Rams Are ‘6 and 0 and Staggering Home’

David Hill was confused.

“I guess I should feel good being 6 and 0, but I feel bad,” the Rams’ tight end said. “I’ll have to think about it for a while.”

Hill has a lot of company. Nobody knows quite what to make of the Rams, who overcame the 90-degree temperature, the high humidity, five lead changes and the enemy within themselves Sunday to subdue the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 31-27.

LeRoy Irvin returned the first of his two late interceptions 34 yards for a touchdown with 5:58 remaining to leave the Rams as one of only two undefeated teams in the National Football League. The Chicago Bears, who beat the San Francisco 49ers, 26-10, is the other.

Undefeated, or as Coach John Robinson said, “6 and 0 and staggering home.”

In the NFL, they don’t pay off on pretty. Most people will believe the Bears are a better team, and the Rams may not be sure how they opened a three-game lead over the 49ers in the NFC West, but they’ll take it, with no apologies.

After David Hill had thought it over, he decided: “I’d much rather be the worst 6 and 0 team than the best 0 and 6 team.”

Leave that to the Buccaneers. They deserve it as they slug their way through a killer schedule--the Bears last week, Miami next week--with a broken heart for every light on the scoreboard.

This was one Ram victory thin on clips for the highlight film. Dieter Brock threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Duckworth, but Brock also was sacked seven times.

Eric Dickerson scored, but he also cost the Rams one opportunity with a fumble, set up a Buccaneer touchdown with another and gained only 75 yards in 25 attempts.

The Ram defense limited James Wilder, Dickerson’s successor as the NFL’s leading rusher, to only 49 yards, but the defense was cited for 4 of the team’s 11 penalties (for 94 yards, to 1 for 5 for Tampa Bay), and was burned for its highest point yield of the year.

How did the Rams manage to win? That’s what confused David Hill.

Part of the answer was Henry Ellard, whose star climbed higher with six pass receptions, a big end-around run and some sparkling punt returns, and another part was deja vu.

Late last season on the same turf, Irvin sealed another cliffhanger for the Rams (34-33) by intercepting Steve DeBerg to snuff the Buccaneers’ last threat. DeBerg was having another good day Sunday until fate and Irvin intervened on consecutive plays. Leading 27-24 after throwing his second touchdown pass, DeBerg looked for Gerald Carter near the left sideline.

“Someone (Carter) tipped the ball and it came right into my hands,” Irvin said.

He had a clear field in front of him. Twenty-one seconds later, on the Buccaneers’ next play, DeBerg looked for Kevin House.

Irvin: “On the second one, I kind of figured Jimmy Raye was gonna come back at me again. I got away with a little jam (on House) and caught the ball.”

Raye is the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator who held the same position with the Rams last season. Like Tampa Bay safety Ivory Sully, also a former Ram, they thought they had a line on Irvin.

“I had talked to DeBerg and Sully before the game about cramps,” Irvin said. “I have a history of cramp problems late in the game, and they were talking about how the heat factor makes you cramp up late in the ball game.

“I thought, ‘Why are they telling me this? I don’t even know Steve.’ That’s when I thought they may try to come at me in the fourth quarter, and they did. They thought I was gonna cramp up.

“Right before the first interception, I told (linebacker) Jimmy (Collins), ‘Next time they throw at me I’m gonna intercept it.’ ”

Irvin hasn’t had cramping problems this season, even on hot days such as Sunday.

“I changed my diet,” he said. “I eat more carbohydrates starting three days before the game, where before I was eating a lot of junk food.”

The worst cramp was the one the result put in “Orange Sunday,” a once-a-year tradition when Tampa fans are urged to wear orange and the Buccaneers dress out in their orange jerseys, instead of white.

Most in the lean turnout of 39,607 complied, but the color scheme only proved to be the same old pumpkin the Buccaneers turned into at the end.

The Rams awarded game balls to Irvin and linebacker Carl Ekern, who had returned the first of four interceptions off DeBerg 33 yards for a brief 24-20 lead late in the third quarter. Irvin’s last “personal” game ball was at the same site last year. Ekern’s interception was his second of the season but only the fourth of his nine-year career--and the first he had ever scored on in high school, college or his wildest dreams.

“I just read the quarterback,” Ekern said. “I’m responsible for anything happening short. I saw what pattern they were running--a delay with their tight end (Jerry Bell). Then I saw him (DeBerg) load up and throw. There must have been some pressure on him.”

Ekern, making the most of the moment, paused and added with a grin: “I’ve never been caught from behind on that play.”

Brock could not quite say as much. Despite the tropical climate, the seven sacks behind the Rams’ makeshift offensive line must have reminded him of Canada, where he was sacked 72 times behind a leaky Hamilton line last season.

But the 34-year-old NFL rookie kept picking himself up, wiping off the sweat and cranking up his arm. Late in the game he needed a massage when his legs started to cramp.

True to his word, Robinson opened up the passing game as far as allowing Brock to throw 23 times, and that’s not counting the seven times he wound up on his back.

Brock completed 16, with one tipped interception--and that turned into one call that went the Rams’ way.

Brock’s pass to tight end Tony Hunter was deflected at the line of scrimmage and fluttered into the hands of linebacker Keith Browner, who returned it from the Rams’ 27-yard line to the five, where Hunter dragged him down. The ball popped out and squirted through the end zone and out the back side--automatic touchback, Rams’ ball at the 20.

Nose tackle Karl Morgan said he accidentally kicked the ball out of the end zone, otherwise the Buccaneers might have recovered it for a touchdown--but, what the heck, by that time the Rams deserved a break.

Said Browner: “If anyone else does this, it’s a touchdown. But with the Buccaneers it always seems to go the other way around. I wish I could have that ball back.”

On the next play, Dickerson was left curled up on the ground holding his left knee after being nailed by linebacker Jeff Davis and end Ron Holmes. For a couple of agonizing minutes a review of his $4 million disability policy seemed in order as Robinson and the Ram medical corps hovered over him.

Dickerson then was helped up and walked off, returning for the Rams’ next series.

“I held my breath,” Dickerson said. “I was praying. I thought I heard a pop (in his knee).”

“It was as wild and chaotic a game as I can remember,” Robinson said. “I think we had the league lead for fewest yards penalized (179) before the game, then coming out of the first half we had the league lead for most penalties. I thought we were going to drown in our mistakes.

“I like us--a team that’s just gonna keep going. There isn’t any give-up in us.”

They had their chances to fold. Three defensive holding penalties (one declined) on a single series assisted Tampa Bay’s 67-yard drive to a 7-0 lead on Wilder’s one-yard dive.

The Rams pulled even when Buccaneer cornerback Paul Dombroski fell down trying to follow Duckworth’s outside cut into the end zone for an easy catch. Then the Rams went on top, 14-7, on Dickerson’s six-yard charge off left tackle one play after Dickerson reversed to Ellard for a 16-yard gain.

Tampa Bay recovered with a 33-yard field goal by Donald Igwebuike and DeBerg’s 17-yard post strike to House, despite close coverage by Gary Green at the goal line (17-14). Both of those scoring drives were assisted by roughing-the-quarterback calls against linebacker Mel Owens.

Igwebuike made it 20-14 from 39 yards on the last play of the half. After that the Ram defense took over the scoring, along with its normal responsibilities, leaving the offense to wonder about itself.

“It was almost like Friday the 13th out there,” David Hill said, “a real strange game.”

Robinson: “I’m not sure I can live through the season.”