The Geneva meeting might produce an agreed-upon statement of “guidelines” providing impetus to the arms control negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union, Reagan Administration officials said. But they stressed that there was only a slim chance of this. With Mr. Reagan scheduled to leave on Saturday for the meetings in Geneva on November 19 and 20, the officials, in separate discussions, said that because of the wide gap between the United States and the Soviet Union, it was unrealistic in the week remaining to expect major agreements to emerge. They said that is why Robert C. McFarlane, the national security adviser, and Secretary of State George P. Shultz have both said since their talks in Moscow last week that it was highly unlikely that the two sides would issue an agreed, final communique covering areas of agreement. That is also why the emphasis had been on the lack of concrete accords expected. “This is not posturing,” one aide said. “We are simply laying it out as it is. If we can get something better than we think is possible, we’ll do so, even though some in the press may think they are being set up by being told not to expect much at the summit.”
Moscow condemned a radio speech addressed Saturday to Russians by President Reagan, charging the broadcast showed Washington was not interested in peace. The official Tass news agency criticized President Reagan’s radio speech to the Soviet people, saying it was full of propaganda and demonstrated that Washington does not intend to do its part toward curbing the arms race. The criticism, published in the form of a commentary by the press agency Tass, said Mr. Reagan “uttered a good deal of words about peace” but offered no sign the White House was “prepared to go its part of the road to the cause of preventing an arms race in outer space and of radically curbing it on earth.” The Reagan speech was broadcast to the Soviet Union on the Voice of America. Tass charged that “the President’s entourage” is moving to obscure the main issues of security and disarmament “with verbosity in favor of peace.”
When President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev meet in Geneva November 19 and 20, each will carry his own domestic political burden into the talks. Each is restricted in his maneuverability by factors inside his own country. As a result, Mr. Gorbachev’s problems at home — especially his short period of eight months in office and the inefficiencies of his country’s economic system — have become a focus of major interest to American specialists on Soviet affairs who are watching developments in Moscow as the summit meeting approaches.
President Reagan gave his support to any move to repeal a resolution adopted 10 years ago by the General Assembly of the United Nations equating Zionism with racism in a message to the Conference on Israel, Zionism and the United Nations in New York. “Few events have so offended the American people as the ‘Zionism is racism’ resolution of November 10, 1975,” the President said in his message to the Conference on Israel, Zionism and the United Nations.
West Germany will not sign a treaty formally joining the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative but may participate in the “Star Wars” program through a memorandum or exchange of letters, government spokesman Friedhelm Ost said in Bonn. The West German newspaper Bild reported that Chancellor Helmut Kohl has agreed to take part in the research phase of the space-based missile defense system. It said Bonn has reservations about a treaty because of possible harm to East Bloc relations.
Italian Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini said he has proof that the Achille Lauro hijackers telephoned Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunis before seizing the cruise ship in the Mediterranean last month. Spadolini said this disproves claims by PLO leader Yasser Arafat that his organization had nothing to do with the hijacking. “We have discovered tapes of telephone calls from Genoa to Tunis,” Spadolini told the Milan newspaper Il Giornale. The ship started its cruise in Genoa.
Jailed leaders of the outlawed Solidarity union appear to have been excluded from a limited political amnesty announced by Poland, Western diplomats said in Warsaw. The official PAP news agency reported there would be no clemency for prisoners regarded as “socially dangerous.” This was a blow to hopes that the amnesty would apply to Adam Michnik, Wladyslaw Frasyniuk and Bogdan Lis, who were imprisoned last June for trying to stage a Solidarity strike.
Thousands of demonstrators, many carrying effigies of President Reagan and chanting anti-American slogans, marched in several Spanish cities today to press for withdrawal from NATO and removal of United States military bases. The turnout for the rallies was smaller than past marches called by leftist and pacifist groups. Organizers put the number of marchers in Madrid at 500,000, but the police said they counted only 15,000. News reports put the number at about 100,000. No violence was reported during the protests in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao and other cities where demonstrators marched under fair skies to press the government to hold a promised referendum on continued NATO membership.
Two bombs exploded at Luxembourg’s Findel Airport, wrecking radar equipment and causing more than $1 million in damage but injuring no one, police said. It was the 12th such bombing in the tiny West European country in six months. As in the previous bombings, there was no claim of responsibility. The ruined radar equipment was used to guide incoming flights in dense fog. Normal airport service was reported later.
The authorities in Western Europe could prevent the spread of AIDS, researchers say, but lack of funds may prevent them from doing so. The researchers, participants in a recent three-day conference on the disease, say the European authorities could identify people exposed to the AIDS virus and educate them about the hazards of certain sexual activities and intravenous drug use.
Pope John Paul II today condemned political disputes that prevent food from reaching the world’s hungry. “Too often, nationalism and protectionism of various kinds get in the way of both the availability of food for all without discrimination, as well as the transfer of provisions from the highly productive countries to those barely supplied,” the Pope said at a special mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Israel and Jordan held talks that could lead to an international conference to which Jordan would bring only Palestinians acceptable to Israel, Israeli Government sources said. Prime Minister Shimon Peres of Israel and King Hussein of Jordan have an informal agreement to work toward negotiations in which Israel will agree to attend an international conference in return for Jordan’s agreeing to bring to the conference only Palestinians acceptable to Israel, Israeli Government sources said today. This understanding between King Hussein and Mr. Peres apparently was arranged through American mediation and other contacts over the last month. Israeli politicians have said that Mr. Peres met secretly with Mr. Hussein in Paris last month, but Mr. Peres called the assertion “nonsense.”
A land mine laid by Tamil separatists blew up a bus today, killing six passengers, the authorities said. The attack was apparently in retaliation for the killing of 33 guerrillas by Sri Lankan troops. A cease-fire and peace talks on the island’s conflict between Sinhalese and Tamil separatists are near collapse.A Defense Ministry spokesman said 33 guerrillas were killed over the last three days during battles in eastern Trincomalee, where security forces were hunting for rebels who shot and killed 10 Sinhalese villagers Thursday. He said the guerrillas struck back by setting off a land mine that killed six bus passengers near Sittaru village in Trincomalee.
Thriving free enterprise in Canton impressed and perplexed a Soviet parliamentary delegation that visited the city. “If this is Marxism, I must re-read Marx,” one of the Russians is said to have remarked after seeing Western-style hotels and many other signs that Canton is pursuing an “open door” policy. During their time here, the officials were exposed to the city’s exploding free enterprise, to its Western-style hotels rivaling the best in Hong Kong, and to the many other signs that Canton has lost its heart to the policy of the “open door.”
A caucus of the political opponents of President Ferdinand E. Marcos asked him today to resign before presidential elections were held, but the group was reportedly told the issue was “non-negotiable.” The group of about 30 assemblymen from half a dozen opposition parties made its request a week before Mr. Marcos’s presidential opponent is to be chosen. The National Assembly reconvenes Monday and will discuss the Marcos proposal of early elections. The caucus, led by the United Nationalist Democratic Organization, called for fair election rules, the postponement of the vote from January 17 to March 17 and Mr. Marcos’s resignation. But Neptali Gonzales, the group’s vice president, said a presidential adviser, Jose Rono, had told him that Mr, Marcos’ decision to stay in office through the election was firm. Mr. Marcos’s term ends in 1987. He has said he would resign as President to clear the way for the January election but that his resignation would take effect only when the election winner took office.
Three American Indian activists have announced in Costa Rica that they are joining the cause of rebel Miskito Indians in Nicaragua. Russell Means, 46 years old, a leader of the American Indian Movement, said at a news conference in San Jose last week that he hoped to recruit 90 to 100 “warriors from North America” to join Miskito fighters to oppose the Sandinista Government. He said sending American Indian combatants to fight in Nicaragua would “begin the process of uniting the red people of the Western Hemisphere.”
Twelve judges shunned memorial rites in Bogota, Colombia, for the scores of people who died in a siege at the Palace of Justice last week. The judges, who survived the battle in which 11 justices died, said they stayed away to protest the government’s handling of the crisis. In a brief address at the memorial, held in Colombia’s main cathedral and attended by hundreds of Government officials and scores of foreign diplomats, President Belisario Betancur sought to explain his decision not to negotiate with the leftist rebels who seized the justice building shortly before noon on Wednesday. The rebels were members of a group known as M-19.
A gunman suspected of having ties to anti-government rebels seized a Uganda Airlines plane on a domestic flight with 49 people aboard and forced the pilot to land in rebel-controlled territory, officials said. A man claiming to represent the National Resistance Army telephoned the British Broadcasting Corp. offices in Nairobi and said the twin-engine plane was seized because Uganda Airlines is “used to ferry military personnel.”
South African police said that four blacks were killed in scattered anti-apartheid violence, while a policeman was shot and wounded in a black neighborhood in Cape province. Officials say that more than 800 people, most of them blacks, have died in rioting against apartheid that began in September, 1984. Meanwhile, the Johannesburg Sunday Star reported that a letter used by the government as evidence to restrict the press is bogus and part of a shocking “disinformation scandal.” The letter was purportedly written by a Briton who said he saw a television crew filming a phony riot in South Africa. The London Daily Telegraph, which published the letter, apologized to its readers.
King George III was defended by his descendant, the Prince of Wales, in a news conference in Washington. He also said his wife found John Travolta a good dancer. The Princess and the actor danced at a White House dinner Saturday night.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) said that he is convinced he can win his party’s presidential nomination in 1988. Kennedy, who lost the 1980 nomination to President Jimmy Carter, told the Boston Globe he won’t make a final decision until after the 1986 elections. The paper said, however, that he has raised about $1 million for the campaign. “The general election would be a tough and difficult path at any time for any candidate, but I don’t consider any of the Republicans that have been mentioned unbeatable,” Kennedy said.
The average disabled veteran’s payment from the federal government will drop by at least $151 if the Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing bill is enacted, Veterans Administration documents showed. The annual benefit to veterans’ survivors also would fall by at least $248 under the measure, sponsored by Sens. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) and Warren B. Rudman (R-New Hampshire). The bill, approved by the Republicanrun Senate, would force spending cuts to balance the budget by 1990. The Democrat-controlled House has passed a rival plan that would exempt some veterans and poverty programs from the cuts.
President Reagan is informed that legal efforts to detain the Soviet sailor who attempted to defect have failed.
The Soviet seaman who jumped ship off New Orleans had initially “decided somehow that he wanted to come to the United States,” Secretary of State George P. Shultz concluded. But he defended the Reagan Administration’s decision to permit the seaman to depart with his ship despite a subpoena by the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Nine of every 10 new jobs in the next decade will be in services, and medical care and computer-related fields will grow fastest, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in Washington. It also said that growth of U.S. manufacturing will remain sluggish, and that blacks and women will make up a larger proportion of the work force. It said current data show the shifting of the U.S. economy from industry to communications and services.
Irv Rubin, the new leader of the Jewish Defense League, said anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States and that he plans to revitalize the group by training Jews and non-Jews in the use of weapons and other paramilitary activities. The league head, Irv Rubin, whom Rabbi Meir Kahane named as his successor in August, was its West Coast coordinator for the last decade. Mr. Rubin began to emerge as a leader after Rabbi Kahane’s decision to emigrate to Israel in 1973.
San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein plans to act this week to shut down bathhouses frequented by homosexuals because she believes they encourage sexual activity that helps to spread AIDS. “I am absolutely convinced that the public health would be better served by closure of the bathhouses,” Mrs. Feinstein said Friday. She said she will meet with other officials to seek a way to close a half-dozen bathhouses. The Mayor said it is wrong to equate AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, with civil rights. “The basic reason for bathhouses is to enable activity that results in the spread of the diseases,” she said. “Unfortunately, some have chosen to make this a civil rights issue, which it is not.” The city’s Health Department ordered the bathhouses closed a year ago, but Judge Roy Wonder of Superior Court decided they could be reopened.
Two escaped prisoners eluded a three-state search today while questions were raised about why they had been placed in an unguarded work crew. The two men took two hostages when they escaped Friday, but they were released unharmed on Saturday. Sheriff J. C. Carr of Blount County said the escapees had not been seen since shortly before noon Saturday, when they tied the hostages to a tree about 130 miles to the southeast. “We haven’t got any new clues,” the sheriff said. He said the search was concentrated today in southeast Alabama, south Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. Timothy Mark Townsend, 25, and Newburn Ray Wilson, 37, escaped from an unguarded prison work crew at the Highland Lake Town Hall, 25 miles northeast of Birmingham.
Nationwide school statistics show that more and better teachers are being recruited, the Carnegie Foundation said in updating its 1983 analysis. The foundation president, Ernest L. Boyer, said that the review found “grounds for cautious hope” that teaching standards are rising. The report’s author, C. Emily Feistritzer of the National Center for Education Information, said that in the last two years, teacher pay raises have outpaced inflation. She said the latest data shows “slow, but steady progress.”
A decade of heightened public awareness has led to a sharp drop in the incidence of severe violence to children, a recent study found. Dr. Richard J. Gelles of the University of Rhode Island and Dr. Murray A. Straus of the University of New Hampshire said they found that while 3.6% of children between 3 and 17 in two-parent families were severely abused in 1975, only 1.9% of those in that age group were victimized this year. They attributed the decline to couples marrying later, waiting longer to have children and having fewer children.
Half of all Americans believe cancer clinics should be allowed to operate in the United States even if the treatments they offer are opposed by established medicine, a Media General-Associated Press poll found. Slightly more than half the 1,412 respondents said they would seek treatments rejected by conventional medicine if they had serious diseases. Four in 10 said they feared one deadly disease more than any other. The vast majority named cancer; the second most feared disease was AIDS.
An explosion and fire ripped through a generator building at a pump station on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline late Saturday, injuring two firefighters and shutting down the pipeline for about 10 hours, officials said. The explosion at Pump Station 1 at Prudhoe Bay did not damage the pipeline but cut off electricity for pumping oil until today. The cause had not been determined.
An Arizona community was erased because it contained an asbestos hazard. The attractive subdivision of Mountain View Mobile Home Estates, housing about 50 families, was built on the site of asbestos factory just outside Globe, Arizona.
Indian summer was definitely over yesterday for much of the country as snow whitened the ground from the Northwest to the Great Lakes and shut down an interstate highway. Temperatures were in the 20’s or below as far south as the Texas Panhandle. Heavy snow in Northern California blacked out parts of the Sierra Nevada, closed roads and left an estimated two dozen hikers snowbound near Yosemite National Park. A second day of snowfall left as much as a foot of snow at many locations across the West and Midwest, and accumulations of three to five feet were measured in the high Rockies. The storm caused conditions blamed for three deaths. In Colorado’s White River National Forest, a search was on for two lost hunters, and a pilot was killed when his plane crashed in a snowstorm in Douglas County, south of Denver. Police said icy road conditions contributed to a three-car pileup near Holcombe, Wisconsin, that killed two persons.
Philadelphia Flyers (NHL) goaltender Pelle Lindbergh smashes his Porsche into a retaining wall in Somerdale, New Jersey after a team party, suffering mortal injuries with two passengers critically hurt; his blood-alcohol level was over twice the legal limit, his family had him removed from life support the following day when they arrived from Sweden.
NFL Football:
The Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 27–17. Lynn Dickey came off the bench to complete 9 of 11 passes for 135 yards, including a 63-yarder to Phillip Epps that set up Dickey’s go-ahead 1-yard touchdown pass to Eddie Lee Ivery with 5:29 to play, as Green Bay rallied for three touchdowns in a 3:37 span late in the game. With the Packers (6–4) trailing by 17–6 with 12:39 remaining, Dickey — who had replaced Jim Zorn with 2:22 left in the first half — connected on 18- and 24-yard passes to help set up Gerry Ellis’s 1-yard run with 7:27 left to bring Green Bay to 17–13. One play after Minnesota (5–5) was forced to punt, Dickey hooked up with Epps — who caught 6 passes for 118 yards — down to Minnesota’s 5-yard line. Two plays later, Dickey hit Ivery to put the Packers ahead to stay, 20–17. Mark Murphy then interecepted a Tommy Kramer pass and returned it 50 yards for the clinching touchdown with 3:56 to go.
The Giants’ offense staggered and struggled today, and it gave away the ball twice deep in its territory and it had Phil Simms overthrow open receivers. The special teams allowed an 89-yard kickoff return. But the defense played a solid, aggressive game, the offense and defense benefited from disputed fourth-quarter calls by the officials and, with a little luck, the Giants hung on for a 24–19 victory over the Los Angeles Rams. On the Giants’ first play from scrimmage, Simms completed a short pass to Lionel Manuel. Gary Green hit Manuel and stripped the ball, and Mel Owens recovered for the Rams, who scored three plays later. After a pair of field goals in the second quarter, Los Angeles seemed about to take a 13–0 lead into the locker room at halftime. Then, with 16 seconds left in the half, the Giants struck for a 36-yard touchdown pass from Simms to Bobby Johnson on an improvised play. The Giants presented the Rams with another gift when Simms’s third quarter pass to Byron Williams was underthrown and intercepted by Johnnie Johnson. That led to the third of Mike Lanford’s four barefoot field goals and a 16–7 lead for the Rams. Simms had other problems in the first half. On third and 13, he overthrew a wide-open Johnson. From the Rams’ 32-yard line, he overthrew Mark Bavaro, the tight end who had a step on his defender in the end zone. The Giants finally took the lead late in the third quarter, built it to 8 points in the fourth quarter and hung on at the finish.
Dave Krieg led a 17-point fourth-quarter as the Seattle defense controlled New Orleans through the final half to win easily, 27–3. Krieg threw for 282 yards and a fourth-quarter, 15-yard touchdown pass to Darryl Turner to end a crisp 4-play, 61-yard drive. The Seattle defense registered eight sacks and also scored a fourth-quarter touchdown when the defensive end Jacob Green picked off a tipped pass and ran 19 yards for a touchdown. Norm Johnson kicked for the other fourth-quarter Seahawk points — a 32-yard field goal and a 26-yarder with 28 seconds left New Orleans (3–7) got its score on a 24-yard field goal by Morten Andersen midway through the first quarter. Curt Warner scored a touchdown for Seattle (6–4) on a 1-yard run with 46 seconds left in the first half after an 11-play, 81-yard drive.
Lionel James scored on a 17-yard run 3:44 into overtime for San Diego to give the Chargers a 40–34 win over the Los Angeles Raiders. Dan Fouts, who threw for 436 yards and four touchdowns, guided the Chargers on an 80-yard drive to the winning touchdown after they took the kickoff to begin the overtime. San Diego, snapping a four-year, seven-game losing streak at the hands of the Raiders, sent the game into the extra period when Fouts passed 14 yards for a touchdown to Charlie Joiner with 53 seconds remaining in regulation after the Chargers drove 71 yards in less than a minute. The score came after the Raiders took a 34–27 lead with 1:49 left as Marc Wilson connected on his third scoring toss of the game, a 24-yarder to Todd Christensen. Fouts, who completed 26 of 41 passes, earlier had thrown scoring tosses of 21 yards to Gary Anderson, 34 yards to James, and 10 yards to Wes Chandler. The Chargers’ other scoring in regulation came on Bob Thomas field goals of 23 and 34 yards. Wilson, who completed 18 of 32 passes for 297 yards, connected with the rookie Jesse Hester on two scoring passes, one of 35 yards and the other of 54.
Mark Duper, sidelined with a broken leg since the season’s second game, returned just in time yesterday, catching eight passes from Dan Marino for a club-record 217 yards. The last was a 50-yarder with 41 seconds left, capping a thrilling last two minutes and giving the Dolphins a 21–17 victory over the New York Jets in Miami. That dropped the Jets to 7–3 and into a tie with New England at the top of the AFC East. It left the Dolphins a game behind at 6–4. A loss would have left Miami three games out of first and probably out of the playoffs for the first time since 1980. “Now I think you can see how much we need Duper,” said coach Don Shula, whose Dolphins had dropped three of their last four and fell behind 17–14 on Ken O’Brien’s 20-yard pass to Rocky Klever with just 1:06 left. “It’s great to have him back, it’s great to come back and win,” said quarterback Dan Marino, who completed 21 of 37 for 362 yards but also threw three interceptions. Those interceptions were typical of what was a sloppily played game for 3 ½ periods. The two teams combined for 23 penalties for 157 yards and seven turnovers, five by Miami. The Jets took a 3–0 lead with just over six minutes left in the first half on a 21-yard field goal by Pat Leahy, who otherwise contributed to the miseries of the day by missing attempts of 37, 41, and 42 yards after making 13 of 14 previously. The Jets’ lead, however, lasted just 25 seconds, the time it took for Marino to hit Duper for a 20-yard gain, then hit him again deep, 60 yards for a touchdown over Bobby Jackson, who was to be a key figure all day. The Dolphins opened it to 14–3 in the third quarter on a 22-yard pass from Marino to Mark Clayton. Then Freeman McNeil, whose 107 rushing yards made him the first AFC runner over 1,000 this season, cut it to 14–10 with a 14-yard catch from Ken O’Brien. That came at the end of a 37-yard drive set up by Kyle Clifton’s interception of Marino. O’Brien completed 26 of 43 for 393 yards.
Ron Jaworski and Mike Quick combined on a 99-yard touchdown 1 minute 49 seconds into overtime today to give the Philadelphia Eagles a 23–17 victory over the Atlanta Falcons. The Eagles lost a 17-0 third-period lead before the Jaworski-Quick play, the longest of the season in the National Football League, brought them their fifth victory against five losses. The Falcons won the toss in the extra period and elected to receive but were unable to pick up a first down, and Rick Donnelly punted the ball out of bounds at the 1-yard line. Jaworski, on second down, threw to Quick, who caught the ball behind the secondary and raced 70 yards into the end zone. The Falcons (1–9) had rallied for 17 points in the final period to tie the score with 2:32 remaining. Atlanta’s first touchdown was an 18-yard pass from Dave Archer to the running back Joe Washington 2:41 into the fourth period. The Falcons drove 81 yards on 11 plays in their next series with Gerald Riggs, who gained 129 yards on 27 carries, diving into the end zone with 5:36 left to make it 17–14. The Falcons’ John Rade then intercepted a Jaworksi pass and returned it to the Eagles’ 25. The Falcons moved to a first down at the 7, and when the Eagles held, Mick Luckhurst kicked the game-tying 27-yard field goal.
The Steelers downed the Chiefs, 36–28. Louis Lipps scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 71-yard punt return and Gary Anderson kicked a team record five field goals for Pittsburgh. It was the sixth loss in a row for Kansas City (3–7) and almost assured the Chiefs of a 14th straight non-playoff season. Todd Spencer and Bob Kohrs threw key blocks for Lipps, who outran the punter Jim Arnold down the sideline to give the Steelers (5–5) a 20–14 lead midway through the second period. Walter Abercrombie capped a 7-play, 79-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to put Pittsburgh ahead by 27–14 at halftime. John Stallworth had 126 yards receiving, including a 41-yard catch in the final minutes while falling to the ground to set up Anderson’s fifth field goal, a 29-yarder.
The Patriots downed the Jets, 34–15. Irving Fryar scored on a 77-yard punt return and a 5-yard pass in less than two minutes of the third quarter to break open a close game for New England. The Patriots (7–3), who won their fifth consecutive game, led 7–6 at halftime, then got 17 points after three third-quarter fumble recoveries. Four plays after Fred Marion recovered a fumble by George Wonsley, Tony Franklin gave the Patriots a 10–6 lead with a 41-yard field goal. The next New England drive started at the Colts’ 33-yard line after Johnny Rembert recovered Oliver Williams’ fumble. Fryar ended the nine-play drive with his touchdown catch of a pass from Steve Grogan with 7:47 gone in the third quarter
Boomer Esiason passed for 262 yards and a touchdown to outshine the Cleveland rookie Bernie Kosar and direct Cincinnati to a 27–10 victory over the Browns. Esiason completed 23 of 33 passes without an interception, going frequently to his backs and tight ends. Cris Collinsworth accounted for 135 yards on eight catches. Kosar, the 21-year-old rookie, completed 16 of 32 passes for 219 yards, but he was just 9 of 22 for 139 yards going into the closing minutes. Neither offense was consistent in the first half, which ended with the Bengals (5–5) edging ahead, 14–7, on a long touchdown drive in the closing minutes. A short punt by Cleveland’s Jeff Gossett gave the Bengals the ball on the Browns’ 35-yard line midway through the first quarter. Esiason chipped away in eight plays with the touchdown coming on an 8-yard pass to James Brooks. Kosar guided Cleveland (4–6) to its only touchdown with an 80-yard drive to open the second quarter. A pass-interference penalty on the Cleveland linebacker Eddie Johnson at the goal line set up Charles Alexander’s 1-yard touchdown run with 14 seconds left in the half.
On a rainy, dreary, cold, gray day, not even William Perry could brighten up the Chicago Bears’ latest victory. This time, though, the Bears did not need to pull anything special out of The Refrigerator. They had enough running from Walter Payton and Matt Suhey and enough pressure from their defensive line to make you wonder how the Detroit Lions had won five other games this season. The final score was 24-3, and it brought the Bears’ record to 10-0, which is the best start for any team in the National Football League since 1975, when the Minnesota Vikings won their first 10 games. It also made it possible for the Bears to clinch a division title Sunday with a victory over the Cowboys in Dallas. Payton carried 26 times for 107 yards, Suhey 16 times for 102, as the Bears ran for a season-high 250 yards. It was Payton’s 69th game running for 100 yards or more, Suhey’s third, and the second in which they both did it. The Bears also gained 360 total yards to Detroit’s 106.
Steve DeBerg passed 1 yard for a touchdown to Adger Armstrong, and Donald Igwebuike made three long field goals today to lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to their first victory of the season, 16–0 from the St. Louis Cardinals. James Wilder ran for 120 yards on 29 carries, and DeBerg completed 11 of 27 passes for 196 yards as the Bucs ended a nine-game losing streak and handed the Cardinals (4–6) their fifth loss in six games. The triumph was only the ninth for Tampa Bay in its last 42 games and was the first under Coach Leeman Bennett. Igwebuike, a Nigerian who played football and soccer at Clemson, had field goals of 46, 47 and 50 yards. The rookie place-kicker’s 47-yarder with 4 minutes 12 seconds left in the first period provided a 3-0 lead, and DeBerg’s pass to Armstrong on fourth down completed a 10-play, 72-yard drive that made it 10–0 early in the second quarter. Igwebuike, who missed a 43-yarder to end a string of eight consecutive field goals, added the other kicks in the fourth quarter. St. Louis, coming off a 21–10 victory over Dallas, sputtered as Neal Lomax completed 21 of 33 passes for 197 yards and was intercepted twice.
For the past 15 years, the games between the Cowboys and the Redskins have been noted for intensity and anxiety. But today’s match had almost no fire as Dallas beat Washington routinely, 13–7, before 55,750, the largest home crowd in the history of Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. The crowd had little to cheer about. There were only three minutes of keen anticipation, and they came midway through the fourth quarter after the Redskins had scored their touchdown to trail by 6 points. On their next series, beginning at the Washington 11-yard line. The local hero, John Riggins, pounded for a first down to the 26 on a fourth-and-1 call. But the fire went out quickly. The Redskins soon had to punt and the next time they got the ball, at their 26, they had no time outs and their quarterback, Joe Theismann, was sacked twice. His last pass was intercepted by Everson Walls and the game ended. The Cowboys’ points came from two field goals by Rafael Septien, 40 and 36 yards, and a 48-yard touchdown pass from Danny White to Tony Dorsett. In RFK Stadium, Septien has made 14 field goals in 16 attempts in his career.
Bruce Mathison, making his first start at quarterback, ran for 57 yards and a touchdown to lead Buffalo to a 20–0 win over the Houston Oilers. Mathison, who replaced Vince Ferragamo, completed 11 of 22 passes for 121 yards in giving Buffalo only its second victory of the season against eight losses. The Buffalo scores came on two Scott Norwood field goals, Mathison’s 5-yard run and a 2-yard run by Greg Bell. The shutout was due more to Houston’s ineffectiveness than the Buffalo defense. Six turnovers, leading to 13 Buffalo points, and Warren Moon’s inability to pass in the steady rain at Rich Stadium put the Oilers (4–6) in a hole from which they never emerged.
Green Bay Packers 27, Minnesota Vikings 17
Los Angeles Rams 19, New York Giants 24
Seattle Seahawks 27, New Orleans Saints 3
Los Angeles Raiders 34, San Diego Chargers 40
New York Jets 17, Miami Dolphins 21
Atlanta Falcons 17, Philadelphia Eagles 23
Pittsburgh Steelers 36, Kansas City Chiefs 28
Indianapolis Colts 15, New England Patriots 34
Cleveland Browns 10, Cincinnati Bengals 27
Detroit Lions 3, Chicago Bears 24
St. Louis Cardinals 0, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 16
Dallas Cowboys 13, Washington Redskins 7
Houston Oilers 0, Buffalo Bills 20
Born:
Giovonnie Samuels, American television actress (“The Suite Life of Zack & Cody”), in San Diego, California.
Ricki-Lee Coulter, Australian pop and R&B singer (“Hell No!”, “Sunshine”), in Auckland, New Zealand.
History Diaries 