Sport: Upstarts and Upsets in the N.F.L.

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But Atlanta Coach Leeman Bennett took note. The Falcons' defense set a modern-day N.F.L. record last year for allowing the fewest points scored, but the offense packed the scoring punch of a geriatrics ward. Having nowhere to go but up, Bennett installed a "Big Ben" play —for desperate situations when the clock was running out. With 19 seconds to go against New Orleans last week, Quarterback Steve Bartkowski called Big Ben. Three receivers rushed downfield, dogged by a battalion of defensive backs. Bartkowski lofted the ball, and what looked like four dozen arms groped for it. Atlanta's Wallace Francis tipped it to Teammate Alfred Jackson for the winining touchdown. Afterward Beninett told stunned sportswriters: "We work on that play in practice. We just bat the ball around until somebody catches it." He added, "I'm being serious."

Certainly offenses have begun to perk up under the new rules. Championships may be won by tightfisted defenses, but the offensive flair that was typical of the old A.F.L. has finally taken lively root in the sport, and this season has already produced 330 more points than last year. Los Angeles Coach Ray Malavasi explains: "The N.F.L. had gotten stereotyped, but the A.F.L. came up with new formations— multiple fronts, multiple coverages, using men in motion —and in the past four or five years, teams have begun to use them."

Running the offenses are young quarterbacks who are not afraid of carrying the ball themselves. The league that once considered Fran Tarkenton a heretic for deserting his protective pocket of blockers now boasts quarterbacks who routinely gallop upfield. New England's Steve Grogan fancies the end run; Baltimore's Jones likes it up the middle.

The Seattle Seahawks' spectacular young (25) quarterback, Jim Zorn, has passed, run, pushed and dragged his expansion team into the third best offense in the N.F.L. In eleven games this year, Zorn passed for ten touchdowns and ran for six more. With careful use of the draft and a few deft trades, Seattle has put together a supporting cast that does Zorn justice. Wide Receiver Steve Largent ranks second among American Conference receivers, behind Pittsburgh's Lynn Swann; with ten touchdowns, David Sims is the conference's top-scoring running back.

Fittingly enough, it was the vaunted Dallas scouting system that turned up Jim Zorn. Passed over in the draft after playing for tiny California Poly-Pomona, he was signed as a free agent, then cut by the Cowboys in 1975. He was quickly snatched up by Seattle when the franchise opened the following year.

No longer content to wait and see what stars Dallas' computerized system would locate on remote college campuses, Seattle and the other rising teams in the N.F.L. have beefed up their own scouting departments. Their model: Dallas, of course. Laments Gil Brandt, the Cowboys' vice president in charge of finding superstars: "We used to hear of a hot prospect at Podunk U. and send one of our guys to look at him. He'd be the only one there.

Now we go to Podunk and five or six other N.F.L. teams are looking over the same player." Remember, Gil, imitation is ...