer ever. His running mate, Faulk, may be the best all-around back to play the game.

Together, they are nearly unstoppable.

''It seems like every time Warner throws a pass, he hits the receiver somewhere between the elbow and fingertips,'' said Arizona Cardinals coach Dave McGinnis. ''And he usually puts it in a position where they can run with it all in stride.''

''Marshall can do everything,'' said Emmitt Smith, the great Dallas Cowboys back. ''He can run, catch, block, pick up the blitz, play wide receiver, and is so smart, he's like a coach on the field. There aren't many guys who ever played the game who could do it all like that.''

Warner and Faulk will be the two key pieces in the chess match between head coaches Mike Martz of St. Louis and Bill Belichick of New England.

Martz will try to move them where Belichick can't find them, and Belichick will do everything to keep them in check.

''I'm really looking forward to the challenge in this game,'' said Warner. ''Our coach has a reputation of being a mad scientist and offensive genius, and he likes that kind of thing. Belichick has the reputation of being the best defensive game planner in the league.

''In the first game we played this year, he threw some things at us we didn't expect and had a hard time dealing with. I know in this game there will be times I drop back to pass, right from the start, that I'm going to have a hard time figuring out what I'm looking at in their defense, and where I should go with the ball. How fast I can make the right decision, and not make the wrong decision, will decide what kind of a game I'm going to have throwing the ball.''

In the NFC Championship game, a 29-24 win over Philadelphia, Warner said he wasn't really tested.

''Marshall was running the ball so well, and our offensive line picked up everything they threw at us, so all I had to do was manage the game,'' he said. ''I never really had to gamble with any throws. I didn't look downfield more than three or four times in the game, and if the coverage was tight, I looked somewhere else. In fact, I felt better physically after that game than I felt before playing the game. I didn't get hit much at all.''

Rams offensive line coach Jim Hanifan said, ''When we played them up there in Foxborough in the middle of the year, everything was new with their defense. Nothing we looked at on film from their earlier games was the same. Belichick will do the same thing in this game. He'll have guys spread all around the field in unusual places, but they won't be in the same place when we snap the ball.''

Belichick and Hanifan have gone head to head before.

''Belichick does a great job of not asking his defensive players to do too much,'' said Hanifan, a former head coach of the Cardinals. ''He tries to get all of the matchups of his players against yours in his favor. So we have to use motion and shifting and different alignments to get the advantage back to our offense. The first game, we never did get into a rhythm, but we still played well enough to win.''

The Rams expect to score 30 points, and they don't think the Patriots can match that. They will come out firing, hoping to build a quick lead and force the Patriots to get out of a running game.

''I don't know how really good this Rams defense is,'' said Bill Parcells. ''I think the Patriots can run the ball on them if they don't fall behind in a hurry. And if they can do that, they can win the game. The two keys are containing Faulk, especially in the passing game, and getting some running of their own.''

New England's offense is under the gun in this one. It has not been able to score points against good teams. The first time the Patriots played St. Louis this season, they scored only one offensive TD; likewise in the playoff wins over Oakland and Pittsburgh. They won't be in today's game if they can't score 25 points or more.

This is because of Warner.

''He has it all as a passer,'' said Martz. ''He is smart, decisive, tough. He has a great ability to slide around the pocket and throw it through the open window. He doesn't have many balls knocked down or tipped at the line of scrimmage like most passers.

''There are natural throwing lanes created by your pass protection scheme, and somehow he finds them and gets the ball out of his hand, through the lane, and to the receiver, at a high rate.

''When he first started to play with us [three years ago], he didn't have the quick release he has now. The rushers could get some hits on him or force him to throw the ball prematurely. That doesn't happen now.''

The Patriots are expected to double-team Faulk all day, while the rest of the defense plays deep and forces Warner to throw shorter passes.

''New England had a very good defensive scheme in the first game,'' said Joe Theismann, who was in the ESPN booth as an analyst that night. ''They blitzed a lot but then had their defensive backs back off. The blitz forced Warner to get rid of the ball fast and throw short. They didn't give him much deep that night.''

''That's true,'' said Patriots safety Lawyer Milloy, ''but our corners [Ty Law and Otis Smith] have to play them tighter this time. Their wide receivers had too much room to catch the ball the last time.''

Belichick always stays true to his avowed defensive policy: give up no big plays, make them march the ball up the field and end up with a field goal. It has worked consistently in this push to the Super Bowl. But it will face its greatest challenge today.

Patriots owner Bob Kraft said his team is confident.

''We've been low key,'' said Kraft. ''Our team has gone about its business in a very professional manner. We have practiced very well, and our players think we have an excellent game plan that gives us a good chance to win. People are making a mistake if they count us out.''

''We want to do something that has never been done before,'' said Milloy. ''No one has ever carried the world championship trophy of professional football through the streets of Boston before. That's our dream.''

By 10 o'clock tonight he'll know whether he should saddle up the horses and take off for Lexington and Concord. Most of America feels the trophy will be riding on the backs of the Budweiser Clydesdales in St. Louis.

Will McDonough's notes column appears on Sundays. His e-mail address is mcdonough@globe.com.