Ram Notes : Much-Maligned Defense Also Looked Sharp
Despite the lopsided score, the Rams’ offense wasn’t the only unit to put in a good night’s work in the their 39-7 win over St. Louis at Anaheim Stadium Thursday.
The Rams’ defense recorded 10 sacks, four alone by linebacker Kevin Greene. By comparison, the Cardinals sacked Ram quarterbacks only three times.
Considering that the Rams were 17th in the league in sacks last season, that comes as an encouraging bit of news.
Of course, by falling behind early, the Cardinals were forced to throw the ball more often than they might’ve wished, so it remains to be seen if the Rams’ pass rush has really improved as much as Thursday might indicate.
Nonetheless, it was still a good overall effort for the Rams on defense, particularly with linebacker Jim Collins intercepting a third-down pass by Neil Lomax in the Los Angeles end zone in the second quarter to thwart a Cardinal scoring drive.
And on the Cardinals’ first offensive play of the second half, Ram defensive end Doug Reed sacked reserve St. Louis quarterback Rick McIvor in the end zone for a safety to put the Rams ahead, 22-0.
One of the top individual efforts of the game was by Ram kicker Mike Lansford, who kicked a 53-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining in the first half.
That distance was his personal best as a Ram, but being an exhibition game, it will not go into the Rams’ record book as such.
Two people who didn’t think that it was just an exhibition game were Rams’ center Joe Shearin and St. Louis defensive end Al (Bubba) Baker.
They got into a brief fight at the conclusion of a pass play early in the third quarter with each player drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Like most football fights, however, the only thing that presumably was hurt along the way would be the players’ feelings.
The Rams released five players Thursday, including wide receiver Jonathan Finstuen, a free agent out of Occidental College; safety Kevin Brown, an 11th-round draft choice from Nothwestern; safety Ed St. Geme, a free agent out of Stanford; safety Jim Palmer, a free agent out of Boise State; and wide receiver Raymond Arnold, a free agent out of Hayward State.
Seven Rams missed Thursday’s game, four with injuries.
The players out with injuries were tackle Bill Bain (ankle), linebacker Carl Ekern (ankle), cornerback LeRoy Irvin (hamstring) and tight end Tony Hunter (thigh).
Among the non-injured absentees were defensive end Jack Youngblood, who has permission to report late, tackle Greg Meisner, who is unsigned, and running back Eric Dickerson, who is a holdout.
The halftime entertainment included a Salute to the Old West by Cathy Rigby McCoy’s gymnastics club.
Rigby McCoy, a former U.S. Olympic gymnast, sang the National Anthem before the game.
During the halftime show, 1984 U.S. Olympic gymnast Kathy Johnson re-enacted her floor exercise program from those Games and was given a warm round of applause from the crowd.
The exhibition proved, if nothing else, that gymnastics will probably never be a stadium sport, as much of the intimacy of Johnson’s performance at Pauley Pavilion last year was lost in the cavernous stadium this time around.
The Rams will play the Cardinals again at Anaheim Stadium on December 15 in the next-to-last game of the regular season.