NFL not looking too elite

Vinny Testaverde is my new hero, too. Don't get me wrong about that. Yo, Vinny, you da man, and all that.

But what does it say about the competitive state of the NFL when a 43-year-old athletic geezer can walk in off the street on Wednesday, grab a Carolina Panthers playbook that afternoon, practice a couple of days and then direct a 25-10 road win on Sunday? Something's gone completely haywire at what's supposed to be the highest level of football.

Oh, sure, I realize that the win was over the Arizona Cardinals, a bad team when they were in St. Louis, bad when they were in Chicago and probably will be just as bad when they someday wind up in another locale.

It's also a fact that the Cardinals were playing with lost quarterback luggage, too. When Kurt Warner didn't last a full quarter, Tim Rattay had to relieve, and the Panthers' defense more or less got the rest of the afternoon off. Even so, the Cardinals still had most of the same players who had helped the team win three of five earlier games.

Ask yourself this: Could Testaverde, working under the same circumstances, have led Kentucky to a win over LSU on Saturday? I don't think so. I don't think he could have done it even if he could have taken the Panthers' offensive line along with him.

I'm not saying that college football is better than the NFL, but college offenses are more diverse and often much more difficult to execute.

In a way, it's a tribute to the Panthers' offensive system that Testaverde could adjust so quickly. But it says just as much about the relative uniformity of all offensive systems in the NFL.

For years, the NFL has been a closed strategical universe. Almost every team in the league attempts to execute the same plays with similar personnel. Offensively, it's all about power running and pocket passing. Most teams have one speed receiver, one possession receiver and one running back that specializes in catching swing passes.

The prevailing offensive logic is to keep everything simple and wait for the opposing defense to make big mistakes, which happens a lot. But when those defenses don't, you get what happened Sunday, when St. Louis scored three points, Washington 14, the New York Jets nine, Tennessee 13 and Oakland 14. Three teams won without scoring 20 points.

One of the reasons many successful college coaches fail to win in the NFL is that they don't understand how the pro game is played. They try to do too much and get fired before they can make a dent in the competitive culture.

By being just average and avoiding those defensive mistakes, most teams have a decent chance to win seven to nine games. That's especially the case in the NFC, which has far fewer playmakers than the AFC.

Testaverde has a perfect understanding of how to play the conservative offensive game. He couldn't ask for a better fit than the Panthers, and right now, he's the feel-good story of the season in the pros. More power to him.