Rams Notebook : Ram Offense Meets to Try to Get on Track
The Rams this week held a team meeting without coaches, a symptom of a good team that has temporarily lost its way, such as losing three of its last four games.
In the Rams’ case, it’s only one-third of the team: the offense. But the attitude apparently is one of we’re-all-in-this-together.
Guard Dennis Harrah said Thursday that in his experience, such meetings “work about 90% of the time.”
Harrah and tackle Jackie Slater are offensive captains, but it’s quarterback Dieter Brock who must run the offense, and Brock said he’s never been one to scold players for making mistakes.
“The guys are professionals,” Brock said. “They realize when they’ve made a mistake. It happens to all of us.”
But Brock does demand silence in the huddle.
“There have been a few times over the years when I’ve had to say, ‘Shut up. We’ve gotta get the play called,’ ” he said.
The Green Bay Packers come to Anaheim Sunday having lost eight straight to the Rams in Southern California.
“I don’t know if we get caught in the Hollywood syndrome like the rubes from Green Bay going to Los Angeles,” said Greg Koch, an offensive tackle. “But we have not played well out there.”
The Packers’ last win on the Rams’ home field was at the Coliseum in 1966. They returned later that season to trounce the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, in Super Bowl I.
The coach was the late Vince Lombardi.
Guard Tim Huffman has a theory on why the Packers seem to play better late in the season: they are more relaxed after being too tense in early games.
“This team tries so hard to live up to something that doesn’t exist anymore,” Huffman said. “We’re playing for legends.”
The last two coaches have been Hall of Famers Bart Starr and Forrest Gregg.
File this under bold predictions: “I don’t see how UCLA can lose.”
That’s Michael Young, the Rams’ rookie wide receiver, talking about Saturday’s game against USC.
Young, a sixth-round draft choice, and rookie guard Duval Love, who is on injured reserve, are the only former Bruins with the Rams. They are outnumbered by four ex-Trojans and six former coaches, including John Robinson.
“Charles White doesn’t even call me by my first name,” Young said. “He calls me ‘Bruin.’ ”
White, a Heisman Trophy winner at USC in 1979, said: “The Trojans are gonna do it . . . find a way to destroy somebody’s chances of going to the Rose Bowl.”
Young bases his prediction--and a few “gentlemanly wagers”--on the fact that UCLA has “probably the best skilled athletes they’ve ever had, and the offense is as balanced as it’s ever been. (Offensive coordinator) Homer Smith has found the secret of perfect balance.”
Young, from Visalia, said he almost went to USC “because I always wanted to play in the Rose Bowl, and everybody had told me how great John Robinson was to play for.
“Then I became convinced that UCLA was going to throw the ball the way they said during recruiting, so I went there.”
Young, a redshirt in his freshman year, wound up going to two Rose Bowls with UCLA. The Bruins were 4-1 against USC in Young’s five years.
“If I’d gone to SC and not redshirted, I wouldn’t have gone to any Rose Bowls,” he said. “And here I am now playing for John Robinson. I’ve had the best of both worlds.”
Jim Zorn, the Packers’ left-handed backup quarterback who was claimed on waivers from the Seahawks, recently told Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times about the trauma of having to try out for a new job after nine years.
“I had a lot of interesting feelings about those tryouts,” Zorn said. “I tried to enjoy myself, but it wasn’t like I was in a joking mood. There was a kind of woe-is-me feeling that I had to go out and prove myself again.
“Some of the places I went I felt disappointed because they didn’t do things the way they did them in Seattle. I was disappointed with the workouts.
“The idea when you go through something that is traumatic or tragic is not to panic. You have to have a plan of action. My wife and I tried to look at it as a new adventure.”
One of Zorn’s new adventures was starting against the unbeaten Chicago Bears in a Monday night game three weeks ago. He had a 10-7 lead before the Bears recovered to win, 16-10.
The Packers are continuing to play Mossy Cade at cornerback, though he is due for a preliminary hearing on a second-degree sexual assault charge Dec. 16.
The incident occurred at Cade’s home Nov. 4. He was charged last week, but started for the injured Mark Lee against New Orleans last Sunday.
Coach Forrest Gregg said: “Best I could tell, he had a long day, because he was on every coverage team and every return team, plus he played every down defensively.”
Cade, who played for the Memphis Showboats in the United States Football League, was signed by the Chargers, who held his original National Football League rights. The Chargers traded him to the Packers for a first-round draft choice early this season.
Rams Notes
Former Ram Preston Dennard, the Packers’ ninth all-time leading receiver, caught his first touchdown pass for the Packers last week, after playing last season at Buffalo. He is Green Bay’s third wide receiver, behind James Lofton and Phil Epps. Dennard recently has had eye trouble that reduced his sight from 20-20 to 20-40, requiring him to wear contact lenses when he plays . . . Offensive tackle Ken Ruettgers, the Packers’ top draft choice from USC, has been alternating with the starters on both sides . . . Packer backup center Blake Moore, who plays tight end in short-yardage situations, caught his second touchdown pass in two years last week.