Counted-Out Rams Demand Recount, 27-20 : L.A. Clinches Playoff Spot Against 49ers
John Robinson never was sure the Rams were quite as good as their 7-0 start, and he hoped they weren’t as bad as their subsequent 2-4 slump, so he figured to find out where they belonged in the National Football League title scheme Monday night.
As the Ram coach walked through the team’s hotel lobby Monday morning, he was asked for a prediction.
“Twenty-one to 17,” he blurted.
Robinson’s gut feeling about his funny little football team was pretty close to correct. His faith was fulfilled as the Rams scored 17 points in the fourth quarter at Candlestick Park and pulled out of their nosedive with a 27-20 victory over the 49ers.
Officially, the guard hasn’t changed in the NFC West. All the Rams clinched was a wild-card spot, but that’s a big 10-4 they put up in the standings, and they should march right on into the playoffs. With a two-game lead and two to play, they can wrap up their first division title since 1979 by defeating the St. Louis Cardinals at Anaheim Stadium Sunday.
In the last month and a half, they fumbled and stumbled haplessly as their four-game lead shrank to one, setting up Monday night’s showdown with the defending Super Bowl champions before 60,581, the second-largest crowd in 49er history. The 49ers were 10-point favorites.
Three times Monday night, the Rams fell behind as an old nemesis, Joe Montana, threw three touchdown passes and rookie Jerry Rice caught 10 passes for a club-record 241 yards. But three times they came back--each time with explosive impact:
--Ron Brown returned the second-half kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown.
--Dieter Brock passed to Henry Ellard, with an assist from 49er Ronnie Lott, 39 yards for a touchdown.
--Gary Green intercepted a pass off the hands of 49er receiver Carl Monroe and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown.
The Rams put away some ghosts Monday night. Montana had thrown 237 passes without an interception against the Rams, spanning parts of seven games since
1982, but what a time he picked to throw one.
The 49ers, leading 13-10, were on the Rams’ three-yard line, third down, and apparently about to put the game away. But the Rams’ Vince Newsome was in the right place--the end zone--and certainly at the right time when Montana looked for tight end Russ Francis, ignored Newsome and tried to force the ball through.
Newsome caught it cleanly and fell to his knees for a touchback.
Fate plays funny tricks. Newsome wouldn’t even have been in the game if strong safety Nolan Cromwell hadn’t sprained his right ankle two plays earlier.
From there the Rams tied it on the second of Mike Lansford’s two field goals, spotted the 49ers a 20-13 lead on Montana’s one-yard bootleg pass to Roger Craig, then roared back again on the Ellard and Green touchdowns.
The defense that had forgotten how to make things happen remembered Monday night. Besides intercepting Montana twice, they finished it off with a flourish when end Gary Jeter fought his way past Bubba Paris to sack Montana, forced him to fumble and then recovered to kill the 49ers’ last hope.
Linebacker Mike Wilcher also sacked Montana twice after nose tackle Shawn Miller had reached him earlier. Miller blocked an extra point by Ray Wersching, Newsome downed one of Dale Hatcher’s booming punts at the one-yard line, cornerback LeRoy Irvin had a game-high 10 tackles and knocked down two passes, including one to Freddie Solomon in the end zone.
Did all of that make Eric Dickerson an afterthought? Not exactly. His spirits boosted by the contract extension bestowed over the weekend, Dickerson, fighting for every inch, rushed for 97 yards in 16 attempts and caught a pass for 8 more.
His unforced fumble set up the 49ers’ easy opening touchdown--Montana’s seven-yard pass to Dwight Clark--but his 41-yard cutback run in the fourth quarter led to the tying field goal.
The Rams’ defense kept the all-purpose Craig under reasonable control with 56 yards rushing and 41 receiving.
The Rams presented game balls to Brock, Green and center Tony Slaton, a second-year pro from USC who started his first NFL game in place of Doug Smith, the ailing Pro Bowl selection.
Brock completed 16 of 22 passes for 160 yards with no interceptions. It was the Rams’ 16th win in their last 19 trips to Candlestick Park (including one tie), and Ellard’s touchdown was the first yielded by the 49ers’ defense in 18 quarters.
Ellard was double-covered by Lott and Dwight Hicks, but Brock threw it, anyway. Sometimes a quarterback’s confidence knows no bounds.
Lott said: “I was going for the ball and just got my hand on it. I didn’t see Dwight. It would have been an easy interception for him. He told me I knocked it out of his hands”--and right into those of Ellard, who accepted the gift and ran it into the end zone.
Fluke? Sure, but they earned their other breaks. Montana threw slightly high to Monroe, who tipped the ball to Green, because he was under pressure. He threw the interception to Newsome for the same reason.
The Rams’ defense, blitzed by Montana in the 28-14 loss at Anaheim Oct. 27, accomplished one other large objective by keeping the fast-starting 49ers out of the end zone on five of their first six possessions. The exception was the 11-yard “drive” following Dickerson’s fumble.
That forceful performance left the Rams in position to win when the breaks came later.
“We had our backs to the wall,” Robinson said, “and when you have your backs to the wall, people see the real you.”
San Francisco Coach Bill Walsh said: “I must congratulate the Rams for what appears to be a fine season. San Francisco lost a tough game tonight for a number of reasons, and unfortunately one of those reasons was the tipped touchdown pass.”
Montana, who completed 26 of 36 for 328 yards, including an improvised 66-yard shot to Rice that gained 66 yards, said: “The way we lost makes it even more depressing . . . the kickoff return, the interception they ran back and that tipped touchdown pass.
“They didn’t really beat us. We outplayed the Rams.”
But he wasn’t the only person to doubt the Rams recently.
“Not many people were willing to stay with us,” Robinson said. “Some called us names, and some people abandoned us, but you can’t make fun of people like that. We never blinked at all tonight. We believed in ourselves.
“Somebody yelled at me at the end of the game that we were lucky. Well, let me tell you that Gary’s touchdown was no more lucky than when we fumbled on our own six-yard line early in the game.
“Dieter Brock, that’s B-R-O-C-K, played a great football game. We were not going to be denied.”
Said Dickerson: “We wanted it bad, real bad. Everybody on TV and the radio was saying there was no way we could beat the 49ers. Jimmy the Greek and Irv Cross both said there’s no way. I’d like to let Jimmy the Greek suit up and come out here and play.
“We’ve had all of that negative stuff from the newspapers posted in our locker room. It just helped to get us more fired up.”
After Jeter sacked Montana and recovered the fumble at the 49ers’ 31-yard line, the Rams ran out the last 1:45 with four consecutive rushes by Dickerson, who became the fifth back to top 1,000 yards in each of his first three NFL seasons.