Offensive Line Gets a Big Boost to Its Self-Esteem

David Hill, one of the biggest bruisers on the Ram offensive line, was wondering out loud Sunday what Santa Claus might bring this year for Christmas.

Hill’s Santa wears goggles and runs the 40-yard dash in about four seconds. He runs like Dancer, Prancer and Blitzen all rolled into one.

He goes by the name Eric Dickerson, most of the year.

Two years ago, Hill was a good blocking tight end when Dickerson gave Hill and the offensive line Rolex watches.

Last Christmas, when Dickerson broke the NFL single-season rushing record, he gave Hill and the boys some gold rings.

This year? Well, Hill won’t be surprised if he ends up with ashes in his stockings.

“The last 12 or 13 games, we haven’t been a good line,” Hill said. “If you asked Eric what he was going to give us at the end of this season, he’d probably say T-shirts.”

No, it hasn’t been a good year for guys up front.

It’s true that there’s enough talent on the Ram line to start a Pro Bowlers tour, but so far this season they’ve rolled one gutter ball after another.

“I don’t think anyone on the line is having an All-Pro year,” Hill said.

That’s why Sunday’s 46-14 win over the Cardinals at Anaheim Stadium was so much fun.

The Rams did more than just win the NFC’s Western Division title. For the first time in a long while, they blew a defense off the line of scrimmage.

“I know Dickerson is a great back,” Cardinal Coach Jim Hanifan said. “But there were some huge, gaping holes to run through.”

Said Dickerson: “The holes were so big I didn’t know which way to go. I was so mixed up. I told David (Hill) that I hadn’t seen that kind of blocking since practice.”

Dickerson finished with 124 yards in 20 carries. The Rams gained 208 yards in rushing offense.

Perhaps the first clue that it might be a good day for the line came when Dickerson hit the 100-yard rushing mark with 5:20 left in the first half.

No one, save Dickerson, loved it any more than Kent Hill, David Hill, Dennis Harrah, Tony Slaton, Irv Pankey, Jackie Slater and Bill Bain.

You see, their reputation as the meanest and baddest line in all of football had taken a beating this year. Don’t think they didn’t hear about it. Harrah is a three-time Pro Bowler. Slater has been there once. Kent Hill, David Hill and Bill Bain have all been named All-Pro at least once.

And here people were talking trash about them, how they were probably the only group that could throw a block party and miss it.

And it didn’t even help that much that the Rams were winning earlier this season.

“We were happy that we were winning,” guard Kent Hill said, “but it was sort of like, we won but we didn’t do anything. It was like this was the worst win we’ve had.”

No, it wasn’t a good day to be St. Louis Cardinal defensive tackle named Mark Duda.

Could you just imagine the songs the Ram line was singing in the shower?

“Who did Eric run by all day?”

Response: “Du-da, Du-da.”

“How long could we block this way?” Response: “All the Du-da day.”

The celebration was long overdue for the Ram offensive line.

They’ve been beating their heads against a blocking sled all season trying to figure what went wrong.

The best explanation they could come up with is that they’ve been like a car that needs a tuneup, sputtering most of the time.

The Hills, Kent and David, explained that the Ram offensive line depends more on each other than most. It’s kind of like a chain--if there’s one bad link the whole thing’s shot.

“If one guy misses a block, everyone looks crappy,” David Hill said. “We can have six or seven good blocks, but if there’s one bad block then it can push Eric out into the pursuit.”

They say it’s because the Rams do very little one-on-one blocking. The Rams depend on each other to pick up their blocker when they move to double-team another defender.

“We depend on each other,” Kent Hill said. “If someone screws up, the other guys come looking for you.”

For much of this season, the Rams line, for one reason or another, has been out of sync.

“It’s been a very frustrating year,” tackle Jackie Slater said. “We’ve done a lot of soul searching.”

Self doubt started to creep in. They didn’t know how to solve their problems. They just prayed that they’d break out of the slump before the playoffs.

Sunday, they took a giant step forward.

“We played like the line we used to be,” tackle Irv Pankey said.

All the Du-da day.