Dickerson Would Like a Part in Passing Game : He’d Prefer to See Rams Put Backs Back Into the Pattern, Even When Trailing

The Ram offense certainly needs some help. So what better place to get a suggestion on how to improve it than from its offensive star.

“I wish I could be in the game more in passing situations,” running back Eric Dickerson said. “I wish I could be more involved. I could catch the ball downfield. I could catch the football if they’d throw it to me.”

You mean . . . you think you could help?

“Yeah, I’d like to play when we get behind.”

The frustration is building in Eric Dickerson--not because he isn’t collecting rushing yards in subdivision chunks this season, but because he and the other Ram running backs aren’t being used as pass receivers, especially when the Rams have to catch up.

“I wish they would throw to the backs more,” Dickerson said. “Barry Redden and I have talked about it, but we don’t gripe about it because we’re running backs, and receivers get frustrated because they don’t throw to them as much as they’d like.

“When they go (with) three wides (receivers), it takes us totally out of the game. We know the only way we’re gonna get the ball is if the quarterback gets pressure, and then he’ll throw to us on a scramble.

“I haven’t caught one screen. I think Barry caught one. We have a screen in (the playbook). We just don’t really run it.

“My rookie year, I caught 51 passes. How many do I have this year--about 16? That’s not good.”

Dickerson has 14 receptions, Redden 12. By contrast, the National Football League’s two leading receivers are San Francisco’s Roger Craig and San Diego’s Lionel James--both running backs--with 64 each.

The philosophy of passing to the backs isn’t built into the Ram offense.

“We won’t change,” Coach John Robinson said. “We have to believe that all the things that got us to 8-3 with a two-game lead (in the NFC West) are right, but that we have to do them better.”

They went from 8-1 to 8-3 by losing to the Giants and Falcons--games in which no running back caught a pass, reducing the defensive problems of the opponent.

Dickerson said: “One thing about it--when they don’t throw to us, people say we can’t catch.”

And at this point, he said, that’s partly true.

“If you don’t throw the football to a running back for a while, he has a chance to lose that skill. I think lately I’ve become very lackadaisical at catching the football. My routes have even become very tacky. We’re not in the passing game, and when they call a pass it’s like, well, it’s no big deal to us--and that’s bad.

“All of us in the backfield can catch the football, if they throw to us, say, 10 to 15 times a game.”

The Ram passing offense has changed since Vince Ferragamo was the quarterback in 1983. Most of Dickerson’s 51 receptions were on dumpoffs.

“Vinnie would do it instinctively,” Dickerson said. “That was one of the good things I liked about Vince. He would throw to a running back right away.

“When the quarterback comes from under the center, the linebackers are dropping. If he throws to the back right quick, they have to stop and start coming up. But now, when they do throw to us most of the time, the defense is on their way back up and we get crushed.

“We have a crossing route. We became kind of shell-shocked with that pass, because when they throw to us the defender is right up on us. I’ve gotten some good hits like that. I almost got knocked out. Barry’s almost gotten knocked out.

“When you’re getting blasted almost as soon as you catch it, that comes from waiting too long to throw the football.”

Dickerson believes that Dieter Brock might have saved himself the grief of some of his 35 sacks by dumping off to a back.

“That’s not good for him, either, taking all those beatings,” Dickerson said.

To Robinson, the solution isn’t as easy as it would seem to others: Just throw more passes, especially to Dickerson, and everything will be fine.

“There is a temptation,” Robinson said. “ ‘Let’s be the Chargers this week and throw 45 times.’ But I’m not sure we would be effective doing that. The people that do that don’t always win. We’ve been successful winning games in a somewhat drab manner.”

Robinson may never abandon his running ethic--certainly not 11 games into a still-successful season--although he said he had hoped to get Dickerson “somewhat” more involved in the passing game.

“Those things are put in during training camp, and he (Dickerson) wasn’t there,” Robinson said.

When the Rams go into a passing mode with three wide receivers, Dickerson or Redden is the only back, with tight end Tony Hunter as an extra receiver.

“We’d have to put somebody (besides Dickerson) in as a blocker,” Robinson said. “When we’re in a passing environment, Tony Hunter is that guy.”

And Dickerson becomes odd man out.

“I guess the trick is not to get behind,” Robinson said.

Ram Notes Outside linebacker Mel Owens (bruised sternum) and center Doug Smith (hip) didn’t practice Wednesday but are expected to play against the Packers at Anaheim Sunday. . . . Owens had his eighth sack and a career-high 11 unassisted tackles at Atlanta Sunday. “Mel Owens played about as good a game as a guy can play--almost a perfect performance,” Coach John Robinson said.