Minnesota Fans Agree With Grant’s Last-Play Decision Against Rams

Fourteen years ago, Lou Saban faced the same kind of decision Bud Grant had Sunday against the Rams: kick an easy field goal to tie, or go for the win.

Saban was coaching the Broncos in the opening game against Miami at Denver. He went for the field goal and got his tie, 10-10. The National Football League didn’t play overtime in those days.

Saban explained afterward: “Half a loaf is better than none.”

At the next home game he was pelted with half loaves of bread, and after nine games he was fired, but he hasn’t been forgotten. In Denver, Saban is still remembered as “Half a Loaf Lou.”

When Grant got home to Minnesota after Sunday’s 13-10 loss to the Rams a local TV station had completed a phone-in survey: should the Vikings have gone for the touchdown or the tie?

Result: 2,800 liked Grant’s call and only 370 didn’t.

In the clutch, most coaches will go conservative, but fans will go for the gusto every time. It’s not their jobs on the line.

Is that the difference between Grant and other coaches--his lifetime deal at Minnesota? Is that what let him do it? Maybe all owners should allow their coaches, oh, three of those a season. It’s easier to gamble when you’re playing with the house’s money.

Contrary to his postgame comments, Grant said later the decision to run the ball on the final play was made during the Vikings’ last time out before the previous play. If the pass didn’t score and the line of scrimmage didn’t move backward, Darrin Nelson would try to carry it over the top on what the Vikings call a “double flyover,” a play they hadn’t used in the game.

The pass resulted in an end-zone interference call against Ram cornerback Gary Green that moved the ball from the 1 1/2-yard line to the 1. Grant said later he saw an official signal not interference but defensive holding, which would have moved the ball half the distance to the goal--two feet.

Moot point. Grant already had decided to run, and Nelson didn’t get back to the line of scrimmage, anyway. Ted Brown, the fullback in the “I,” dove to the right into linebacker Carl Ekern and Nelson, the tailback, dove left into linebacker Jim Collins.

A Viking spokesman said Tuesday that, after viewing the films, “Bud thought the nose tackle (Greg Meisner) was the one that really made the play by getting penetration and forcing Nelson to jump before he wanted to.”

Usually, the Vikings would give the key “flyover” assignment to 6-foot 1-inch, 213-pound Alfred Anderson, not to the 5-9, 185-pound Nelson, who was a 26-foot long jumper at Stanford. Anderson was unable to play Sunday because of a knee injury.

Grant said the decision was similar to one college coaches face frequently: whether to go for one- or two-point conversions.

In this case, the Vikings forfeited an overtime for the asking for a chance to win right then. Grant said overtime is a crapshoot. But at least he would have had more than one roll of the dice, and his team had the offensive momentum at the time.

Grant was asked this week if he had any second thoughts.

“Do you mean if I knew then what I know now?” he responded, fixing the inquisitor with an icy stare. “Yes, if I knew we weren’t going to make it, I would have had Jan (Stenerud) kick the field goal.”

Otherwise, he implied, he’d go for it again.

Fun with numbers: Ram Coach John Robinson silenced critics of his offense this week with a clever ploy. He agreed with them.

Eric Dickerson boring? Yes, even Dickerson, when the crowd awaiting him at every turn looks like a queue for lottery tickets.

Robinson could have submitted evidence that the Ram offense is no more a bore than most others in the National Football League. At the risk of boring his listeners with statistics, he could point to figures indicating that few teams are throwing the bomb with much success this season, and that his quarterback, Dieter Brock, has the seventh-best yards-per-attempt average (7.62) in the league.

Not as good as Jim McMahon (9.71), Phil Simms (8.38) or the disabled Dan Fouts (8.81), but better than bombers such as Dan Marino (7.25), John Elway (7.22) and Joe Montana (7.4). Even the super-sophisticated 49ers are throwing shorter these days.

This year the league granted defensive backs equal rights, virtually eliminating the ticky-tack pass interference call. If a defender is looking for the ball, he has as much right to it as the receiver.

Perhaps that rule change is reflected in league statistics from the first five weeks of the season showing that the average yards per attempt is down to 5.9 from 7.14 for all of ’84 while yards per completion is slightly up to 12.8 from 12.67.

All of this is about as interesting as the Ram offense. Their defense, which has allowed a league low of 62 points, is another matter, but why not knock them for that, too?

That just makes them a one-dimensional team.

Flutie in Future?: The Rams drafted Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie on the 11th round last spring, although he already belonged to Donald Trump and the New Jersey Generals of the USFL.

Since the Generals merged with the Houston Gamblers, they also have highly rated quarterback Jim Kelly. Flutie talked about his future on HBO’s “Inside the NFL” show with Len Dawson and Nick Buoniconti last week.

“As of right now, it’s sort of up in the air,” he said. “He (Trump) has told me he has a lot of confidence in me. He’d like to see me compete for the job.

“But, then again, in the USFL, a league that doesn’t have a lot of talent, you might want to spread the wealth a little bit and get some interest in some other city. There’s talk of trade, there’s talk of a merger. A lot of things are cloudy right now.”

Flutie said the USFL seemed secure for one more season, but “after that year there’s no telling what could happen. I have a feeling Donald Trump is hoping for a merger or something of that nature down the line.”

Flutie said the numerous defections to the NFL “make you a little wary because you wonder how the league is going to hold up.

“I personally haven’t heard from the Rams. Initially, when I was drafted, they contacted (attorney) Bob Woolf and talked generally. If the league were to fold, I’d go straight to the Rams’ camp. Right now I’m very happy with the Generals and I hope I stay there, but if things don’t work out with the USFL, L.A. is a great opportunity for me. I think it’d be exciting to be out in L.A.”

The Rams say no other NFL team has inquired about obtaining Flutie’s rights. Woolf said Tuesday he hasn’t discussed Flutie’s future with anyone but the Generals.

“Things are somewhat in limbo,” Woolf said. “His ($7.5-million, five-year) contract is guaranteed if the league continues on, and it’s also partially guaranteed by Donald Trump personally.

“If he went to the NFL there would be what we call setoffs. Say he’s getting paid a million and a half next year and the Rams paid him $500,000. Then Donald Trump would be responsible for a million.

“But I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t think anybody does, really.”