Rams Need a Rush . . . in a Hurry : Jeter’s Comeback Is Expected to Provide Essential Sack Time

A quarterback dropping back to pass against the Rams in recent years has had the luxury of entering a sanctuary otherwise known as the pocket.

For most quarterbacks, this place is hell’s kitchen, a no-parking zone where careers and bodies often end up in broken pieces on the ground.

But for Ram opponents, the pocket has long been a quiet little spot in the backfield where a quarterback can go to catch up on some reading or find some peace of mind.

As you might have guessed, they aren’t calling the Rams’ defensive front the Fearsome Threesome these days.

The Rams had just 43 sacks in 1984, 17th best in the National Football League.

With nothing but time on their hands , opposing quarterbacks completed nearly 70% of their passes.

So it’s no secret in Rams camp that the pressure on the defensive line this season is to put a little of it on the quarterback.

But is it possible? The Rams didn’t trade or draft for a bona fide pass rusher in the off-season and their best one, 35-year-old Jack Youngblood, isn’t even in training camp because of a bad back.

So, it is under this hanging cloud of doubt that all Ram eyes turn to Gary Jeter.

On his shoulders he carries the weight of whether the Rams will be great.

Rams Coach John Robinson says it.

“He’s a huge cog in the wheel.”

Defensive line coach Marv Goux says it.

“We’re counting on Gary being an outstanding pass rusher.”

Even Gary Jeter says it.

“In order for the Rams to be in the Super Bowl, Gary Jeter has to put tremendous pressure on the quarterback,” he said.

And that seems to put tremendous pressure on Jeter, too, especially since he doesn’t even start.

Jeter’s role this year will be as a specialist. Playing behind Reggie Doss at right end, he has been appointed the Rams’ designated sacker. In passing situations, he’ll come out of the bullpen like Bruce Sutter and put out the fire. Or at least he’d better.

The Rams made a trade with the New York Giants in 1983 to get Jeter, a former All-American at USC whose forte was giving quarterback migraines.

But before joining in all the Ram hoopla, there are a few things you should know about the man on whom the Rams are so heavily counting.

A year ago today, Gary Jeter was laying flat on his back in Centinela Hospital. It hurt just to say the word quarterback.

He was aching from a herniated disc and figured his career was over.

Tackling a quarterback was the farthest thing from the mind of a player who couldn’t tie his own shoes.

Jeter spent 11 days in the hospital and another month on his back at home. His 6-foot, 4-inch, 260-pound frame had turned into a big tub of goo because of inactivity. Jeter, then an aging 29-year-old defensive end, didn’t want to play football again.

“I didn’t want to go back out there,” he said. “I thought I could get hurt real bad. I said, ‘Fine, it’s been a good career. I made some money and I met a lot of good people.’ ”

Jeter figured that rushing a quarterback was hard enough without having to worry about his sacroiliac.

“Oh, it’s very simple,” Jeter said jokingly of the art of pass rushing. “All I have to do, in three seconds, is get by a 290-pound guy who looks like he hasn’t eaten in about three weeks.”

Jeter injured his back on the first day of last year’s training camp while attempting to throw 267-pound offensive tackle Irv Pankey out of his way.

Pankey went right, Jeter went left and his back went somewhere in between.

“I don’t like to show pain when I’m hurt,” Jeter said. “I like to play the macho thing. But I was hurting so bad, the tears would just start rolling out of my eyes. I would say, ‘God, please stop my back from hurting.’ ”

Jeter tried to cover up the injury, but soon started walking like Quasimoto around Rams camp.

It was his coach, Goux, who first noticed that something was wrong with Jeter. Goux has long suffered from back problems.

“You can tell by the eyes,” Goux said. “You can see the pain.”

So Jeter checked into the hospital and spent most of the next two weeks in traction.

“Going to the bathroom was a challenge,” Jeter said. “I could imagine what it would be like to be paralyzed. All the obstacles and the little things you have to overcome. And I wasn’t getting any better. It was like I was handicapped. I was flat on my back. It was the only way to keep pressure off the disc.”

But slowly, oh so slowly, Jeter started to get better. He began swimming in the pool near Rams Park in Anaheim. Rams strength trainer Garrett Giedmont put Jeter on a light exercise program, and he gradually regained his strength.

Jeter spent 10 weeks on the injured-reserve list but returned to play in five games. He was hardly, though, the same player.

“I didn’t think he would come back last year,” Goux said. “I really didn’t. But he wasn’t Gary Jeter. He could play, but he wasn’t in shape. He was about two steps slower, but when you have a bad back, you can never really be at full speed.”

With a full off-season to recover, Jeter says he’s back at full strength.

“I don’t even think about my back unless somebody brings it up.”

Robinson, known as a great motivator, has been praising the play of Jeter thus far in camp.

“I give him a serious chance for becoming the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year. I’m serious.”

And so is Jeter.

He seems to have regained the look and attitude of a mean and nasty defensive end.

Sitting in his training camp room at Cal State Fullerton, Jeter’s eyes get widen when he starts talking about quarterbacks.

“I want to get there,” he said of hitting the quarterback. “If I get knocked down, then I’m crawling.”

Jeter was rolling now.

“I just have a dislike for quarterbacks,” he said. “I really do. I see these guys dropping back to pass in their protective little environment. They make a lot of money. In training camp, they’re not tired and sore like I am because they got these red shirts on so you can’t hit them.”

Rams quarterback Steve Dils, overhearing the conversation from another room, opened the door and yelled, “Hey, hey, hey, take it easy.”

Jeter just smiled.

“I have nothing against Steve Dils, but when he drops to pass I don’t see Dils, I see a guy I could care less about. I don’t hit them cause they got red jerseys on. You hit one of them and you get yelled and screamed at. When I was with the Giants, I used to get a lot of 15-yard penalties (for roughing the passer). I figured hey, I got through here, I want to hit him.”

Jeter said it takes an attitude like that to be a great pass rusher.

But he said the real key is outsmarting your opponent.

“Ninety-nine percent of pass rushing is mental,” Jeter said. “Everybody in this league is large. I just played against a kid from the Chargers in a scrimmage. He was 290-pounds. You can’t run over them. You’ve got to trick them. These guys nowadays are lifting tons and tons of weight. It scares me.”

But Jeter knows his role well and can’t wait to go to work. He’s vowing to pick up the slack and pick up some sacks on the defensive line.

And the time is now.

“If I’m coming off the ball late and am just dancing there while the ball is being thrown, then a guy runs for a touchdown, the fans are cheering, the girls are hitting their pompons and the coaches are ranting,” Jeter said. “If I’m not at the quarterback by one-thousand one, one-thousand two, one-thousand three, then I’m lost. I might as well be sitting on the sideline.”