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∙DALLAS' BOB LILLY, 28, has a simple enough philosophy of defense: "Go in, grab the guy and throw him." But he plays for Cowboy Coach Tom Landry one of football's most brilliant defen sive strategists, and that makes things, pretty complicated. "We run everything through a computer here," says Lilly "We know, say, that the other team has been successful on 60% of its passes inside our 20. We talk these things over, and we work on them." A 6-ft 5-in., 260-pounder, Lilly is regarded a-, one of the two best defensive tackles in the N.F.L. (the other: Los Angeles Olsen); in one game against Pittsburgh last year, he personally decked the Steeler quarterback six times.
∙PITTSBURGH'S JOHN BAKER, 32, is a courtly, composed, pipe-smoking giant (6 ft. 6 in., 265 Ibs.) who works as a North Carolina prison-recreation supervisor during the off season. But his penchant for mayhem is well documented. "The dream of every defensive lineman," says Tackle Baker, "is to put the quarterback to sleep," and in 1964 he "laid the wood" to New York Quarterback Y. A. Tittle so solidly that he effectively ended Tittle's career.
Although the mobile monsters who bulwark today's pro defenses are truly remarkable athletes, they are by no means the ultimate. Pro linemen will get bigger and faster yet: Oakland right now is grooming a 7-ft., 300-lb. rookie tackle named Richard Sligh, and the Baltimore Colts have yet to make room in their starting line-up for 6-ft. 7-in., 295-lb. Bubba Smith, their No. 1 draft choice last year. The Colts may be looking even farther ahead. Posted on their rubdown-room wall is a photograph of another pretty fearsome foursome who held down the line for Santa Barbara, Calif., High School this fall. Their weights: 230 Ibs., 263 Ibs., 312 Ibs., and 447 Ibs.—for an average of 313 Ibs. per growing boy.