Brock Solid in Debut; Dickerson-less Rams Get Past Oilers, 7-3
The early returns on Dieter Brock are that he’ll be fine as soon as the rest of the Rams catch up.
There were moments in Saturday night’s 7-3 opening exhibition win over the Houston Oilers at Anaheim Stadium when Brock and his right arm seemed to be in midseason form--not surprising, since the Canadian Football League, where he performed the past 11 years, is well into its season.
Brock played four series, completing 5 of 12 passes for 49 yards, but failed to produce any points. Two drops, a couple of misrun routes and a judgment call by the officials cost him more impressive statistics and the Rams a possible touchdown or two.
Maybe things will settle down if and when running back Eric Dickerson ends his holdout, although his backup, Barry Redden, stood in well.
If Dickerson was watching the game from Sealy, Tex., he saw Redden carry the ball 17 times for 94 yards (5.31 average) and the game’s only touchdown in the third quarter.
And Charles White, Coach John Robinson’s Trojan reclamation project, wasn’t far behind with 79 yards on 16 attempts.
Robinson said: “I don’t want to spend my life making comparisons between Eric and Barry . . . (but) Redden established himself more tonight. If this was a regular game, he would have gained 150 yards.”
Of course, it should be noted that Dickerson gained 215 yards against the Oilers when he broke O.J. Simpson’s National Football League rushing record on his way to 2,105 yards last season.
The Oilers had the league’s worst defense last season and won’t improve it much until they sign first-round draft choices Ray Childress, a defensive end from Texas A&M;, and Richard Johnson, a defensive back from Wisconsin, both of whom figured to start.
They also were without their top ’84 running back, holdout Larry Moriarty. Their only points came on Joe Cooper’s 20-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.
With the scoring minimal and the performances ragged, most of the glitter for the 41,823 fans at the Times Charity Game came during halftime ceremonies honoring the Rams’ all-stars from their 40 years in Southern California.
Anybody expecting wide-open football from former Canadian Football League quarterbacks Brock and Warren Moon got only flashes of brilliance mixed with the usual preseason misfires. Their first-half share of the show was scoreless.
Cooper and Florian Kempf were short on field-goal attempts for Houston, Mike Lansford missed a 44-yard try for the Rams, and that’s as close as either side came to scoring in the first two periods.
The Oilers were unable to sustain any other drives against a Ram defense operating without Jack Youngblood and starting cornerbacks LeRoy Irvin and Gary Green, but that’s no surprise. The Oilers were 3-13 last season.
The Oilers opened this season with a 21-20 loss to the New York Giants at Canton, Ohio, a week earlier--as close as most of them ever will get to the Hall of Fame.
The Rams were 10-6 in 1984. But without Dickerson, they stumbled along, dropping passes and jumping offside. In the first half, they were penalized 10 times for 70 yards, more than offsetting Brock’s efforts, and they finished with 125 yards in penalties to the Oilers’ 50.
Oiler Coach Hugh Campbell, who coached at Edmonton while Brock played for Winnipeg, said: “I know what Brock is capable of doing. I don’t think he’ll have a problem adjusting to the NFL.”
Robinson said: “It struck me that we have a long way to go, but we assumed that to be true. We had no consistency on offense. I liked our pass rush.”
Brock had to wait until the middle of the first quarter to make his American professional debut as Moon led the Oilers on a 54-yard drive that ended in Cooper’s 42-yard misfire.
When Brock got his chance, the 34-year-old Alabaman opened with a six-yard sideline pass to George Farmer, then a third-down pass to Henry Ellard at the right sideline for 19 yards and a first down at the Oiler 48-yard line.
The drive stalled when center Doug Smith moved prematurely, and Brock overthrew Farmer on a timing route when the latter couldn’t get downfield.
That gave rookie punter Dale Hatcher from Clemson a chance to practice dropping the ball inside the 20. The Oilers had to take a fair catch at their six.
The Rams’ new-style pass defense, a four-man line with six defensive backs and linebacker Mike Wilcher, constantly harassed Moon. End Gary Jeter and blitzing safety Vince Newsome chased him out of the pocket, and end Booker Reese sacked him to end the Oilers’ last possession of the first half at midfield.
Wilcher had an earlier sack that was erased by a penalty.
Moon, who completed 8 of 15 passes for 105 yards, completed six in a row in one stretch but departed after directing the first series of the second half.
The Rams’ biggest threat in the first half was generated on a 10-yard run by White and a 20-yard gain on a misdirection play by Mike Guman.
Guman, who played regularly but carried the ball only once last season and just seven times in 1983, ran five times for 35 yards Saturday night.
The drive reached the Oiler 26, but on the next three plays, Guman dropped an easy pass from Brock, Redden lost a yard on a draw and Brock threw into no-man’s land when Ellard was jammed out of bounds by cornerback Steve Brown and stopped running. Lansford’s field-goal attempt was wide to the right.
Brock got another chance to score when Newsome intercepted a Moon pass at the Ram 35.
A second-down pass fell incomplete when Ellard tripped, but Brock showed the power in his arm with a 13-yard sideline strike to Ricky Martin in front of Campbell, who had seen him do that too many times in the CFL.
Brock then went deep to Olympic sprinter Ron Brown down the left side. Safety Bo Eason was called for interference as the pass trickled off Brown’s fingers, but then the officials ruled Brown would have caught it out of bounds, anyway--no penalty.
On third down, Brock found Ellard on a quick slant over the middle, but Ellard dropped it, and the drive died.
When the Rams finally did score in the third quarter, it was almost by accident on a broken play.
Former USC tailback Michael Harper, who had had difficultly fielding punts in training camp, caught one on the run and returned it 32 yards to the Oiler 30. Four runs and Jeff Kemp’s incomplete pass to tight end Tony Hunter in the end zone left the ball at the six, from where Redden took a pitch right behind Guman.
Linebacker Avon Riley met Redden in the backfield and spun him around, but Redden twisted away, went left and scored untouched. Lansford’s extra point gave the Rams a 7-0 lead after 11:28 of the period.
“I’m sure the Rams will think that was a great play,” Campbell said. “Our guy thought he had him stopped.”
Moon’s backup, Oliver Luck, and Mike Rozier, the 1983 Heisman Trophy winner from Nebraska fresh from the United States Football League, sparked the Oilers to their field goal.
With reserves taking over on both sides, Luck completed 5 of 6 passes on a 74-yard drive to the Ram 3. Rozier ran for 21 yards, caught a pass from Luck for 8, but then the Ram defense dug in.
Rookie linebacker Kevin Greene, a fifth-round draft choice from Auburn, stopped Rozier for no gain, then linebackers Woody Vann and Mark Jerue stacked up the former Cornhusker, leaving Cooper to kick for three points.
A squad with fewer rookie free agents will return to Anaheim to play the St. Louis Cardinals Thursday night. The Oilers will play the Saints at New Orleans next Saturday.